There you can find spreadsheets that explain ways to finance the apartment communities that he and his partners think will thrive as demand for rentals grow.

Field, the 36-year-old chief executive of The Boylan Cos., is spending a lot of late nights poring over the papers, trying to figure out how to build in a tight lending environment.

A year ago, banks would have competed to lend him money. Today, some aren't even considering big construction loans.

"It's a problem for anybody in real estate development right now," said Haze Lancaster, a high-school friend of Field's who has invested in some of Boylan's projects. "If there's a way to do it, he's the kind of guy who will figure out a way to get it done."

Indeed, if ever there was an example of profit following persistent pursuit, it resides in the squat building at 410 N. Boylan Ave. where Field's companies have quietly grown in six years.

For Field, it's not a tale of ups and downs, but one of ups and outs. It starts with nuts and ends with commercial real estate.

For 15 years, he has expanded companies with impatient perfectionism and a bit of micromanagement: When he needs something, he finds a way to get it. And when what he has doesn't work right, he finds a way to fix it. Then he moves on.

In 1993, low on cash as a student at East Carolina University, Field bought a vending machine, filled it with pistachios and placed it in a bar. It generated only $6 in weekly profit, so he bought two more.

He figured he could boost his profit if he heated the nuts. So he welded heating plates onto the dispensers. Voila: hot nuts. Weekly profit climbed to $25 per machine.

Field expanded into gum-ball machines, and by the time he graduated in 1994, he was pulling in $3,000 per month from 25 pistachio and 25 gum ball machines, filling them about once a month. "That supported being able to eat and have fun," Field said.

A year later, the business had grown to 75 vending machines and 200 pay phones that brought in $6,000 a month -- so much that the weight of the quarters he collected caused the tail end of his Acura to scrape the ground.

"He's somebody who says he's going to do something, and he does it," said Sa'ed Hamad, a fraternity brother and vending partner of Field at ECU. "He's driven."

Field's drive was stoked by doubters. At a house party, Hamad and Field were discussing growth strategies for their vending business, Tons of Fun.

An acquaintance who planned to sell cars scoffed: "'I'm sitting here talking about BMWs and Lexuses, and you're talking about gum balls,' " Hamad recalls.

Friends of Field's girlfriend wondered when her quarter collector would get a "real job." "That definitely fueled him," Hamad said. "But it didn't follow him for long. People saw the success. And success breeds success."

One thing to another

On the town with buddies in 1996, Field couldn't find an ATM on one of Greenville's busiest strips. Soon, he bought one, paying $11,000. He was 24.

He struck a deal with a convenience-store owner near the ATM-less site. Field filled the machine every other day, using cash from gum and nut sales, and charged $1 per transaction.

More ATMs meant more income: "It was gum-ball math," Field said. He maxed out credit cards buying four more.Then he went to parents, friends, friends of parents and parents of friends for enough cash -- $350,000 -- to fill them.

He borrowed from a bank to expand his ATM venture to 150 locations in 1997. By the time his company grew to 300 ATMs -- a year later -- Field couldn't fill all the machines himself.

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