In the fourth grade, he says, he sold more raffle tickets than the rest of his class combined.
After graduating with his MBA from the University of Georgia, he founded a golf ball retrieval company, swimming among alligators to recover balls in water hazards. He opened offices in Wales and France.
Shortly after moving to Charlotte, he sold his first project – renovated office and residential condos uptown – with relative ease.
Now, four years after Donnelly’s arrival here, most projects he started are struggling as commercial real estate continues to falter.