Dry hole lands developer in dock.

• Position: Real estate developer Bill Nolan's failure to build a lake led to his imprisonment

Charlotte developer Bill Nolan, 52, figured it was jail or Chapter 11. He chose jail and got a lot more rest.

"I worked 28 hours a day," says Nolan, son of a Baptist preacher from Anniston, Ala., and a graduate of Wake Forest University Law School. "I enjoyed jail. It was the first vacation I'd had in years."

Nolan spent 25 nights in Mecklenburg County's satellite jail in April and May. And Superior Court Judge Claude Sitton of Morganton told him he'd be back behind bars unless he quits dragging his feet on building a lake.

In the mid-'80s, Nolan promised a 60-acre lake would be the centerpiece of his 600-acre Lake Providence development, southeast of Charlotte. In June, about 100 lots -- many of which sold for $60,000 -- had houses on them, but Lake Providence was still lakeless.

Nolan has plenty of excuses: "Recession kicked the hell out of me. Then Hurricane Hugo hit. I cleaned up for a solid year. I was in a vise. I had to clear roads to sell lots to keep creditors paid. Last May, 1991, my wife, Pat, died of cancer, then we had a record year for rain."

Ex-paratrooper Nolan told angry Lake Providence owners all that, but "they're vindictive. They vandalized my signs. I met one of them out there one Sunday afternoon to talk about it, and he spit in my face. I knocked him on his ass."

In May 1991...