Quick Facts
CancerBiography
Arthur Edward Imperatore Sr. (born July 8, 1925 in West New York, New Jersey) is an Italian-American businessman from New Jersey.He is best known as being the founder and president of the NY Waterway, a ferry service.
Career
In 1947 he started a local trucking business with his brothers Eugene, Arnold, George and Harold using a surplus US Army truck, which eventually became A-P-A Transport Corp., the nation's fourth largest interstate freight trucking company (closed 2002).
He purchased the Colorado Rockies from Denver-based oilman Jack Vickers on July 12, 1978, with the intention of keeping the franchise in Denver before moving it east to the new arena at the Meadowlands Sports Complex which was under construction and expected to be completed by 1980. His imposition of the team's eventual transfer alienated many fans. Before he could complete the move to northern New Jersey, Imperatore sold the Rockies to Buffalo-based cable television magnate Peter Gilbert in a transaction that was unanimously approved by the NHL Board of Governors on February 10, 1981.
In 1981 Imperatore purchased a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) length of waterfront in Weehawken and West New York from the bankrupt Penn Central railroad for $7.5 million. In 1986 he started the NY Waterway ferry service between Weehawken and Manhattan.
In 1989 he started an upscale restaurant, Arthur's Landing, in Weehwaken along the Hudson River. It was closed in 2009, and another restaurant opened in the space by 2013.
Imperatore has been a resident of Fort Lee, New Jersey, living in a home that had been built by gangster Albert Anastasia and was later owned by comedian Buddy Hackett.
Honors
The Arthur E. Imperatore School of Sciences and Arts of Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken, New Jersey, is named in his honor.
Imperatore received the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans#Horatio Alger Award in 1982.
Imperatore entered the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans in 1988, his only year on the list.
Imperatone was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2017.