William Dickey of the Bronx left an impressive investment-banking career on Wall Street and went to California to make his fortune in real estate. He got bored after he’d reached his goal, and then returned to New York to build another fortune. He’s not bored yet in his hometown.

That’s because his organization, the Dermot Company, owns and manages more than 4,000 apartments in the city and elsewhere in America. A few weeks ago, in partnership with the basketball star Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s Development Corporation and Canyon Capital Realty Advisors, Dermot bought the tallest building in Brooklyn. Under the stewardship of Mr. Dickey’s colleague Andrew MacArthur, Dermot will convert the landmark 35-story Williamsburgh Savings Bank tower into condominiums and shops.

Just a few days ago, Dermot was selected by the New York City Economic Development Corporation to build 380 apartments in a $130 million project on the site of the old Queens Family Courthouse in downtown Jamaica. Mr. Dickey will restore the four-story 1920s courthouse on the 2-acre property, and also develop shopping and recreational facilities.

And today, Mr. Dickey will announce a $300 million deal under which Dermot will transform a dilapidated neighborhood on Manhattan’s West Side, one of the biggest residential-commercial projects in the city. On a new platform over the Amtrak rail tracks west of 10th Avenue between 51st and 53rd streets, Mr. Dickey and his team will build two towers with 625 rental apartments, six condominiums, retail space, two theaters, and a park. About 20% of the apartments will be reserved for low-income tenants.

“This will significantly change the neighborhood,” Mr. Dickey said in a soft tone that suggested a man unaccustomed to brashness, a characteristic amply found in the real estate business. “Steve Benjamin, my colleague has led the work on this project.”

The sharing of credit has long been typical of Mr. Dickey, the son of an Irish- Catholic postal worker, Joseph Dermot Dickey, who taught him the importance of hard work and humility. Mr. Dickey displayed both qualities at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, and in his subsequent six year career in the military, which included a stint in Vietnam during the Tet Offensive.

“The Air Force taught me the principles of leadership – the most important of which are responsibility and the willingness to share credit,” Mr. Dickey said. “It’s also important to get along with people.”

He got an opportunity to deploy those values when, after graduating from Columbia University Law School, he joined Cravath Swain & Moore, the white-shoe Wall Street law firm. He became a partner within six years, a couple of which were spent in Paris on a posting for the law firm. Mr. Dickey had increasingly handled real estate issues at Cravath Swain.

That drew the attention of recruiters from the First Boston Corporation (now Credit Suisse First Boston). Mr. Dickey stayed at the prestigious investment bank for the next five years. He developed First Boston’s real estate finance and brokerage business, negotiated major property purchases, sales, and equity and debt financings throughout America, and assisted corporate clients in their real estate activities.

By this time his two daughters had gone off to college, so Mr. Dickey persuaded his wife, Janet, to pack their belongings and head to California.

“I’d been a high power lawyer in New York, and I’d been a high power investment banker in New York,” he said. “I thought that I should now go into business for myself. I’d already become very familiar with real estate, and California beckoned.”

It was in California that he founded the Dermot Company, named after his father. He took on a staff of seven. He began investing in apartments in Arizona, Colorado, and Georgia. It was the beginning of the current housing boom, and interest rates were low enough for affordable financing for his acquisitions. The business prospered.

But Mr. Dickey missed New York.

“I missed the action, I missed the excitement,” Mr. Dickey said.