After he graduated from Old Dominion University, David Scott Friedman moved from his native Norfolk to Richmond to join his father's wholesale flooring business.

"He wasn't happy," said his mother, Anne Cohen Friedman of Boca Raton, Fla. "He had to get dressed up every day and he just wasn't into that."

The man who had just earned a business degree cranked up his entrepreneurial instincts.

He opened the Dog House Restaurant, plying those who worked in downtown Richmond with hot dogs and chili, like one of his favorite restaurants in Norfolk. But he served only lunch and dinner and wasn't open on weekends, so that idea didn't fly.

Mr. Friedman next decided Richmonders would like to eat while watching next-run movies. He opened the Cinema and Draft House in the Westland Shopping Center in western Henrico County. That wasn't it either.

His mother-in-law thought he might make a good salesman, so he got a job with Thalhimer Commercial Real Estate. "He found his niche. He really loved commercial real estate," his mother said.

Leaving Thalhimer, he began an association of about 10 years with Blackwood Development Co.

His projects included the Boulders Center and Courthouse Crossing in Richmond and Victory Crossing in Portsmouth.

Working with Blackwood, he also acquired the Glen Eagles Shopping Center in Henrico as well as Kempsville Marketplace and Salem Lakes Marketplace in Virginia Beach.

He was stepping back from acquisitions while the market was not so great, his mother said, sold his house and moved to a home he had in Fort Myers, Fla. He used the down time to spend time in Raleigh, N.C., with his two nieces and nephew.

On Monday, Mr. Friedman died suddenly at 44 at his Florida home. A cause of death has not been determined, his mother said.

A funeral was held Thursday at 2 p.m. at H.D. Oliver Funeral Apartments in Norfolk. Burial was in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Norfolk.

Survivors, besides his mother, include two sisters, Dr. Robin Friedman of Chester and Suzanne Goldman of Raleigh, N.C.; and his maternal grandmother, Sarah "Goldie" Cohen of Pittsburgh.