When the recession hit, it was like someone turned off the faucet. Sales dried up instantly. Banks weren't lending and more than a few home builders went belly up. Not Peter B. Rotelle's company, Rotelle Development Co., in Chester County. "It wasn't peaches and cream," he said. But there were no layoffs, he said, and the company paid its bills. "Someone in the land development business whom I respected at the time said, `Let me tell you: The best deal I've ever done is the deal I never did.' That stuck with me."