The Man Who Sold Galveston Island

When the largest parcel of land was sold on Galveston Island there was one more person at the closing table that few people know about. David Boatner, a broker and real estate developer, was the person who pulled together the largest single land sale on Galveston Island.

A long time before Marquette Land Investments, the general partner in the development, knew about the opportunity David Boatner was trying to find a way to bring the largest land deal in Galveston's history to reality.

David Boatner is not new to high stakes negotiations and large complicated business deals. Mr. Boatner's experience as a corporate executive with telecommunications corporations such as SBC and start up companies like Williams Telecommunications, McLeodUSA and Splitrock have served him well in the world of high stakes real estate development. David has been a licensed real estate broker since 1983, although for the majority of the time he did actively practice real estate. When he retired from his last start up venture, David decided to leverage his business experience and create a commercial development company. Needless to say his Galveston 1,050 acre deal is a pretty high mark to beat.

Mr. Boatner was extremely familiar with what Galveston Island had to offer. As a broker David is the Broker of Record for Galveston's Castaway's Resort Properties owned by Hal & Paula Gregory. "Our family has owned a beach house on the island and I have always believed that Galveston was a fantastic place to live and vacation. I often commented about the large tract of land on FM 3005 and thought it would be a great master planned community", David said. Living in The Woodlands, Texas David knows what a true master planned community should look and feel like.

David began the long process of discussing the possible sale of the land with long time owners O. Donald Chapoton and John "Buck" Chapoton. "Donald & Buck were very concerned about the planning and use of the land" he said. We had many meetings and discussions about it. The Chapoton family wanted to give the island a quality development. I know their decision was not just about the money," Boatner explained.

As the deal grew and the discussions became proposals and hand drawn sketches became land planning designs, David knew it was time to bring in a major league developer to be part of the development team. "Marquette Land Investments has a great reputation and was everything we were looking for", David said. David still retained partial ownership of the overall project in a limited partnership capacity.

On January 20, 2005 David Boatner, Real Estate Broker & Developer sat at the table with everyone else and closed the largest land deal in Galveston's history. Although he will not boast about it, quietly he is happy knowing that he will forever more have a record that will never be broken.

David Boatner is President of Octa Road Properties which specializes in commercial real estate development, brokerage and consulting.

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