J. PATRICK BUTLER
Awards
J. Patrick Butler is the owner and chairman of Club Acquisition Company (CAC). Prior to founding CAC Mr. Butler held a number of leadership positions within the hospitality industry.
Pat has served as Vice President of Marriott Corporation, President and CEO of Coast to Coast Resorts, and CEO of Golf Card International. He has served on the boards of the American Resort Development Association, National Association of RV Parks and Campgrounds, Regis University, and the Kempe Center.
Mr. Butler earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Allegheny College and an MBA from Loyola College.
Getting back to his entrepreneurial roots, Mr. Butler left corporate America to pursue his passion for resort development in 1994. He formed Club Acquisition Company to oversee
these operations. In May of 1994, Butler acquired a 200,000-acre leased property near the town of San Felipe, Baja, Mexico, called El Dorado Ranch. Over the next eight years Mr. Butler would transform El Dorado Ranch into the largest development in Baja Mexico, become the area’s largest employer, and subsequently provide for an estimated 60 percent of the local economy.
In a move that made U.S./Mexican history, Mr. Butler was able to successfully privatize 35,000 acres from leased land to ownership. Never before had the Mexican Government allowed a U.S. developer to privatize this amount of land.
Today, there are 35 different communities. Over 8,000 home sites and
300 condos have been sold. San Felipe’s first and only golf course has also been created and a luxury hotel and spa are now
being completed.
With all of this development, Pat has always kept an eye on the environment and has led the way in environmentally sensitive development.
For example, salt tolerant grass known as sea dwarf paspalum was
used for the golf course at El Dorado Ranch in order to avoid
depleting the area's fresh water supply. The sewage treatment
system is a state of the art bio-membrane system that allows water
to be cleaned and recycled for irrigational purposes.
El Dorado Ranch is proudly home of the largest solar community in North America. The master plan calls for preserving half the development or 17,500 acres as green space and there are strict development regulations and covenants to ensure that the area is preserved for generations.
Awards:
As a result, Mr. Butler has been the recipient of a number of awards and distinctions including:
Mr. Butler also partnered in developments in Mazatlan, Mexico, and Colorado.
