Travis Butler Atlanta's first baby, back when Atlanta was known as Terminus (as in railroad terminating point), was Julia Carlisle Withers, born August 17, 1842. Her mother was Sarah White Withers, recently enshrined in an exhibit at Atlanta's Coca- Cola museum as the source of Atlanta's first fire when she lost control in the wash house. And her great, great grandson is Columbia's Travis Butler, who claims never to have lost control of the fire in the wash house.

Travis Butler was born in Atlanta at Northside Hospital, not far from the Bitsy Grant Tennis Center near Buckhead. His father was then in commercial real estate as head of Butler Properties.

Butler has two older brothers. Tripp Butler is a residential real estate developer in Savannah, and Brett Lee Butler runs the Butler Development Group in Atlanta.

Butler's older sister is Amy Rauton in Summerville, whose husband Jay owns and operates Melcer Tile.

After spending kindergarten and his first five grades at DeKalb Christian Academy in Atlanta, Butler moved to Westminster Schools where he graduated from high school. He was a varsity football player (strong safety), a golfer, and a member of the wrestling team.

Butler entered Presbyterian College in Clinton, S.C., and transferred to the University of Georgia after his freshman year. At UGA, he graduated with a degree in economics.

At DeBordieu Colony, the beach development between Georgetown and Pawleys, when he was 13, Butler met his wife Wendy. They married immediately after her graduation at USC, while he still had six months to go before his college graduation. Their son, Travis Andrew (Tab) Butler Jr. is one- year- old.

Long enough before graduation, Butler had an internship in real estate in Athens with Sumner Properties. Don Sumner ran a one- man shop, but he always had time to get Butler under way in the field.

After graduation, Butler started working for Wild Dunes Real Estate and soon shifted to the commercial real estate office at Bank of America in Charleston.

In 1998, his parents moved to Dover Plantation near Georgetown, where one of the founders of the East India Tea Company accepted the property as part of a King's Grant, Winyah Barony, in 1734. Dover was the site of General Peter Horry's home until it was burned by British Lt. Colonel Banastre Tarleton during the Revolutionary War.

Butler went to work for Colliers Keenan's Columbia headquarters in 2002. For the most part, Butler spent his time at Colliers Keenan in site selection for retail clients. He stayed with Colliers Keenan until he left in May 2006 to start his own firm, Butler Properties & Development. As he left Colliers Keenan, Butler could point to his first completed commercial real estate project, an Auto- Zone on Broad River Road.

His second AutoZone is in Elgin, and he continues to serve his client, AutoZone, in a build- to- suit arrangement. After all, a quality company that is No. 394 in the Fortune 500 due to its $6.5 billion in sales last year has to keep its growth plans accommodated, and Butler is there.

In Aiken, Butler took the old K- Mart and Kroger compound and injected new life with a renovation/ expansion to include Bed, Bath & Beyond and T.J. Maxx.

Back in Columbia, Butler worries over archaic parking rules for retail development, rules that essentially have leveled downtown in favor of asphalted parking lots. The northwest and southwest corners of Gervais and Assembly, for instance, should be 100% corners, as the developers say, but they are empty blacktops due to the peculiarities of Columbia's parking policies.

Five Points can be seen as another victim, particularly when the positive potential placement of buildings is considered as the result of a happy marriage between demand and density, which is not allowed to happen.

Butler and his family attend Shandon Baptist Church, where he was ordained as a deacon in 2006, and where he chairs the finance committee. He has taught boys Sunday school in the 11th and 12th grades.

He serves on the executive committee for The Foundation for Columbia's Future and on the Long Range Planning Committee for the City Center Partnership.

Butler is also the treasurer for Congressman Gresham Barrett's gubernatorial campaign.