Jun 18, 2026 · 1 hr 18 min · 15 segments
David Marvin has played a major role in shaping downtown Atlanta through projects like the Embassy Suites at Centennial Olympic Park, the Glenn Hotel, Ventanas, and Restaurant Row. Along the way, he…
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David MarvinGuest
Tim WrightHost
And I graduated from the University of Vermont with an engineering degree and I joined General Dynamics Electric Boat Division in their career development program building nuclear submarines.
in Tucson, Arizona, where I was, um, fortunate enough to join a general contractor that was really failing.
And because they were failing, they threw a young unqualified person at all kinds of responsibility that they had no business taking on.
And I learned a lot and they did fail and I ended up going to work for their surety.
And then, um, I had a wild hair idea, which was to attend MIT's Center for Real Estate, which is a one-year program.
It was very new back in the late 80s when this was happening, and I was in MIT's Center for Real Estate's fifth class, which is a joint center of their School of Business, School of Architecture, and School of Engineering.
And was really intended to bring sort of the array of all disciplines that a real estate developer might touch into focus and give people some familiarity, not to become a lawyer, but to become a better consumer of legal services and so on and so forth.
Um, and, and then I got into, and then I went to work for a developer, uh, in the master plan community development area with an orientation to golf.
And then I got, uh, hired to join a company that had, um, master plan golf community activity in partnership with a PGA tour, which is the association of touring professionals doing tournament player club master plans.
And, uh, Just really happenstance, as the wheels came off, one of the principals of the company, who was really a sports marketing guy, was jettisoning his involvement in the real estate, but had designs on starting a sports marketing company.
And with a partner, got the plum assignment of handling the Atlanta Committee for Olympic Games program.
So the, the, the program that would, you know, lure the Xeroxes and the, and the IBMs to sponsor the Olympics.
And I graduated from the University of Vermont with an engineering degree and I joined General Dynamics Electric Boat Division in their career development program building nuclear submarines.
in Tucson, Arizona, where I was, um, fortunate enough to join a general contractor that was really failing.
And because they were failing, they threw a young unqualified person at all kinds of responsibility that they had no business taking on.
And I learned a lot and they did fail and I ended up going to work for their surety.
And then, um, I had a wild hair idea, which was to attend MIT's Center for Real Estate, which is a one-year program.
It was very new back in the late 80s when this was happening, and I was in MIT's Center for Real Estate's fifth class, which is a joint center of their School of Business, School of Architecture, and School of Engineering.
And was really intended to bring sort of the array of all disciplines that a real estate developer might touch into focus and give people some familiarity, not to become a lawyer, but to become a better consumer of legal services and so on and so forth.
Um, and, and then I got into, and then I went to work for a developer, uh, in the master plan community development area with an orientation to golf.
And then I got, uh, hired to join a company that had, um, master plan golf community activity in partnership with a PGA tour, which is the association of touring professionals doing tournament player club master plans.
And, uh, Just really happenstance, as the wheels came off, one of the principals of the company, who was really a sports marketing guy, was jettisoning his involvement in the real estate, but had designs on starting a sports marketing company.
And with a partner, got the plum assignment of handling the Atlanta Committee for Olympic Games program.
So the, the, the program that would, you know, lure the Xeroxes and the, and the IBMs to sponsor the Olympics.
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