The history of the original Boathouse Tiki Bar & Grill at the Cape Coral Yacht Club dates back to the early 1950’s. Businessmen Leonard and Jack Rosen, brothers from Baltimore, Maryland, spent two weeks flying around Southwest Florida looking for land to develop. While flying over Redfish Point(Location of the Original Boathouse), across from already established city of Fort Myers and what would eventually become Cape Coral, Leonard decided to develop this plot of land, marking it by tossing coins out of the window of the plane. The area didn’t know what was about to hit it! 

The Rosen brothers changed the Floridian wilderness into a waterfront paradise: a place for selling and buying dreams. Cape Coral was to become the largest master-planned community in the United States. Building such a paradise came with many challenges. Clearing the land involved chopping through mangroves, pine trees, and native Florida brush with machetes. The men slept in tents and had to battle rattlesnakes, panthers, and alligators. The humidity and heat were brutal; there were salt marshes and muddy pools, as well as thick, hard-to-cut limestone to tackle. Once the clearing process was complete, canals were dug out with dredges and the leftover Earth was used to build up the land to the required elevation of 5’ 6” above sea level. The first official building in Cape Coral, even before any houses were constructed, was the Rosen’s sales office. The location is where George’s Auto now stands at Cape Coral Parkway and Coronado Parkway. 

A team of hotshot salesmen used a fleet of planes to offer free rides as a very effective selling method. Sacks of flour were dropped from the plane to mark lots customers bought from the air! At the beginning, landing strips were made for sales flights on SE 47th Terrace, Cape Coral Parkway, and Coronado Parkway. They eventually moved to a small airport near what is now Del Prado Boulevard and SE 21st Street. In 1965, the airport was shut down and flights were moved over to Page field in Fort Myers once the Cape Coral Bridge was built. 

The Rosens thought they would sell most of the lots immediately, with the intention for people to make monthly payments before retiring to their property later, so they could have the time to construct future amenities. However, land sales soared to $5 million within the first five months! They found that most prospective buyers wanted to move down right away.