The Galbraith Estate has selected a new broker for 2,100 acres of land in Central Oahu that it is trying to sell.

Bank of Hawaii Corp., the trustee for the estate, today named PM Realty Group as the exclusive broker for the Galbraith lands, replacing Cushman & Wakefield and Sofos Realty Corp.

The property officially goes back on the market on July 28.

PM Realty’s hiring comes weeks after an effort to sell the land to Canadian developer Dennis Blain fell through. Blain’s $40 million offer was terminated by the bank after Blain asked for a 60-day extension.

Despite a soft real estate market, the new sales effort could get a boost from a measure passed by the Legislature this year.

The law, which took effect today, allows owners of ag lands to petition the state Land Use Commission to convert 15 percent of their acreage for urban or rural use so long as they preserve 85 percent of their land for high-quality agricultural uses.

That means that a buyer of the Galbraith lands could seek to convert 315 acres for housing. A developer could build more than 1,000 homes on that much land.

But any buyer would have to compete with public and private sector efforts to preserve the land for agricultural use. A separate measure, which was passed by the state Legislature this year, dedicates $13 million toward that plan.

Based in Houston, PM Realty Group is a privately held, national real estate company with more than 1,300 employees and 20 offices nationwide. In Hawaii, the company manages about 2 million square feet of property and its clients include Chevron, Morgan Stanley, Pacific Guardian Life and the Employees’ Retirement System of the State of Hawaii.

A Canadian investor who is attempting to purchase 2,100 acres of Galbraith Estate lands in Central Oahu has ties to a controversial Montreal developer.

Phil Archer has been a behind-the-scenes player in Nokaoi Development LLC’s attempt to purchase the central Oahu agricultural tract from the Galbraith Estate.

A 2003 article by the Toronto Star described Archer as a “securities wheeler-dealer” who was banned by the Alberta (Canada) Securities Commission from trading for 15 years for allegedly manipulating the stock price of a Canadian company.

In March 2006, the Alberta commission found that he violated the ban and ordered him to 60 days of house arrest, according to the Daily Miner and News of Kenora, Ontario.

Archer also is a former owner of a historic Canadian resort — the 90 year-old Minaki Lodge in Ontario — which was heavily damaged by a fire in 2003. Archer did not carry insurance on the property, resulting huge losses for the developer and for contractors who did work on the property, according to news reports.

Nokaoi says that Archer is no longer involved in the Galbraith deal. A 2005 filing with the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs noted that company owner Dennis Blain bought out Archer’s interest in Nokaoi and that Archer is no longer a manager with the company.

But several people familiar with the deal said Archer played an active role in the negotiations on the Galbraith sale.

The Galbraith deal has not yet closed and Nokaoi is still conducting due diligence. But the company has told state lawmakers that it looked to subdivide the property and sell off 30-acre parcels to individual buyers .

The deal faces opposition from community leaders who want to preserve ag land in Hawaii. For them, Nokaoi’s links to Archer will likely to serve as further fodder for those concerns.