David Branch Launches Artisan Land Cos for Atlanta Land Purchases

A mix of commercial real estate executives and colleagues from other segments of the private and academic sectors plan to raise $50 million and cast a wide net in search of bargains on land throughout the Atlanta metro area.

Artisan Land Companies is the brainchild of David Branch, a longtime Atlanta broker who is its principal partner. He founded the company with his brother Barry, a real estate professor at Georgia Tech, the Atlanta Business Chronicle reported.

The two men join a list of local executives, including: O. Brent Reid, CEO of The Winter Companies; Scott Light, a retired Georgia Pacific executive; Ravi Srinivasan, president of technology company Sunray Enterprise; Phil Skinner of Arnall Golden Gregory’s real estate firm; and Duane Horton, president and CEO of McLemore Resort and Scenic Land Company.

The group aims to raise $50 million from high-net-worth individuals, family offices and private equity firms starting next month. The founders aim to buy development sites at bargain prices in a market where land prices are 40% below their peak values ​​a few years ago.

Artisan Land Companies plans to acquire land and prepare it for development. The development process would be open to public-private partnerships and would include zoning changes and other aspects of master planning for some sites.

The company now has $2.5 million, with a goal of being fully subscribed early next year to focus on parcels of land, starting in Atlanta, with plans for locations anywhere within a four-hour drive of the city.

“We love suburban sites in emerging markets that are under the radar, where no one has really connected the dots,” Branch told the outlet. “Our job is to acquire them, plan them, and then tell the story.”

The company has several locations that were transferred from previous companies, including one in Bartow County and another in Macon.

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