Title: Senior Partner and Chief Executive Officer
Company: Artisan Land Companies
Location: Atlanta, Georgia, United States
David S. Branch, Senior Partner and Chief Executive Officer at Artisan Land Companies, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Executives for dedication, achievements, and leadership in Real Estate.
A seasoned real estate professional, Mr. Branch has excelled in commercial real estate, corporate representation and land investment services for over 40 years. In 2005, he became a senior partner and managing broker of a land investment advisory firm, Site Services Group LLC, before merging it with his brother’s capital market company and changing its name to SSG Realty Partners in 2018. At SSG, Mr. Branch is a senior partner and chief executive officer. In 2024, he and his brother created a new parent company, Artisan Land Companies LLC, and SSG became a wholly owned subsidiary. Artisan Land Companies LLC is recognized as an all-equity land investment business based in Atlanta. The firm buys sites primarily in the Greater Metropolitan area of Atlanta with all equity and masterplans, rezones them, provides steward utility and resells them to vertical developers.
Before stepping into entrepreneurship, Mr. Branch enjoyed several foundational roles that prepared him for future success. He initially worked for Georgia Power, a utility company headquartered in Atlanta, working within its land department in 1970. By 1980, Mr. Branch had pivoted to become a real estate broker with CB Commercial (now CBRE).
Mr. Branch’s significant portfolio of accomplishments has included many remarkable projects, including the 50-story IBM Office Tower in Midtown Atlanta and a 57-story Miami high-rise condominium tower. However, the 1,300-acre LakePoint Sporting Community & Town Center Bartow County project in Emerson, Georgia, was one of his proudest achievements, as it is recognized as the nation’s premier youth sports complex. In 2012, the development was named Bartow County’s Economic Development Deal of the Century. Early in his career, Mr. Branch was involved in assembling a group of Atlanta executives and investors in the mid-1970s to build the Terminus International Tennis Club in Atlanta, a complex set on 16 acres of land. In 1983, Tennis Magazine selected it as one of the 50 greatest indoor clubs in the country.
In addition to his primary career objectives, Mr. Branch’s success has allowed him to host a once weekly, one-hour radio show called “Building Atlanta: Life at the Intersection of Real Estate, Sports and Entertainment.” He has also become a frequent speaker and seminar panelist on land marketing and land investment services.
A Davidson College graduate, Mr. Branch received a Bachelor of Arts in English and creative writing in 1970. During his tenure on the Davison, North Carolina, campus, he was a collegiate football and rugby player, serving as co-captain of the rugby team.
Mr. Branch engages with several industry-related organizations to remain relevant and network. He is a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and a member and past president of the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors. He is also on the board of governors for the Capitus Real Estate Learning Center.
Mr. Branch has also become committed to numerous local organizations and causes where he can give back and provide his expertise. Among these initiatives, he founded the Atlanta Real Estate Career Alliance. He has also been instrumental on the board of directors for the Atlanta Old White Rugby Football Club and the Atlanta Hospital Hospitality House. Moreover, Mr. Branch has served as an organizer for the USA Rugby Sevens Collegiate National Championship Tournament at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia.
Mr. Branch’s success has garnered numerous accolades, beginning in 1980 when he was named the Rookie of the Year and Runner-Up for Nationwide Rookie of the Year by CB Commercial. In 1991, he was recognized as the Commercial Board’s Realtor of the Year. He was also honored by the Atlanta Business Chronicle for the Land Deal of the Year in 2003 and again in 2015. Mr. Branch subsequently received recognition as one of the Commercial Board’s Top Ten Land Brokers in 2011. He also received the Alvin B. Cates Award in 2011 for the Most Outstanding Real Estate Transaction in the Atlanta Market by the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors. This honor was for the land assemblage of the LakePoint Sporting & Town Center project. More recently, Mr. Branch was honored with a President’s Award for his work with the Atlanta Real Estate Career Alliance by the Atlanta Commercial Board of Realtors in 2024.
Crediting much of his professional success to his integrity, strong work ethic and creativity, Mr. Branch enjoys discovering sites, particularly those that have been overlooked, and creating transformative developments that positively impact the economy and enhance the community’s quality of life.
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