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Buckhead Sammich
 Jackie Gauthreaux (left) and Jennifer Koontz (right) of Pope & Land Enterprises.
The big, depressing question of 2009 - what happens with all this new Buckhead office space? - now has an answer. The answer was pretty obvious all along, too. Someone leases it.
Such is the good news lately at Duke Realty and Pope & Land's 3630 office tower and Cousins Properties and Morgan Stanley's Terminus 200.
Cousins signed Cedar Street Advisors for 5,300 square feet at Terminus 200. Jim Palermo of CB Richard Ellis represented the Milwaukee-based wealth management firm, while Cousins' Walter Fish and Anton Kotze lease T200. Cousins has leased 370,000 square feet at the 564,000-square-foot LEED Gold trophy, with 320,000 square feet of deals since the building was refinanced last spring.
Up the road at 3630, Duke and Pope & Land are making steady progress as well. ORTEC International is relocating its U.S. headquarters from the Central Perimeter to 3630, taking 15,000 square feet. Bill Leonard of William Leonard & Co. represented ORTEC, while Duke's Kerry Armstrong, Pope & Land's Larry Kelly, Jackie Gauthreaux and Jennifer Koontz and Chris Scott of Greenstone Properties represented ownership. The 3630 team has leased 30 percent of the 425,000-square-foot Class-A building since it delivered earlier this year, adding tenants such as JWT, Mansell Group, Lesesne Capital Management, Teavana and VRA Partners.
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Big Picture, Little Picture
 A.J. Robinson of Central Atlanta Progress.
A day in the life of A.J. Robinson may involve Fairlie Street sidewalk improvements, or it may involve pondering with contemporaries statewide what it means to be a Georgian in the 21st century. Such is the life of Central Atlanta Progress's president, whose focus narrows and broadens depending on the issue at hand.
As Downtown's chamber of commerce, CAP and the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District work to change perceptions of downtown and improve the area as a place to live, work and play, with efforts including everything from the Ambassador program to sidewalk and signage improvements to coordinating with law enforcement and social service agencies. Georgia State University's growth and the contributions of companies like Cousins Properties and Richard Bowers & Co. have certainly helped. The submarket's office space has posted positive net absorption this year, too.
"Despite recession, we've had a pretty good five to seven years, and we're still on a pretty good trajectory," Robinson said. "The most visible change is the growing energy of Georgia State University and Georgia State becoming a non-commuter school."
Beyond Downtown, CAP and ADID are working with Georgia Forward, which has created forums across the state to build consensus and a common vision for the state's development. Robinson and Georgia Forward's Amir Farokhi have hit the road from Dalton to Valdosta to start the dialogue.
"Everyone talks about issues like education, transportation and water, but the one big issue that's keeping our state from developing as it should is the relationship between Atlanta and the rest of the state," Robinson said. "We're trying to be a catalyst to address that."
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First Week on the Job
 Simon Arpiarian of Stream Realty.
We caught up with new Stream Realty VP Simon Arpiarian after his first week on the job, and, so far so good. Arpiarian joined Stream from Kaufman Realty Group and feels that his experience on the ownership and asset management side will serve him well as Stream continues to build listings and explore a litany of other opportunities in the metro Atlanta market.
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The team from Prudential Mortgage Capital and Prudential Real Estate Investors outside the Habitat house. Sure, having a day out of the office is nice, but it's even better when you're doing it for a good cause. Prudential Mortgage Capital and Prudential Real Estate Investors traded their work attire for paint-covered t-shirts to work on a Habitat for Humanity build on Friday. Karen McGinnity of Prudential Mortgage Capital and Jim Mehalso of PREI collaborated to organize this awesome event, and it definitely paid off. The Habitat home is scheduled to be completed this week. A special thanks to Matt Bertram for the invite.
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Emory: Still Undefeated
Madison Williams of Barry Real Estate Companies (left) and Aaron Kuney of Kuney Properties (right). Rooster caught up with Madison Williams of Barry Real Estate Companies and Aaron Kuney of Kuney Properties over sushi last week at Starfish in Buckhead. Both members of Emory's Goizueta Alumni in Real Estate group were feeling optimistic about the market as we discussed deals and of course, football. We'll be seeing them and hopefully you at Emory and Georgia State's Real Estate Alumni networking event on Wednesday.
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Dave Shows Us His
Dave Watson of Grubb & Ellis with his rooster.
We're a classy, family friendly organization, so we would never make the obvious, easy joke about Dave Watson and his prized stuffed rooster. We'll leave that to our fine readers and their imaginations. Just ask Dave about it, and he'll show it to you. Same goes for the rest of his collection of bizarro art and artifacts.
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