ATLANTA—Hunter Richardson is switching allegiances in Atlanta. The 30-year commercial real estate veteran has joined Portman Holdings as executive vice president of Development.

“Hunter is a talented and seasoned real estate professional, with a track record of thinking creatively to accomplish challenging projects,” says Ambrish Baisiwala, CEO of Portman. “He will be a major asset to our already strong US development team, and we are thrilled he is joining Portman Holdings.”

Richardson comes to Portman from OliverMcMillan, where he served as managing director of Development for Buckhead Atlanta, a shopping, dining, working and living district first conceived about a decade ago. In this new role at Portman, he will oversee development and construction of all Portman projects in the United States.

That's no small job, considering Portman currently has 1.4 million square feet of commercial real estate development underway in the US. Portman also has significant pipeline of commercial real estate opportunities around the country.

Earlier in Richardson's career, he served as principal and COO of Richardson Development Group. He specialized in large-scale, mixed-use projects like Pemberton Park, which includes the Georgia Aquarium, and the new World of Coca-Cola.

Richardson was also vice president of Development for Turner Sports & Entertainment and worked on Philips Arena and CNN Center Renovations. He also served as president of Redland Properties, and senior development manager for Himmel/Miller Klutznick Davis Grey in the development of Reston Town Center.