ATLANTA—David Shope, a 25-year veteran in the commercial real estate industry in Atlanta, has rejoined Cousins Properties. Shope will oversee existing customers, as well as leasing renewals and expansions at Northpark Town Center, the 1.5-million-square-foot office complex in the Central Perimeter that Cousins acquired last fall.

Shope returns to Cousins after a stint at Cushman & Wakefield. became part of CushWake after Cousins sold its third-party services business to the firm in 2012. Before the sale, Shope served as senior vice president at Cousins for over 10 years and was responsible for the leasing of an approximately 4 million square-foot portfolio of class A office properties in Atlanta.

Shope was instrumental in this partnership between Cousins and CushWake and served as leasing director of the Corporate Occupier and Investor services division. During his time with Cushman, represented institutional owners of real estate in the leasing of their assets. he also previously worked for Portman Barry Investments and Faison & Associates, which is now Trammell Crow Company.

Shope's experience includes all phases of leasing class A urban and suburban office properties, including prospecting, lease negotiations, broker and tenant relations, financial analysis, and marketing. Cousins is counting on Shope to bring positive momentum to its new acquisition of Northpark Town Center.

“In 2014, clear signs of an impending improvement have been appearing around the entire region,” says Ken Ashley, an executive director with CushWake's Tenant Advisory Group. “Property sales prices are up, landlords are reducing concessions and even raising lease rates, and investors are injecting new equity into property deals. Just as importantly, building owners have largely dealt with debt that turned bad in the wake of the financial crisis.”