CUZ Cousins Properties Inc

285 Venture, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company with Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE: CUZ) as its managing member, announced that it has sold 1155 Perimeter West in Atlanta, Georgia, to a fund managed by Shorenstein Company. The 363,000-square-foot building is located in the Central Perimeter submarket and sold for $49,294,000, in a transaction that closed on Friday, July 1, 2005. Just prior to the transfer of ownership of the 12-story office building, Cousins Properties signed Arby's Restaurant Group, Inc. to a 12-year lease of approximately 100,000 square feet in the building. Arby's is relocating its headquarters back to Atlanta from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, following the acquisition of RTM Restaurant Group by its parent company Triarc Companies in a deal that is expected to close on July 12. Approximately 350-400 employees will be housed on four floors of the property located in the Central Perimeter submarket. Commenting on the significance of the sale, Cousins' Senior Vice President of the Office Division, John McColl said, "I'm certain the new owners of 1155 Perimeter Center West will find the Arby's lease to be a positive for their new property. Not only has our leasing team successfully re-leased the building to 90 percent, the Arby's transaction will most likely be considered one of the largest lease deals of 2005." In the Arby's lease transaction, brokers John Shlesinger, Sam Holmes and Anne Lofye of CB Richard Ellis represented Arby's, and Walter Fish and Scott Rees of Cousins represented the owner. Cousins Properties Incorporated, headquartered in Atlanta, has extensive experience in the real estate industry including the development, acquisition, financing, management and leasing of properties. The property types that Cousins actively invests in include office, retail, medical office, industrial and land development projects. The Company's portfolio consists of interests in 7.2 million square feet of office and medical office space, 3.2 million square feet of retail space, over 3,000 acres of strategically located land tracts for sale or future development, and significant land holdings for development of single-family residential communities. Cousins also provides leasing and management services to third-party investors; its client-services portfolio comprises 10.6 million square feet of office space. Cousins is a fully integrated equity real estate investment trust (REIT) that has been public since 1962 and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "CUZ." For more information on the Company, please visit Cousins' Web site at www.cousinsproperties.com. Certain matters discussed in this news release are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws and are subject to uncertainties and risks, including, but not limited to, general and local economic conditions, local real estate conditions, the activity of others developing competitive projects, the cyclical nature of the real estate industry, the financial condition of existing tenants, interest rates, the Company's ability to obtain favorable financing or zoning, environmental matters, the effects of terrorism, the failure of assets under contract for sale to ultimately close and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Current Report on Form 8-K filed on December 10, 2003. The words "believes", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that its plans, intentions and expectations reflected in any forward-looking statement are reasonable, the Company can give no assurance that these plans, intentions or expectations will be achieved. Such forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and speak as of the date of such statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of future events, new information or otherwise.