CUZ Cousins Properties Inc

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) today announced that its sixth Avenue specialty shopping center, The Avenue Carriage Crossing, will open for business on Wednesday, October 19 - and to date, 88 percent of Phase I is leased. The Avenue is located at the intersection of Houston Levee Road and Bill Morris Parkway (a/k/a The Nonconnah Parkway) in Collierville - a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee. Phase I of the 786,000 square-foot development will kick off with a grand parade along the center's main street and a VIP ribbon cutting ceremony featuring street performers, live-remote radio broadcasts and prize drawings. "The concept of The Avenue is just as innovative today as it was when we launched our first center in Atlanta's East Cobb area in 1999," said Joel Murphy, president of Cousins' Retail Division. "But the centers get even better with every new generation we create. The Avenue Carriage Crossing will contain all the best qualities of our Avenue program and be the home to a great collection of shops and restaurants." Anchor tenants Dillard's and Parisian will be located at opposite ends of the lifestyle center with more than 82 other retailers and restaurants spaced in between and along the crossing avenue. Those retailers include Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Ann Taylor and Ann Taylor Loft, Banana Republic, Barnes & Noble, Bonefish Grill, Buckle, Build-A-Bear Workshop, Cache, Carrabba's, Chico's, Eddie Bauer, Express, Finish Line, Gap, Gap Kids/Gap Baby, Gymboree, Hollister, Jos. A. Bank, Kay Jewelers, Linens 'n Things, New Balance, Pacific Sunwear, Starbucks, Talbots, Victoria's Secret and White House/Black Market. The Avenue Carriage Crossing is being developed by a partnership of Cousins Properties and Montgomery, Alabama-based Jim Wilson & Associates. Construction began in May, 2004, and at full build out, The Avenue Carriage Crossing will total 786,000 square feet. Introduced by Cousins Properties in 1999, The Avenue concept combines premier national retailers, select local merchants and specialty restaurants in an attractive, pedestrian-friendly, open-air setting and has been extremely well received by the consumer and the retailer alike. Cousins has developed three Avenues in the Atlanta, Georgia area, one in suburban Los Angeles, California and recently opened The Avenue Viera in Melbourne, Florida. 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, multi-family, retail, medical office, industrial and land development projects. The Company's portfolio consists of interests in 7.8 million square feet of office and medical office space, 3.4 million square feet of retail space, 0.4 million square feet of industrial space, over 3,300 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 11.2 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.