CUZ Cousins Properties Inc

459,134-Square-Foot Building Kicks Off Venture's Second Industrial Park Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE: CUZ) announced today its Cousins/Weeks venture will develop a 459,134-square-foot cross-dock industrial building at Jefferson Mill Business Park, a 304-acre project at the northeast corner of Interstate 85 and Georgia Highway 129 in Jackson County, northeast of Atlanta. Situated on 26.7 acres and visible from I-85, Building A will be the first of 12 industrial buildings - ranging in size from 20,000 square feet to 784,000 square feet and totaling more than 3.2 million square feet - at Jefferson Mill. Construction of Building A is expected to begin in July with completion expected in March of 2007. "With the leasing momentum picking up around Atlanta, we think this is a great time to plant our flag in the metro area's largest and most active submarket," said Forrest Robinson, president of Cousins' Industrial Division. "Jackson County has seen tremendous growth in larger users over the past five years and this building should hit the mid-range between the average-sized deal in this area and the near 1 million-square-foot users that other developers are targeting." Cousins has also sold one acre along Highway 129 at Jefferson Mill to Harden Oil Company for a gas station/convenience store location. Overall, more than 44 acres at Jefferson Mill are zoned for retail use, all of which are being marketed for sale by Cousins. Jefferson Mill is the second industrial development for Cousins/Weeks. The first is King Mill Industrial Park, a planned 2.9 million-square-foot project in Henry County, Georgia. Cousins recently announced the first lease at King Mill, a five-year, 287,400-square-foot deal with Snapper Products. 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, industrial and land development projects. The Company's portfolio consists of interests in 7.4 million square feet of office space, 3.8 million square feet of retail space, 0.8 million square feet of industrial space, two multi-family residential projects, over 9,000 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 12.7 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 Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005. 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.