Cousins Announces Executive Leadership Changes

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE: CUZ) announced today that Dan DuPree, 62, has been named Vice Chairman of the Company. Since 2007, Dan has been serving as Cousins� President and Chief Operating Officer. In his new role, DuPree will focus on a variety of key initiatives, including developing joint ventures, identifying distressed acquisition and development opportunities, and insuring the performance of Cousins� recently developed retail portfolio.

The Company also announced today that Larry Gellerstedt, 52, has been named President and Chief Operating Officer, where he will bring to bear his 30 plus years of management experience in the construction, real estate, and investment fields. Gellerstedt joined Cousins Properties following the acquisition of his firm, The Gellerstedt Group, in June 2005, and most recently has served as Executive Vice President and Chief Development Officer for the Company.

�For more than 16 years now, Dan has made and continues to make an immeasurable contribution to Cousins. We wouldn�t be the company we are today without him,� said Tom Bell, Chairman and CEO of Cousins. �This shift to Vice Chairman will allow him to focus even more of his considerable talents on some of our most pressing challenges and promising opportunities.�

�Every successful enterprise has to focus on sustaining the organization�s success from one generation to the next. Promoting Larry to President and COO will help provide the Company with great leadership well into the future. He has deep experience managing large organizations and over his career, he has also shown an appreciation for the entrepreneurial drive needed in a company like Cousins,� Bell said. �Larry is a great fit for Cousins and I�m sure he will be a great success in his new role.�

In 1984, DuPree founded New Market Development Company, Ltd. where he developed nearly 6 million square feet of retail space across the U.S. before selling the company to Cousins in 1992. His 30 years of development experience include the execution of more than 50 commercial projects totaling more than 16 million square feet, and the management of more than 30 JV partnerships.

Gellerstedt served as chairman and chief executive officer of the Beers Construction Company from 1986 to 1998. In 1998, after the sale of Beers to Skanska USA, he was elected chairman and chief executive officer of American Business Products, a NYSE-listed manufacturer of packaging and printed office products. In 2000, Gellerstedt became president and chief operating officer of The Integral Group, a nationally known urban mixed-use development company. He went on to found The Gellerstedt Group in 2003.

Cousins Properties Incorporated is a leading diversified real estate company with extensive experience in development, acquisition, financing, management and leasing. Based in Atlanta, the Company actively invests in office, multi-family, retail, and land development projects. Since its founding in 1958, Cousins has developed 20 million square feet of office space, 20 million square feet of retail space, more than 3,500 multi-family units and more than 60 single-family neighborhoods. The Company is a fully integrated equity real estate investment trust (REIT) and trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CUZ. For more, please visit 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 risk. These include, but are not limited to, general and local economic conditions (including the current general recession and state of the credit markets), local real estate conditions (including the overall condition of the residential markets), the activity of others developing competitive projects, the risks associated with development projects (such as delay, cost overruns and leasing/sales risk of new properties), 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 ability of the Company to close properties under contract and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company�s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including those described in Part I, Item 1A of the Company�s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2007. 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.

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