Cousins Properties Opens Frost Bank Tower; 33-Story, 525,000-square-foot office tower is largest and tallest in Austin market.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 23, 2004

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) announced today the opening of Frost Bank Tower, a 33-story, 525,000-square-foot office tower in downtown Austin, Texas. The building opens at 58 percent leased to clients including The Frost National Bank, Graves, Dougherty Hearon & Moody, Jenkens & Gilchrist, Winstead Sechrest & Minick, Dewey Ballantine, Constructors and Associates and Heritage Title Company of Austin. Additional leases are expected in the near future. The ground floor also features 18,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, which is fully leased to The Frost National Bank, McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant, Taco Shack, Seattle's Best Coffee, Murphy's Deli and Westbank Dry Cleaning.

At a height of 515 feet and containing 525,000 square feet, Frost Bank Tower ranks as Austin's tallest and largest office building. Construction began on the building in November 2001.

"Given that we have faced an extremely challenging leasing market since we began construction, we are very proud of our strong pre-leasing results, which have placed some of Austin's most respected businesses among our tenants. We are also optimistic about our leasing prospects for 2004, given the signs that the economy appears to be rebounding," said Tim Hendricks, senior vice president for Cousins Properties in Austin. "It's the vision of those current and future tenants, along with the hard work of the Frost Bank Tower team, that deserve the credit for this stunning addition to the Austin skyline."

In addition to the Cousins Properties leasing and development staff, the Frost Bank Tower team includes design architect Duda/Paine Architects and general contractor Constructors and Associates. The building's 1.7-acre tract at the northeast corner of Fourth Street and Congress Avenue in downtown Austin was sold to Cousins by the Schmidt family, which came to Austin in the early 1900s and eventually founded the city's venerable Yaring's department store chain. A fountain commemorating the life and work of Austin retail pioneer Jacob Schmidt is located in the outdoor plaza at Frost Bank Tower.

"Having the Schmidt family remain a part of this site and this building was critically important to us," Hendricks said. "Frost Bank Tower may forever alter the Austin skyline but we never want downtown to lose its sense of history. Austin would not be where it is today without the contributions of the Schmidt family and other Austin pioneers."

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 and land development projects. The Company's portfolio consists of interests in 13.9 million square feet of office and medical office space, 2.5 million square feet of retail space and more than 280 acres of strategically located land for future commercial development. Cousins also provides leasing and management services to third-party investors; its client-services portfolio comprises 6.3 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 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 risks, including, but not limited to, general 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 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.