Cousins Properties and Borders Group Announce Lease Execution to Open a New Borders Books and Music Store At The Avenue of the Peninsula.

Business Editors

ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 3, 2002

Opening of 15,000-Square-Foot South Bay Superstore

Slated for Summer 2002

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE: CUZ), a diversified real estate investment trust, and Borders Group, Inc., a global retailer of books, music, and videos, jointly announced Borders' lease execution for the summer 2002 opening of a new 15,000-square-foot superstore at The Avenue(R) of the Peninsula. Cousins developed, owns and manages the open-air, specialty retail center in Los Angeles' South Bay. Joel Murphy, President of Cousins' Retail Division and Alex Lelli, Vice President of Real Estate Development for Borders, jointly announced the lease execution.

The new Borders superstore will be located on the second level of The Avenue of the Peninsula, next to Saks Fifth Avenue and adjacent to Pottery Barn and Regal Cinemas' Avenue 13, and will feature books, music, periodicals, video/DVD titles and a cafe.

"We are extremely pleased to have this prestigious national retailer join The Avenue of the Peninsula," said Joel Murphy. "The combination of Borders and our other highly popular merchants, such as the recently opened Marmalade Cafe and Bright Child, will continue to establish The Avenue as the preferred shopping, dining and entertainment destination in the South Bay."

Alex Lelli added, "We look forward to the summer opening of a new Borders superstore at The Avenue of the Peninsula, one of Southern California's premier lifestyle centers, so that we can serve the many shoppers in the South Bay community who have expressed their wish to have a quality book and music store at this location. The center provides the ideal atmosphere for a Borders brand extension, and we are pleased to partner with another outstanding Cousins' Avenue project."

Anchored by Saks Fifth Avenue and a state-of-the-art Regal Cinemas Theater, The Avenue of the Peninsula is a three-level, 371,000-square-foot pedestrian-friendly, open-air specialty center that features a blend of popular national retailers, select local merchants and specialty restaurants, as well as an Ice Chalet. The Avenue of the Peninsula, on Silver Spur Road in Rolling Hills Estates, is accessible from the Crenshaw or Hawthorne Boulevard exits off of the 405 freeway, or from the Pacific Coast Highway exit off of the Harbor 110 freeway.

For more information about The Avenue of the Peninsula, or about the center's upcoming Borders superstore opening, interested persons are invited to call The Avenue of the Peninsula's customer service number at [phone]. The Avenue of the Peninsula is open from 10 a.m. until 8 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays, and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sundays (select retail, theatre and dining establishment hours vary).

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 13.3 million square feet of office space, 3.1 million square feet of retail space and .9 million square feet of medical office space, and more than 300 acres of strategically located land for future commercial development. 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.

Borders Group, Inc., (NYSE: BGP) is a leading global retailer of books, music, video and other information and entertainment items with stores in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, and the commonwealth of Puerto Rico. A FORTUNE 500 company headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., Borders Group employs 30,000 employees worldwide and operates over 360 Borders domestic superstores, 22 international Borders stores, 36 Books etc. locations and approximately 850 Waldenbooks stores. Teamed with Amazon.com, the company also offers online shopping through www.borders.com.

More detailed information for journalists is available at www.bgimediacenter.com. Financial data is hosted on www.bordersgroupinc.com and information on Borders stores is available through www.bordersstores.com.