Cousins Purchases Land for Richmond Power Center; Hanover Square South to feature retailers including Target and PETsMART.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 22, 2004

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) announced today it has purchased land for the development of Hanover Square South, a 195,000-square-foot retail center at Bell Creek and Cold Harbor roads in Richmond, Va. Concurrent with Cousins' purchase, lead anchor Target Corporation acquired approximately 11 acres and will own its 123,800-square-foot location at the center. Cousins has also signed PETsMART to a 19,000-square-foot lease, bringing the center to approximately 75 percent committed. Construction is expected to begin by the end of March with a planned opening in March 2005. The development will contain five to six outparcels, two of which are committed to buyers. Cousins is negotiating with a bank and two national restaurant chains for three of the remaining outparcels.

"With its strong demographics and existing retail base, the area around Interstate 295 in Mechanicsville is perfect for this type of center," said Joel Murphy, president of Cousins' Retail Division. "During our due diligence we became even more interested in this site because several power center retailers told us their existing Mechanicsville locations were among their best performing stores in the Richmond market. Retailers like Target and PETsMART will be great additions to the submarket and we plan to add restaurants and other retailers to the mix as the leasing and outparcel sales efforts continue."

Hanover Square South is Cousins' second Target-anchored center in Virginia. Cousins developed Greenbrier MarketCenter, a 493,000-square-foot power center in Chesapeake, Va., in 1995 and currently owns it in partnership with Prudential.

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 14 million square feet of office and medical office space, 2.7 million square feet of retail space and more than 280 acres of strategically located land for future sale or 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 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 Current Report on 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.