Cousins Secures Retail Tenants for Congress at Fourth; McCormick & Schmick's To Open First Austin Location in Downtown's Newest Building.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 1, 2003

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) announced today that it has secured more than 18,000 square feet of retail leases at Congress at Fourth, a 525,000-square-foot class A office tower currently under construction in Austin, Texas. Topping the list is Portland, Ore.-based McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant, which is opening its first Austin location at the downtown building.

Joining McCormick & Schmick's at Congress at Fourth is Seattle's Best Coffee, Murphy's Deli, Taco Shack, Westbank Dry Cleaning and a retail banking center for Frost Bank. The recently completed leases with McCormick & Schmick's, Taco Shack and Frost Bank bring Congress at Fourth's retail space to 100 percent leased approximately 10 months ahead of the building's planned opening in January 2004.

Tim Hendricks, senior vice president of development of Cousins Properties, said, "Attracting a nationally known restaurant like McCormick & Schmick's to Congress at Fourth says as much about downtown Austin's booming restaurant and entertainment offerings as it does about our building. We are proud to be a part of the downtown resurgence while providing another top-notch amenity for our clients."

McCormick & Schmick's Co-founder and President Doug Schmick added, "During our 31 years in business, McCormick & Schmick's has specialized in downtown locations. We like an urban feel and downtown Austin certainly brings together the right mix of daytime workforce, residential base and established fine-dining options to produce success at our Congress at Fourth location."

Wade Cooper, a partner with Austin law firm Jackson Walker LLP and Chairman of the Downtown Austin Alliance, said, "Downtown is becoming the place for fine dining and McCormick & Schmick's marks a large step toward reaching that goal. It's another vote of confidence in the future of downtown and gets all of us closer to what Austin wants its downtown to be."

Joining McCormick & Schmick's with its first downtown location, and fifth overall, is Austin-based Taco Shack. Company founder Orlando Arriaga said the new location offers Taco Shack an opportunity to tweak his already successful formula.

"Since we serve the breakfast and lunch crowd, downtown's workers are quite a draw," Arriaga said. "With Congress at Fourth, the location was ideal and the space will allow us to test sit-down service for the first time."

Located on 1.7 acres at the northeast corner of Fourth Street and Congress Avenue in the Central Business District of Austin, the 33-story tower is currently 46% leased. Designed to provide a clearly recognizable symbol in the skyline of Austin through its segmented pyramidal form, Congress at Fourth will provide many amenities including an urban plaza, a signature restaurant, retail services and a 1,500-space parking garage.

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 14.2 million square feet of office and medical office space, 3.3 million square feet of retail space and more than 300 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 6.1 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.