Cousins Sells Laguna Niguel Promenade to Sun Belt Management, Inc.

Business Editors

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 2000

Cousins Properties Incorporated (NYSE:CUZ) today announced the sale of Laguna Niguel Promenade, a 154,000-square-foot neighborhood retail center in Laguna Niguel, California, about 25 miles south of Los Angeles. The center, developed at a total cost of approximately $20.3 million, was sold to Sun Belt Management, Inc. for $26.7 million.

Completed in 1998, Laguna Niguel Promenade is located on 13 acres at the intersection of Aliso Creek and LaPaz Roads. The center is anchored by Ralphs, a 51,000-square-foot gourmet supermarket well-known for its produce and restaurant-quality seafood; Orchard Supply Hardware, a 64,000-square-foot home improvement retailer specializing in broad-based merchandise; Learning Express; Norwalk Furniture; and Starbucks.

Cousins' President and Chief Operating Officer Dan DuPree said, "This action is consistent with our strategy of capturing the value of certain assets and redeploying the capital to fund new development which, in turn, helps create additional value and growth for the Company. Laguna Niguel Promenade has been a very successful center and this transaction confirms the strength of investor appetite for our retail projects."

Laguna Niguel Promenade is one of four retail projects in California developed by Cousins including Los Altos MarketCenter, a 157,000 s.f. power center in Long Beach; Mira Mesa MarketCenter, a 453,000 s.f. power center in San Diego; and The Avenue of the Peninsula, a 374,000 s.f. open-air specialty center in Rolling Hills Estates.

"We are happy with the continued production of creative and well-conceived retail developments in California," said Bob Manarino, Senior Vice President - Western Region. "We intend to strategically grow our retail portfolio in this dynamic region and explore other attractive markets in the West and Southwest."

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 11.8 million square feet of office space, 3.7 million square feet of retail space and 1.0 million square feet of medical office space, and more than 400 acres of 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.