The properties are the 1.25-million-sf, 100%-leased Bank of America Plaza in Downtown Atlanta and the 530,000-sf, 33-story Frost Tower in Austin, TX. Locally based Cousins Properties Inc. and Bank of America are 50-50 partners in the ownership of the 1,023-foot tall Bank of America Plaza. Prudential Insurance Co. of America owns a 10% interest in Frost Tower; Cousins owns 90%.

Sale plans for the properties were announced May 4 by Cousins president and CEO Tom Bell.

The properties are being sold because their owners estimate their aggregate value has been maximized over the past 14 years, Matt Gove, Cousins' vice president of communications, tells GlobeSt.com. However, Gove tells GlobeSt.com, "if we don't get the type of pricing we expect on the quality of these projects," the properties will be taken off the market. Gove says he doesn't expect that will happen.

Gove tells GlobeSt.com the disposition of Cousins' assets are "evaluated quarter by quarter. There is no lengthy planning period involved." In 2004, the company sold over $1 billion in assets after determining their maximum value level had been reached, he says.

Cousins holds the record in Metro Atlanta for achieving the highest per-sf price to date on a class A office building disposition. Cousins and an affiliate of Maryland-based Stonebridge Associates sold the six-year-old, 423,000-sf Pinnacle building in Buckhead to New York-based TIAA-CREF for $145 million or $342.78 per sf, as GlobeSt.com reported on Aug. 3, 2004. Atlanta area office brokers tell GlobeSt.com the Bank of America Plaza will top the Pinnacle per-sf price.

Will Yowell, executive vice president in the Atlanta office of CB Richard Ellis Inc., and his sales team have the exclusive listing on the Atlanta asset. A Texas-based CBRE office is marketing Frost Tower which, at 515 feet, is the tallest office building in Austin. Cousins and Pru have owned the 81%-leased Frost Tower since January 2004.

Cousins developed Bank of America Plaza in 1992. This building is the tallest in the Southeast and the sixth tallest in the US, according to Cousins research. Name tenants are Bank of America, Troutman Sanders LLC and Clinton & Williams, both law firms, and Ernst & Young.