ATLANTA-Despite a drop in residential lot sales, locally based Cousins Properties Inc. reported net income of $14.4 million, or 27 cents per share, for the first quarter, during a Tuesday conference call. This compares with net income of $8.4 million, or 16 cents per share, for the same quarter last year.

Cousins executive president and CFO James Fleming said during the conference call that two transactions helped to buoy earnings for the quarter. These included the sale of five ground-leased outparcels at the company's North Point property for an aggregate price of $10.1 million. The $8.2-million aggregate gain on the sale of these outparcels was included in the company's calculation of FFO, as these properties had not previously been depreciated. The company also sold 41 acres of land adjacent to the Avenue Carriage Crossing in Metropolitan Nashville for $11.7 million generating FFO of $4.4 million. "The sale of the land helped to offset a decrease in profit from residential lot sales," Fleming said.

The company also reported first quarter funds from operations to common stockholders of $24.5 million, or 46 cents per share. This reflects an increase over last year's FFO of $19.1 million, or 37 cents per share.

Other significant transactions during the quarter included the acquisition of 109 acres of land for $36.2 million and began construction of the first phase of the Avenue Forsyth, a 527,000-sf lifestyle center in north Metropolitan Atlanta.

"The first four months of 2007 have been momentous with our construction starts at the Avenue Forsyth and 10 Terminus Place, along with our corporate headquarters move back to Downtown Atlanta," says Cousins chairman and CEO Tom Bell. "We've also started moving in the first tenants at Terminus 100, began site work for Terminus 200 and are pursuing substantial office users at several of our projects including One Ninety One Peachtree Tower. While our residential business is still troubled with declining lot sales, our other businesses are performing quite well."