Cousins' Numbers Are on Track

Before sending in its 10-K, Mark Russell, the firm's senior vice president and senior investment officer, said, "Like many other publicly held real estate and retail companies, Cousins is reviewing its accounting treatment for operating leases, including accounting for rent holidays and accounting for landlord/tenant incentives, in light of a Feb. 7, 2005 letter from the chief accountant of the SEC to the American Institute of Certified Public Accounts that attempted to clarify these matters."

After submitting its report, Russell says, "Cousins and its auditors have completed their review of these issues and have determined that no adjustments were required to any previously reported financial information."

Cousins, one of the most aggressive development REITs in the Southeast, posted a banner financial year in 2004, as GlobeSt.com previously reported. Cousins generated fourth-quarter net income of $118.5 million, or $2.29 per share, compared to $8.5 million, or 17 cents per share, in 2003. For the entire 2004, the REIT reported net income of $399.7 million, or $7.84 per share, versus $238.8 million or $4.83 per share in 2003.

Cousins' development program for 2005 is on a blitzkrieg track, planning and opening projects in the retail, office, multifamily and residential categories.

The firm's most ambitious office-retail venture in the past two years surfaces May 9 when it stages a ceremonial groundbreaking for a 31-story structure that will house 550,000 sf of class A space and 60,000 sf of street-level retail and restaurant space on a prime 9.9-acre tract in the center of the affluent Buckhead district, eight miles north of Downtown Atlanta.

The second phase of the so-far unnamed project would entail 500,000 sf of office, an undetermined amount of retail and up to 800 residential units. Cousins anticipates the first phase will be completed in April 2007.

The company's portfolio consists of interest in 7.2 million sf of office and medical office space, 3.1 million sf of retail space, over 3,000 acres of strategically located land tracts for sale or future development and other prime land holdings for development of single-family residential communities.