Active Cousins Properties Declares Second Quarter Dividends

ATLANTA—Days after announcing major expansion plans in Atlanta, Cousins Properties posted its second quarter dividend. Cousins has declared .045 per common share, payable on May 30. The company also declared dividends on its Series A and Series B Cumulative Redeemable Preferred Stock.

The dividends come in the midst of a busy year for Cousins on all fronts. Last Friday, Cousins inked six leases totaling 126,000 square feet at its Promenade office tower in Atlanta. Cousins acquired the asset last November. Located in the heart of the Midtown submarket, the 774,000-square-foot class A office tower is now 69% occupied.

Cousins is also in the midst of constructing a 150,000-square-foot project known as Mahan Village in a partnership with Watkins Retail Group and New Horizon Retail Development. That project, which is scheduled to open next fall on a 19-acre site in Tallahassee, is already 82% leased.

"Mahan Village, with its strong infill location and first-rate anchor tenants, represents the perfect type of development for this point in the investment cycle," Michael Cohn, executive vice president of retail investments, leasing and asset management for Cousins Properties, said in a statement. Publix Supermarket will anchor the asset.

Finally, Cousins signed four new retailers at Emory Point, a $100 million-plus mixed-use project under construction in North Atlanta. Cousins attracted the likes of CVS, Jos. A Bank Clothiers, and a number of restaurants to that project.

The flurry of positive activity follows strong fourth quarter 2011 returns announced in February. Cousins sold strategic assets last year—including the King Mill Distribution Park for $28.2 million, Lakeside Ranch Business Park, Building 20 and related undeveloped land for $44 million, 3.8 acres at North Point for $2.8 million, and 187 residential lots for an undisclosed amount—to position itself for growth in 2012.

"Cousins had a very strong finish to the year with solid operating results, significant leasing momentum, the sale of our remaining industrial buildings, and an attractive value creation opportunity in Promenade," Larry Gellerstedt, CEO of Cousins, said in a statement. "Consistent with our strategy to simplify our platform, we have made the decision to more aggressively monetize our land portfolio. We intend to recycle this capital into our core businesses of office, retail and opportunistic development."