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Cousins ready to start work on Terminus 200

Atlanta Business Chronicle - May 26, 2006
by Jill Lerner Staff Writer

Cousins Properties Inc. is planning to get an early start on Terminus 200 -- the second office tower in its project at Piedmont and Peachtree roads. Cousins will soon begin site development work on Terminus 200, a 22-story, 520,000-square-foot building scheduled to open in mid-2009. The move is being prompted by brisk leasing activity at the first tower on the site, the 27-story, 650,000-square-foot Terminus 100. The tower's office space is 62 percent leased.

Cousins had planned to start the second tower in 2008 and officials said in February they would not begin the building until the first tower was fully leased. However, confidence in the first tower's leasing activity has pushed the date forward.

Cousins expects the first tower to be fully leased by the end of the year.
New leases for the first tower are with financial adviser Wilmington Trust Corp. (NYSE: WL), radio station owner Cumulus Media Inc. (Nasdaq: CMLS) and local investment firm Riverside Advisors.

In addition to the new leases, real estate services firm CB Richard Ellis Inc. has expanded its space in Terminus to three floors, up from two. Wilmington Trust will move to the top floor of Terminus 100, into about 23,000 square feet. The Delaware-based firm currently occupies the top two floors of the Pinnacle building.
The move gives the company more efficient space and allows for growth from 50 employees to 80 individuals, said Robert Balentine, head of investment management for Wilmington Trust.

Balentine's Wilmington Trust investment management unit, which manages the money for all Wilmington Trust clients, is based in Atlanta. Wilmington Trust's Georgia regional office, which is headed by Philip Cave, is also housed here.

While Cousins (NYSE: CUZ) officials had said Terminus 200 would not move forward until the first tower was fully leased, stronger-than-expected leasing activity, interest from prospective tenants desiring more contiguous space than is left in the first tower and the desire to beat other Buckhead developments to market prompted the company to move ahead, said Tom Bell, president and CEO of Cousins.

The largest contiguous space left in Terminus 100 is about 40,000 square feet.
Bell said the company's original projections called for the building to be 85 percent leased 18 months after occupancy.

Today, he said, Terminus 100 is on track to be fully leased four months before its scheduled spring 2007 completion date. All that's left in the building are three full floors and two half floors. Bell said Cousins is in "serious negotiations" on two of the full floors. As a result of interest in the first tower, Bell added that Cousins may hold off moving its own headquarters to the first tower as planned and instead move into the second tower.

Interest in the project's condominiums also has been keen, with 250 names on a waiting list, he said. In addition to the office towers, with street-level retail and destination restaurants, the master plan for the 10-acre Terminus site calls for as many as 800 condominiums.

Reach Lerner at jlerner@bizjournals.com.