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Leasing level on the rise at Terminus 100 Demand high for Cousins tower

WALTER WOODS
494 words
November 17 2005
The Atlanta Journal - Constitution
Copyright (c) 2005 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, All Rights Reserved

For Cousins Properties' new venture in Buckhead, the glass --- or in this case the glass skyscraper --- is half full.

Cousins has leased five more floors at Terminus 100, the developer's new office tower at the corner of Peachtree and Piedmont roads.

The news, announced Wednesday, brings the building to 46 percent leased just 18 months before Terminus 100 opens in 2007.

Leasing demand has been brisk enough that the company chose earlier this year to add two floors to the tower, bringing it to 27 floors and 582,000 square feet, said Larry Gellerstedt, president of the company's office/multifamily division.

Terminus 100 is the first phase of the Terminus project, a cluster of high-end retail outlets, condos and offices Cousins plans for the prime Buckhead corner.

Terminus 100's newly signed tenants include the Smith Barney division of Citigroup Global Markets, which will take about 57,000 square feet, more than two floors.

Cousins is used to being Smith Barney's landlord. Smith Barney leases offices in the Pinnacle building a few blocks away, a property Cousins built in 1998 and sold last year for a record price.

Premier Global Services, an Atlanta-based technology company formerly known as PTEK Holdings, will also take two floors in the Terminus 100 building.

Columbus-based Synovus Financial Corp. will lease a floor of the Terminus building for its wealth management division.

Those companies join the three original tenants: financial consultants Bain & Co., real estate brokers CB Richard Ellis, and Cousins itself.

The developer plans to move its headquarters to the tower from the Wildwood Office Park in Cobb County. As with the Pinnacle, Cousins developed Wildwood but sold many of its buildings in 2004.

Cousins might start a residential project at Terminus next year, and a second office tower may be under way when Terminus 100 opens in 2007, Gellerstedt said.

Terminus 100 has been an unlikely Buckhead success story for Cousins.

Just two years ago, the developer was sitting on the sidelines with no developable property in the upscale district while national competitors like Equity Office Properties and Trizec Properties controlled key sites and planned new towers.

But Cousins, flush with more than $1.3 billion in cash after selling many of its assets last year, swept into the neighborhood, bought the corner at Piedmont and Peachtree, and started construction on Terminus 100 before any of its competitors could get projects out of the ground.

For Reprints in the Original Format: http://www.ajc.com/info/content/services/info/reprint2.html

ID: 0003500424 Type: Photo Name: condofade2 Date: 11/17/2005 Page: F3 Edition: Home Pub: AJC Caption: Cousins Cousins found interest so brisk in its tower at Peachtree and Piedmont, it decided earlier this year to add two floors, bringing it to 27. The tower is the first phase of a multiuse project.

Document ATJC000020051117e1bh00064

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