Cousins Properties is on pace to have a banner year.
“I believe there’s a perception that an office company cannot grow earnings,” Cousins CEO Colin Connolly said on the firm’s recent second-quarter earnings call. “We are proving that wrong and for the second consecutive year.”
The call with analysts came days after the $7.9 billion company’s founder, Tom Cousins, died at the age of 93.
Cousins — who stepped down as CEO in 1997 and left the board in 2006 — founded the Atlanta-based firm as a residential real estate business in 1958, when he was 26.
An Atlanta native, Connolly started at the company in 2011 as senior vice president of acquisitions and dispositions after a stint as an executive director with Morgan Stanley. He quickly rose up the ranks, becoming chief investment officer in 2013 and COO three years later. Since early 2019, Connolly has led the firm as CEO and a member of the board.
Since its inception, Cousins has morphed into what the company calls a “Sun Belt trophy office REIT,” a real estate investment trust with a portfolio spanning 21.3 million square feet in Atlanta, Austin, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, Tampa and Phoenix.
Connolly told The Real Deal during a recent interview the firm is “agnostic” as to whether it buys or builds properties. The current market dynamics, however, “favor acquisitions,” he said.
Most recently, Cousins Properties purchased the Link at Uptown for $218 million in July, marking the firm’s debut into Dallas’ urban core and setting a record for Dallas-Fort Worth’s biggest office trade of 2025.
In the last 12 months, Cousins “bought over a billion dollars” in real estate, Connolly, who received his master of business administration degree at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, said.
The firm has yet to venture outside the Sun Belt.
“We never say never, but we are focused on executing our core strategy,” Connolly said. “And I would say the bar would have to be very high for us to deviate from our strategy.”
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
On what he learned at his first job retrieving golf balls at a driving range: “You gotta pick up every ball!”
Born: June 9, 1976
Hometown: Atlanta
Lives: Atlanta
Family: Wife of 23 years, Aimee; son Connor, 18; and daughter Bridget, 15
Cousins Properties describes itself as a “Sun Belt trophy office REIT.” How do you define the Sun Belt — because you’re not in all the Sun Belt markets?
Our portfolio is 100 percent concentrated and located in the Sun Belt, but we have, I’d say, carefully selected what we think are the fastest-growing, most vibrant markets in the Sun Belt that have scale.
Why not invest in California?
At Cousins, we think it’s really important to have a clear and compelling strategy — to build the preeminent Sun Belt lifestyle office company. We have a view that the two most powerful secular trends in the office business today — and have been for quite some time — are population and employment migration to the Sun Belt and the flight to quality.
You talk about Cousins’ interest being predominantly in “trophy lifestyle office buildings.” How do you define that?
It’s funny, you’re in good company. The Securities and Exchange Commission also just asked us how we define that. They’re making sure investor disclosure is clear, and since we use that term, they said, what exactly does that mean? Because it’s a relatively new term.
What we mean by a “trophy lifestyle office building” is certainly a newer vintage, well-amenitized trophy building with all the gyms and the restaurants and the conference centers that you would expect within the four walls of a trophy office building, plus it is in a dynamic neighborhood.
We characterize it as lifestyle, because the type of buildings that we own in vibrant neighborhoods are generally full of professionals whose lifestyle centers around going to the office every day.
Would you say it’s easier to expand in the markets where you are because of similar demographics, economics and lifestyles?
The markets that we’re in are not too different in terms of the size and the scale. Typically our markets have similar weather, they’re generally lower cost of doing business and a lower cost of living for residents, and they are generally pro-business-oriented markets. And so they all behave fairly similarly, although there are certain markets that perhaps have greater concentrations in certain industries. Austin is more levered to technology. Charlotte is more levered to financial services.
And they’re politically similar.
Correct.
You basically are in red states.
I would characterize our markets, the cities themselves, as generally blue, but sitting in a red state, which actually from our perspective created a healthy balance and a nice push and pull that has helped foster an attractive environment to do business.
What’s your travel schedule?
On average, smoothed out, I travel probably every other week.
When you are in different cities, are there foods or drinks you must have, like a certain coffee?
Fun fact, I’ve actually never had coffee.
Why not?
I just feel like I missed my opportunity. I didn’t drink it as a kid, and then it was too late.
Other than your phone, what’s one thing you always have on you?
My Whoop. It’s one of these health and fitness trackers. I never take that off. I carry my phone which holds my license. And my wedding ring.
Do you have a secret talent or a completely useless skill?
I’m pretty good at ping-pong, but that’s a useful skill. We have a pretty competitive ping-pong game here. We have 50 people on the challenge ladder. I’m currently ranked eighth. And, I can kick field goals.
What’s your most controversial opinion about something trivial, besides not liking coffee?
I’m a bit of a germaphobe.
How does that play out?
Not always that well.
What does it look like?
I always keep a secret stash of hand sanitizer and just kind of bite the bullet and clean up afterwards.
Can you shake people’s hands?
Oh, yeah. I mean, it’s probably more of a secret.
If you weren’t doing this career, what would you be doing?
I’d love to play on the PGA Tour, but they wouldn’t have me. If I weren’t doing this, I would be doing something else in the business and finance arena, something transaction oriented. I grew up playing sports, and I view my business career today as my outlet for a lack of a competitive sports career.
What sports did you play?
I grew up playing soccer and I was also a wrestler.
You meet a lot of people in your role. What’s your best tip for getting to know someone quickly?
I try to be as approachable as I can and try to make people feel very comfortable. I find when people are more comfortable, they’re more communicative, and you can establish rapport. To do that, I think you’ve got to put titles aside, approach things with humility and a little bit of self-deprecation and try to make whoever you’re talking to, whether it’s the most senior person or the most junior person, make them feel the same way.
Who are your mentors?
It was people like Tom Cousins, who unfortunately passed. My predecessor in this job, Larry Gellerstedt, has been particularly impactful to me. There are other people in the real estate world that I’ve spent a lot of time with in the past that continue to be helpful. And that applies to people, in some cases, that are competitors, like Ray Ritchey, who’s a senior executive at BXP, and Michael Franco, who’s the president at Vornado. They are all folks I’ve known for a long time and are always willing to give me a very clear and direct perspective and feedback.
What is your biggest career gaffe?
There have been a lot of those.
I would say the most challenging time in my career was probably 2014 to 2016 after Cousins made a very intentional bet to significantly expand into Houston right before the oil market crash. That was a particularly hard time for the company and a hard time for me personally. You know, sometimes you get it wrong.
I think we, in hindsight, kind of rationalized that perhaps the city had become more economically diversified. And the reality was, it just hadn’t. We made a big bet — committing approximately 40 percent of the company’s portfolio into that market over that period of time. As the oil market crashed, that led to a small period of time where the company significantly underperformed.
What was your first job?
I worked at a driving range picking up golf balls.
What did you learn doing that?
That you gotta pick up every ball!
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?
I would say it is — and I actually use this with younger people all the time — you gotta have a plan, but write it down in pencil, not pen, because you gotta be willing to change.
Who gave you that advice?
A friend of my dad’s way back when I was coming out of school and trying to figure out what to do. I was doing informational interviews and asking a ton of questions. And I remember talking to him, and I think at the time, I had this very clear plan. I was going to be an accountant, like no offense to accounting. But you know, he listened to me and all my certainty at age 21 and politely reminded me that my plan would likely not be as linear as I imagined. He’s been right.
What’s something you think I should know about the Sun Belt but might not?
Having lived up in New York and oftentimes knowing the perception of the South, I think you should recognize that the larger cities within the Sun Belt have significantly grown up over the last 10 to 20 years, and there’s a dynamic lifestyle that’s available today in Midtown Atlanta or downtown Austin, with food and restaurants, sports and cultural activities, that is much more similar to New York or Boston or San Francisco. I think college-educated graduates recognize this, and that is what’s leading to this outsized population growth, and then ultimately the companies are following, and that’s one of those big secular trends that we’ve positioned the company around.
Cousins made a very intentional bet to significantly expand into Houston right before the oil market crash. That was a particularly hard time for the company and a hard time for me personally. You know, sometimes you get it wrong.
Since you lived in New York for around five years let’s do a Big Apple vs. Big Peach lightning round:
Central Park or Piedmont Park?
Central Park.
New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, or the Atlanta Botanical Garden?
The Atlanta Botanical Garden.
New York Aquarium in Coney Island, or the Georgia Aquarium?
Definitely the Georgia Aquarium.
Chelsea Market or Ponce City Market?
I think I would say Ponce City Market, because we own the building across the street. I’m a homer there.
Corner deli or Waffle House?
I would definitely pick the Waffle House. You asked me earlier — if I wasn’t doing this, what would I be doing. When I lived in New York I always joked, I should open up a Waffle House in New York.
New York pizza or Atlanta barbecue?
I think I’d probably go New York pizza.
Blue party or red party?
Georgia’s a purple state. I’d go to a purple party.