Cousins Properties’ Dallas Trophy Part of Larger Buying Spree

The flag Cousins Properties planted in Dallas’ hottest office submarket is part of a broader vision for the firm.

The Atlanta-based real estate investment trust went on a nine-month trophy office buying spree that eclipsed $1 billion with its $218 million purchase of Link at Uptown in July, the Dallas Business Journal reported.

Cousins Properties’ purchase of the 25-story tower, at 2601 Olive Street, amounts to $747 per square foot and was the biggest office deal in Dallas-Fort Worth so far this year. The building is near restaurants and nightlife, and it’s less than half a mile from Klyde Warren Park.

All of that fits into the REIT’s “lifestyle Sun Belt office strategy,” Kennedy Hicks, Cousins executive vice president, told the outlet.

More acquisitions are yet to come. The firm’s “core strategy” involves identifying similar assets to purchase across the Sun Belt, she said.

The firm’s priority is to invest in cities where it already owns properties, such as Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Phoenix and Tampa, and expand those portfolios, Cousins CEO Colin Connolly said.

The Link at Uptown opened in 2021 and is 94 percent leased. Out of the 292,000-square-foot building only about 6,200 square feet of space is available. JLL is handling leasing.

Dallas-based developer Kaizen Development Partners sold the building and was its developer.

This was Cousins’ second play in the urban core of Dallas. Last fall, it paid $138 million to buy the mortgage for Saint Ann Court, an Uptown Dallas office building at 2501 North Harwood.

Elsewhere in Dallas-Fort Worth, Cousins owns a nine-story office building at 5950 Sherry Lane, a nine-story office tower in Preston Center near Sterling Plaza, and Legacy Union, a 319,000-square-foot office building in Plano.

Cousins was founded as a construction business by Tom Cousins in 1958, and it developed several iconic buildings in Atlanta’s skyline. Cousins died in July at age 93.— Eric Weilbacher