ATLANTA — Cousins Properties (NYSE: CUZ) has acquired 725 Ponce, a 372,000-square-foot office property in Midtown Atlanta, for $300.2 million. The seller, New City Properties, completed development of the 12-story asset in late 2019.
Located on the Atlanta BeltLine and directly across from popular mixed-use development Ponce City Market, 725 Ponce is fully leased to tenants such as BlackRock, McKinsey & Co. and Chick-fil-A. The $140 million development includes an adjacent 60,000-square-foot Kroger grocery store, which replaced a former Kroger that was built in 1986.
As part of the transaction, Cousins also acquired a 50 percent ownership interest in an adjacent land site for an additional $4 million that can accommodate 150,000 to 200,000 square feet of development.
Atlanta-based Cousins is a self-managed REIT that primarily invests in Class A office buildings within Sun Belt markets. The company’s stock price opened at $40.04 per share Friday, July 30, up from $30.49 per share one year ago.
Cousins recently sold One South at the Plaza, a 40-story office tower in Uptown Charlotte, for $271.5 million. Additionally, Cousins and New City recently unveiled plans to develop a mixed-use project known as Neuhoff in the Germantown submarket of Nashville. Plans call for 448,000 square feet of office and retail space as well as 542 multifamily units.
— Kristin Hiller