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Presentation

Operator: Morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cousins Properties Incorporated First Quarter Conference Call. At this time, all lines are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question and answer session. If at any time during this call you require immediate assistance, please press 0 for the operator. This call is being recorded. On Thursday, 04/30/2026. I would now like to turn the conference over to Pamela Roper, General Counsel. Please go ahead.

Pamela Roper: Thank you. Good morning, and welcome to Cousins Properties Incorporated first quarter earnings conference call. With me today are Colin Connolly, our President and Chief Executive Officer; Richard G. Hickson, our Executive Vice President of Operations; Jane Kennedy Hicks, our Executive Vice President and Chief Investment; and Gregg D. Adzema, our Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. The press release and supplemental package were distributed yesterday afternoon as well as furnished on Form 8-Ks. In the supplemental package, the company has reconciled all non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP measures in accordance with Reg G requirements. If you did not receive a copy, these documents are available through the Quarterly Disclosures and Supplemental SEC Information link on the Investor Relations page of our website, cousins.com.

Please be aware that certain matters discussed today may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws and actual results may differ materially from these statements due to a variety of risks, uncertainties, and other factors, including the risk factors set forth in our Annual Report on Form 10-Ks and our other SEC filings. The company does not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. The full declaration regarding forward-looking statements is available in the supplemental package posted yesterday and a detailed discussion of the potential risks is contained in our filings with the SEC. We will now turn the call over to Colin Connolly.

Colin Connolly: Thank you, Pam, and good morning, everyone. We had an excellent start to 2026 at Cousins Properties Incorporated. On the earnings front, the team delivered $0.73 per share in FFO during the quarter, which was $0.02 per share above consensus. In addition, we increased the midpoint of our FFO guidance by $0.02 per share to $2.94 per share for the full year 2026, which represents 3.5% growth over 2025. This would be our third consecutive year of FFO growth and represents a 3.9% compounded annual growth rate since 2023. Cousins Properties Incorporated earnings growth during this three-year time frame is unmatched among traditional office REITs. Leasing remained robust. We completed 932,000 square feet of leases during the quarter, which is one of the highest quarterly volumes in the history of the company.

Our cash rent roll-up on second generation leasing was 15.2%, which marks 48 consecutive quarters of positive rent roll-ups. Significant leasing wins included our large renewal with our largest customer at The Domain in Austin, and new leases with Oracle at Newhof in Nashville, and KPMG at Precinium in Midtown Atlanta. These results underscore the strength of our portfolio and depth of customer demand for high-quality lifestyle office space. I will start with a few broader observations on the trends driving the office. First, most major companies are phasing out remote work. Yesterday, Fidelity became the latest to announce a five-day-a-week office mandate. At Cousins Properties Incorporated, we call it the return to normal, and it is boosting demand across all of our markets.

Second, the flight to quality is unrelenting. Customers are prioritizing high-quality, well-amenitized, and well-located buildings to promote engagement and collaboration. According to JLL, nearly all of the positive net absorption in the office sector since the onset of COVID has occurred in buildings that delivered from 2010 to present. Third, the Sunbelt migration has reaccelerated. We have seen a significant uptick in relocation activities as proposals to meaningfully increase personal and business taxes in New York, California, and Washington have advanced. Starbucks recently announced a major East Coast headquarters in Nashville. Apollo is looking for a second headquarters in Texas or Florida. Capital Group announced a major hub in Charlotte.

Each of these companies specifically state access to the growing talent pools in these markets is a major reason for their decisions. These are not back-of-house or support jobs that they are creating. We believe that we are still in the early innings of this migration trend and expect these announcements to continue. Lastly, record-high office conversions combined with record-low new development starts are leading to shrinking inventory of office properties. Given the three- to four-year lead time to deliver a new project, this is unlikely to change until 2030 at the earliest. Simply stated, demand is increasing while supply is decreasing. The net result is an emerging shortage of premier lifestyle office space in the best submarkets of the Sunbelt, and one that will become increasingly acute over the next several years and favor landlords.

Cousins Properties Incorporated is uniquely positioned to benefit from these trends. Before moving on, I want to briefly address a topic that has received a lot of attention recently, that is artificial intelligence. While AI is shaping how companies operate internally, we are not seeing evidence that it is reducing long-term demand for high-quality office space. In fact, many of the companies most actively deploying AI are also prioritizing collaboration, talent density, and physical presence, which aligns well with our lifestyle office portfolio in the Sunbelt. Ultimately, space decisions are still being driven by people, culture, and access to talent. In that respect, the trends we are seeing in our leasing activity remain very encouraging.

Turning to our strategy, as we outlined in prior earnings calls, our focus remains unchanged. We are sharply focused on driving sustainable earnings growth while maintaining our best-in-class balance sheet and continuing to enhance the quality of our Sunbelt lifestyle office portfolio. Our team’s ability to drive both internal and external growth is key to this effort. During the quarter, we advanced that strategy. First, we increased occupancy to 88.9% across the portfolio as a result of robust leasing activity. Second, we closed on the acquisition of 300 South Tryon, a 638,000 square foot trophy office asset in Uptown Charlotte, for approximately $317.5 million. Third, we repurchased 3.9 million shares of our own stock at a weighted average price of $23.36.

Lastly, we sold Harborview Plaza in Tampa for $39.5 million and entered into an agreement to sell 111 Congress in Austin. Looking ahead, the number one priority for Cousins Properties Incorporated is to continue to grow occupancy. We have modest lease expirations this year and a robust late-stage leasing pipeline that will support this effort. More broadly, we remain focused on optimizing our portfolio, maintaining flexibility, and creating optionality in our capital allocation decisions. As I mentioned earlier, everything we do is guided by a disciplined approach that prioritizes earnings accretion, balance sheet strength, and continuous improvement in our portfolio quality. We are excited about what lies ahead for Cousins Properties Incorporated.

The office market is rebalancing, new construction is virtually nonexistent, and high-quality lifestyle office space is becoming increasingly scarce. Despite ongoing macro concerns and volatility in the public markets, Cousins Properties Incorporated continues to outperform, supported by a strong operating platform, a highly efficient G&A structure, and one of the strongest balance sheets in the office REIT sector. Before turning the call over to Richard, I want to thank our talented Cousins Properties Incorporated team for their commitment to excellence and to serving our customers, the foundation of all of our success. Richard?

Richard G. Hickson: Thanks, Colin. Good morning, everyone. Our operations team delivered the strongest start to a calendar year since Cousins Properties Incorporated began its focus as a pure-play owner of trophy Sunbelt office. In the first quarter, our total office portfolio end-of-period leased and weighted average occupancy percentages were 91.8% and 88.9%, respectively. Both metrics increased sequentially and were driven by a combination of organic growth and our recent investment activity. Our portfolio lease percentage increased in nearly every market, with Atlanta, Charlotte, and Austin as the largest contributors in terms of organic growth, while Nashville’s lease percentage increased materially with our recently signed 116,000 square foot new lease with Oracle at Newhof.

That project will not be included in our overall portfolio statistics until it is stabilized. The largest market contributors to organic growth in our weighted average occupancy were Atlanta and Austin. Our lease expirations through 2027 now total only 8.3% of contractual rent, which is 320 basis points lower than at the end of 2025. Coming off of a very strong fourth quarter, our leasing activity in the first quarter was record-setting on a number of levels. Our team completed 49 office leases totaling 932,000 square feet during the quarter, with a weighted average lease term of 6.6 years. Our square footage volume was the highest for a first quarter in well over a decade, and was also our highest quarterly level in general since the second quarter 2019.

On a square footage basis, 52% of our completed leases this quarter were new and expansion leases, totaling 483,000 square feet. New and expansion leasing volume was essentially in line with our very strong fourth quarter, which we view as a great repeat performance. The team also completed 19 renewals during the first quarter, including a material renewal in Austin that took care of what was previously our largest 2027 expiration. Regarding lease economics, our average net rent this quarter came in at $44.54, approximately 18% higher than the full year 2025. This quarter’s average leasing concessions were essentially in line with the full year 2025. As a result, average net effective rent this quarter came in at a solid $32.28, second only to 2024.

Finally, second generation cash rents increased yet again in the first quarter at a strong 15.2%, with cash rents rolling up in every market where we had activity. Beyond our excellent recently completed activity, our overall leasing pipeline remains very healthy, at a level comparable to this time last quarter. In our early March investor presentation, we shared that 1.2 million square feet of activity was either signed first quarter to date or in lease negotiations. Even after completing 932,000 square feet of volume in the first quarter, as of today, we have 1 million square feet of leases either signed second quarter to date or in lease negotiations. This late-stage pipeline has been growing nicely throughout the second quarter. In fact, it has grown by about 200,000 square feet just in the past two weeks and currently includes 450,000 square feet of new and expansion leases.

We believe our late-stage pipeline has us very well positioned for continued strong leasing performance in the near term. Turning to our markets, in Atlanta, according to JLL, leasing activity was strong with 2.3 million square feet of leases signed in the first quarter. Sublease availability declined for the eighth consecutive quarter and is now at its lowest level since the start of 2021. Additionally, average asking rents had the largest quarterly increase in two and a half years. We continue to see solid demand in our own portfolio where we signed 192,000 square feet of leases in the first quarter. This included a 105,000 square foot new lease with KPMG at Precinium in Midtown. Subsequent to first quarter end, we also signed a new 46,000 square foot lease with CallRail at 725 Ponce in Midtown.

CallRail is a homegrown Atlanta-based technology company that decided to relocate to 725 Ponce from Downtown because of the property’s location, quality, and direct access to the BeltLine. We are excited to welcome them as a customer. Our Atlanta portfolio was 89.3% leased at first quarter end. In Austin, JLL notes that tenant demand increased 30% year over year from about 3.9 million square feet of requirements in 2025 to nearly 5 million square feet today. The market continues to digest speculative development delivered since 02/2023. However, new speculative development is now at its lowest level since 2013. Across our Austin portfolio, we signed an impressive 339,000 square feet of leases in the first quarter, including a 273,000 square foot renewal of a Fortune 10 technology company at Domain 8.

This sizable renewal demonstrates a strong commitment to the Austin market and to the value of high-quality office in the core of The Domain. Our Austin portfolio also increased to 95.3% leased as of first quarter end, driven primarily by encouraging new activity in the CBD. In fact, our Austin team has seen a notable increase in overall tenant demand in the CBD since the beginning of the year, and it is focused primarily on availability in the highest-quality office segment. In Charlotte, market-level leasing activity maintained strong momentum in the first quarter with a 74% increase year over year. In our portfolio, we signed 181,000 square feet of leases in the first quarter, 58% of which were new and expansion leases, and the team rolled up cash rents 26%.

Activity included a 72,000 square foot new lease with Scout Motors at 550 South, and a 54,000 square foot renewal and 27,000 square foot expansion with a major law firm at our newly purchased 300 South Tryon. Touching on our redevelopments, our 550 South project is very close to completion—within weeks—and with that, we have seen a nice uptick in early-stage leasing interest. Regarding 201 North Tryon, that redevelopment project is well underway and should be substantially complete during 2027. Looking at our recently completed redevelopments—whether it be Buckhead Plaza, the Promenade buildings in Atlanta, or Tempe Gateway and Hayden Ferry in Phoenix—we generally saw a meaningful boost in demand and, importantly, in lease economics once the projects approach completion and prospects could see the finished product.

Based on this experience, and also knowing the shortage of available premier space in the market is becoming more acute, we are taking an intentionally patient approach to leasing at the property. In short, we are willing to trade some number of months of timing of occupancy in return for meaningfully better net effective rents and outcomes for shareholders. In Dallas, the market recorded 3.6 million square feet of leasing activity during the first quarter, above first quarter 2025 levels. New supply also remains limited, which is helping to boost top-tier assets and drive rent growth. Flight to quality remains the dominant theme, consistent with all of our markets, with Class A space accounting for 73% of quarterly lease volume. In our 800,000 square foot portfolio, we signed 65,000 square feet of leases, rolling up cash rents over 32%.

This past quarter, we also took over the management of Legacy Union One in Plano, and I am pleased to report that subsequent to first quarter end, we signed a 52,000 square foot long-term lease with U.S. Renal Care, representing our first direct lease with an existing subtenant at the property. Our Dallas portfolio was 98.1% leased at the end of the first quarter. Finally, and as I mentioned earlier, our leasing volume this quarter included a 116,000 square foot new lease with Oracle at Newhaft in Nashville. We are very encouraged by this activity, and Kennedy will share more details about Newhof in her remarks. As always, a big thank you to our entire team for the work you put in to make the start of this year an incredibly positive one. We appreciate everything you do.

I will now turn the call over to Kennedy.

Jane Kennedy Hicks: Thanks, Richard. I will start with updates from our recently completed Newhof project in Nashville. As you may have noticed, we moved this mixed-use project off of our development schedule in our supplement this quarter, given its near-stabilized status. The approximately 400,000 square foot office component is now 84.3% leased, up from 55.3% last quarter, largely driven by the 116,000 square foot new lease with Oracle. The company leased five floors on a long-term basis to accommodate its ongoing rapid growth in Nashville, citing it as the center of Oracle’s cloud and AI growth. We are excited for the company’s employees to take occupancy later this year and add to the vibrancy of this unique project.

I am also pleased to share that we are now in lease negotiations for the remaining two full floors of the project, which, if executed, will bring the office component to almost 96% leased. The accelerated interest in Newhof is indicative of the demand we continue to see across our portfolio for best-in-class, differentiated assets. The 542-unit apartment component at Newhawk stabilized this quarter at 92.6% leased. I want to point out that we added Nuhawk Phase Two to the land inventory on page 27 of the supplement. As part of the Phase One development, we completed significant infrastructure including all of the parking for a future office building that is planned to be approximately 300,000 square feet. The costs for this work, including the allocated land value, are now reflected in our total land inventory number, whereas they were previously part of the overall Nuhof project spend.

Given the work and investment already completed for this next phase, we believe we will have a significant competitive advantage in terms of both speed and pricing when the time is right to move forward with the development. As a reminder, we own Newhop in a 50/50 joint venture. Turning to our investment activity, we had another busy quarter. In February, as we previously disclosed, we closed on the off-market acquisition of 300 South Tryon in Uptown Charlotte. We acquired the building for $317.5 million, or $497 per square foot, a basis that represents a significant discount to replacement cost. The 638,000 square foot, highly amenitized asset is an excellent strategic fit for our portfolio and representative of the continued advantage we have in the market as a buyer for large, tricky assets.

As Richard said in his remarks, we have already executed a renewal and an expansion of a large customer there, enhancing the remaining lease term and validating the mark-to-market in rents that can be achieved at the building. Across the country, the office transactions market has opened up, with sales volumes steadily increasing. Both equity and debt sources are realizing the strengthening fundamentals and are now more constructive around opportunities. Smaller transactions are generating the most depth. Accordingly, we continue to pursue select dispositions within our portfolio that we think line up well with market demand. I will add that we are in the fortunate position that we do not need to sell any of our assets, so we plan to remain disciplined in our approach.

In late February, we closed on the previously discussed sale of Harborview Plaza in Westshore, Tampa. The building sold for $39.5 million, or $191 per square foot. The pricing equates to a low 9% cap rate. As I mentioned last quarter, this standalone asset needed capital upgrades and we believed our capital was best focused elsewhere. We remain under contract with a residential developer to sell our 303 Tremont land parcel in South Bend, Charlotte. The contract price for the 2.4 acres is $23.7 million and we expect it to close before the end of the year. We are always evaluating the highest and best use of our land bank and resources and determined that this site is now better suited for residential development as opposed to the office towers that we originally contemplated.

We are also now under contract to sell 111 Congress in Austin. This 519,000 square foot asset was built in the late 1980s and is prominently located in Austin’s CBD. Our ownership of this asset dates back to the Parkway transaction in ’20, and similar to Harborview, our view is that this asset is better off in the hands of private capital going forward and we intend to redeploy the proceeds as part of the funding of 300 South Tryon. We were pleased with the process and the positive sentiment towards the asset and the Austin market. We will disclose more details around pricing after closing, which is anticipated to be early in the third quarter. These dispositions are representative of our strategy to continuously monitor our portfolio and identify opportunities to recycle out of non-core assets to fund acquisitions—acquisitions of either assets or our own stock, if that is a better use of proceeds at the time.

We only intend to do so in a manner that is neutral or accretive to earnings. We believe that this ongoing portfolio optimization will only enhance the resiliency of our assets and future cash flows. Going forward, we plan to be opportunistic when it comes to both acquisitions and dispositions, as well as other investment opportunities such as development. We have the flexibility to invest in a variety of ways throughout a capital stack, including preferred equity and mezzanine positions, as we have demonstrated in the past. Given the emerging scarcity of available lifestyle office space, we believe that there will be select instances where development is compelling and offers an appropriate return premium to trophy acquisitions. We are currently evaluating opportunities with the goal of breaking ground within the next year.

We will provide more insights if and as those transactions materialize. With that, I will turn the call over to Greg.

Gregg D. Adzema: Thanks, Kennedy. I will begin my remarks by providing a brief overview of our results, spending a moment on our same property performance, then moving on to our property transactions and capital markets activity, before closing my remarks by updating our 2026 earnings guidance. Overall, as Colin stated upfront, our first quarter results were outstanding. Second generation cash leasing spreads were positive, same property year-over-year cash NOI increased, and leasing velocity was exceptionally strong. Focusing on same property performance for a moment, cash NOI grew 5.5% during the first quarter compared to last year. This was comprised of a 4.5% increase in revenues and a 2.7% increase in expenses. These numbers were positively impacted by a combination of increased occupancy and the expiration of rent abatements, primarily at Promenade Tower, Tempe Gateway, 300 Colorado, and Hayden Ferry.

Before moving on, I wanted to take a moment to highlight our recent same property expense performance. Despite lots of talk around accelerating property-level inflation—including taxes, utilities, payroll—we have held same property expenses to an average annual increase of just 1.95% over the past four years. I suspect this sub-2% number is well below most investors’ perception of office expense growth over the past few years. A new and efficient portfolio located in affordable and business-friendly markets is what has allowed us to contain expenses. As Kennedy discussed earlier, we acquired a property in Charlotte during the first quarter. We will fund this acquisition with the sale of three non-core properties. We already sold Harborview during the first quarter, and we are under contract to sell 111 Congress during the third quarter and 303 Tremont land during the fourth quarter.

We also received repayment during the first quarter of our $18.2 million mezzanine loan secured by an equity interest in the 110 East property in Charlotte. Moving on to our capital markets activity, it was very busy and very productive. We started by issuing a $500 million seven-year unsecured bond immediately after announcing fourth quarter earnings in early February. It was a great execution, generating a yield to maturity of 5%. With this issuance, we have effectively taken care of all of our 2026 refinancing needs. In total, we have issued four unsecured bonds for $1.9 billion since receiving our investment-grade credit rating in April 2024. As Colin stated upfront, we also repurchased 3.9 million shares at a weighted average price of $23.36 per share during the first quarter.

Please note that subsequent to quarter end, the board authorized an increase to our recently launched share repurchase program, taking the authorization from $250 million to $500 million, of which approximately $410 million remains available. We now have both a share repurchase program as well as an ATM program available for use, and we have actively employed both over the past 12 months. In addition to shares we repurchased this past quarter, we issued 2.9 million shares on a forward basis under our ATM program during 2025 at an average price of $30.44 per share. We have not yet settled these forward shares. Finally, on April 1, we closed a new five-year $1.2 billion unsecured credit facility, increasing the prior facility that was scheduled to mature in April 2027 by $200 million.

As part of this process, we also amended our existing $400 million and $100 million unsecured term loans, adding two six-month extensions to each. The borrowing spread improved by 15 basis points on both the credit facility and the larger term loan and by 30 basis points on the $100 million term loan. Before closing with guidance, I wanted to briefly provide some context on the leverage. Our goal remains, as it has since 2014, to maintain net debt to EBITDA in the low five-times range. The metric is a bit elevated this quarter at 5.66 times, but it is only a timing issue. Once we complete the asset sales to fund the Charlotte acquisition and we complete the funding of the share repurchase, leverage will return to its historic level. With that, I will close my prepared remarks by updating our 2026 guidance.

We currently anticipate full year 2026 FFO between $2.90 and $2.98 per share, with a midpoint of $2.94. This is up from our prior midpoint of $2.92 and represents an increase of approximately 3.5% over the prior year. The increase in FFO guidance is primarily driven by the share repurchases I just discussed as well as better-than-forecast execution of the debt financings, partially offset by the elimination of a prior mid-year SOFR cut assumption. We now have no SOFR cut assumptions during 2026 in our guidance. Our updated guidance assumes the 3.9 million share repurchase that we executed in the first quarter is funded with proceeds from the settlements of the 2.9 million shares we previously issued on a forward basis. In reality, we may ultimately fund some or all of this share repurchase with non-core asset sales.

As Kennedy stated earlier, we are constantly monitoring the sales market and exploring additional sales candidates. However, for modeling purposes, we have assumed the settlements of all outstanding forward shares during the second quarter, and this is what is in our guidance. As I mentioned earlier, our guidance also assumes the 300 South Tryon acquisition is funded with proceeds from Harborview, 111 Congress, and 303 Tremont. Finally, our guidance does not include any additional property acquisitions, dispositions, or development starts in 2026. If any of these take place, we will update our guidance accordingly. Bottom line, our first quarter results are among the best we have reported in recent memory. Important operating metrics that we track were outstanding, and we raised full-year guidance.

Office fundamentals in the Sunbelt remain strong, and we continue to deploy capital into compelling and accretive opportunities. We look forward to reporting on our progress in the coming quarters. I will now turn the call back over to the operator.

Operator: We will now open the call for questions. If you wish to ask a question, press 1 on your touch-tone phone. If you would like to withdraw from the queue, press 2. The first question comes from the line of Blaine Heck from Wells Fargo.

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Blaine Matthew Heck: Thanks. Good morning. Colin, you commented on the leasing pipeline in the earnings release and again here. Can you, and/or maybe Richard, give any more detail on the size of the pipeline today versus maybe a year or 18 months ago and versus your historical average? And maybe give a little bit more color on any trends you are seeing with respect to tenant size or industry? Are you seeing any specific segments or markets strengthening or weakening?

Richard G. Hickson: Sure, Blaine. This is Richard. I will take that and then Colin can add on if he would like. For starters, you specifically asked the size of the pipeline overall today. Certainly, the late stage is what I would focus on more versus, say, a year ago, and it is about 2x the size of this time last year. That is the late-stage pipeline. It is about the same size right now as this time last quarter, but year over year it has grown significantly. Just some additional detail on the overall pipeline: I would note that the number of prospects in the pipeline overall has increased quite a bit—on the order of about 15% since last quarter—so that is encouraging to see. The net size, again, is comparable to last quarter.

The mix of industries is roughly the same. I would say technology is slightly ahead of financial services at this point, but they are both neck and neck and very big drivers of our activity. Legal continues to be a significant component of our industry mix, with professional services coming in last and then a good mix beyond that. We have seen particularly strong growth— I mentioned we had about 200,000 square feet that built into the late-stage pipeline here in the last couple of weeks. It has been growing nicely throughout the quarter. We have seen the most increase in activity migrating through the pipeline in Atlanta, especially in Buckhead and in Midtown. Phoenix has had a nice bump, Nashville certainly is contributing as well—as Kennedy mentioned, we are going to leases with two more floors there—and some good activity in Austin.

So it is pretty broad-based.

Colin Connolly: And, Blaine, it is Colin. I would just add too, as it relates to the 900-plus thousand square feet we leased this quarter and this kind of million-plus square foot pipeline. One piece of commentary that I have seen is that the Sunbelt is largely back-office and support function, and I would characterize just about all of the leasing activity that we are doing as very much front-of-house, revenue-producing employees for very dynamic companies, whether it be in technology, financial services, investment firms—you name it—particularly also AI companies beginning to infiltrate the Sunbelt. So I can very much push back on that narrative. While there are certainly suburban properties in Atlanta with back-office employees, the same holds true with back-office employees in suburban New York.

The quality of the pipeline for the portfolio that we have in our lifestyle properties is very much attracting very well-educated, knowledge, revenue-producing employees.

Blaine Matthew Heck: Great. That is really helpful commentary. And you all mentioned that asking rents had grown the most this quarter in 2.5 years. I was hoping you could quantify that increase. And also, can you comment on what you think is a reasonable forecast or range for net effective rent growth in your segment—Class A, A+, or trophy—within your markets, and whether there are any standout markets on the positive end of that metric or any that could be more muted?

Richard G. Hickson: Sure. This is Richard again. In terms of rent growth, we have a number of different examples we can give on really impressive rent growth across markets. In Atlanta, for instance, at Buckhead Plaza, we have been able to grow rents 20% in the last year or so. In Dallas, Uptown—it has really been breathtaking how much rents have grown, particularly in Uptown. I think the general number is about 40% in growth since 2021, and I think new product and top-of-market asking rents right now are $80 net. So extremely impressive rent growth there. If you look at Charlotte, all the new products that have leased up in the last year or so in the market as they were taking down large blocks, we pegged that rent growth during that process at roughly 10% during that time.

In Phoenix, lastly, where we have done our redevelopment of Hayden Ferry, which is now complete, we have grown rents about 20% since 2024. So those are just some examples of some really bright spots where we have been able to push rent growth. It is really just a dynamic market where, as Colin has mentioned, supply is shut down. We are not going to see any new supply really added to virtually any of our markets that is not already leased, and demand is still allowing us to push net effective rents. In terms of how much those will grow, we certainly posted very impressive net effective rent growth this quarter, and it was broad-based. The mix of where we did our leasing this quarter was very favorable in a lot of our highest rent markets. We feel good.

It is always hard to pinpoint exactly how much we are going to grow net effective rents in any given quarter versus another, but over time we are confident that we are going to continue to grow them in a manner that we have done so here in the recent past.

Blaine Matthew Heck: Great. Thanks. And then just lastly, can you talk a little bit more about the optionality you have for funding the share repurchases? I believe you have issued the forward shares yet. So can you talk about the strategic and economic merits for stock issuance versus additional sales? Are there certain cap rates or other factors that would make you lean towards sales instead of the forward equity?

Gregg D. Adzema: Hey, Blaine. Good morning. It is Greg. We have issued the forward shares; we just have not settled them. I just want to make sure everybody understands that. And we have the flexibility right now to settle those shares through year-end 2026, but that can be extended with the banks that helped us issue those shares. So we have ultimate flexibility there. In terms of modeling, you need your models to put in some type of assumption, and so this is the most conservative and cleanest assumption, and that is what we provided. Is that what we actually do at the end of the day? Maybe, maybe not. But as Kennedy talked about in her opening remarks, we are always in the market, exploring the market and liquidity and pricing for our non-core assets.

We do not have a lot of non-core assets left, but we do have a handful, and so we are out there exploring. I think how we ultimately pay for the $90 million share repurchase that we executed in the first quarter will depend upon the clarity that we get over the next month or two or three on some of these efforts that Kennedy is out there doing with the non-core assets. We are in a sources and uses business, and ultimately, at the end of the day, we are trying to drive accretion on a leverage-neutral basis. I think one of our secret sauces here at Cousins Properties Incorporated is that we have been very nimble and in a position to be nimble with this balance sheet that we have—to figure out a way to maximize shareholder value but maintain the balance sheet.

I think we have done a good job of that in the last few years, and I think we will continue to do so. This transaction—the share repurchase and the funding of it—will just be one more example as we process that strategy.

Blaine Matthew Heck: Great. Thank you all, and congrats on a great quarter.

Colin Connolly: Thanks, Blaine.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Analyst from Evercore. Please go ahead.

Analyst: Perfect. Thanks for taking the question. In light of the really good leasing volumes, I just wanted to ask about your expectations for second generation CapEx spending going forward. I know you do not necessarily guide to FAD, but I am just trying to understand and square FFO versus FAD growth in the near-term future.

Gregg D. Adzema: It is Greg again. Second gen CapEx, as you know if you have looked at our earnings supplement over the last few years, can be super lumpy. It just depends upon the leasing that we do and then, honestly, when the tenants that we lease to come to us and want their TI dollars back. FAD is a cash-basis metric, and so we base it upon when the actual cash goes out the door. Some tenants can ask for it very quickly; some tenants can wait a while before they ask for the money. So it is really hard for us to predict, but it is loosely tied to leasing at the end of the day. You have seen it elevated a little bit over the last few quarters because we have been leasing so much space, and so you could see it for calendar year 2026.

Again, I do not want to comment on quarterly numbers because they are very difficult to predict with any accuracy. But for the full year, I think you could see second gen CapEx be a little higher this year than it was the last couple of years, just because we are leasing so much space. But once we stabilize the portfolio in the midterm, as Colin has talked about, you will see second gen CapEx decline to its more historic levels.

Analyst: Got it. That is appreciated. I know that you previously talked about your year-end occupancy target for 2026. Now being a quarter in and obviously with leasing being very strong and the pipeline being very large, how do you feel about the occupancy trends by year-end 2026 and how bullish it makes you going forward into 2027?

Richard G. Hickson: Sure. This is Richard. When you step back and look at all the building blocks—which we typically do not give at that level of granularity for occupancy guidance—but when we look at all of the building blocks, we are seeing a relatively modest amount of new leasing that we need to do incrementally to what we already have in the pipeline or have already completed to get to a year-end 90% number, which is our goal. We are confident that that modest amount is achievable and still feel good about our expectations for getting to 90%.

Analyst: Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of John Kim from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.

John P. Kim: Thank you. So you have a million square foot pipeline already signed in the second quarter, and that is versus roughly 800,000 square feet expiring this year. You are also selling 111 Congress, which is a little bit under-leased versus your portfolio. So I am just wondering, where do you think occupancy or lease rate could go to either by year-end or maybe over the next 12 months?

Colin Connolly: Hey, John. It is Colin. As Richard just outlined, the goal for the end of the year—which we think is achievable—is 90%. And I think over the medium term, our intention is to drive this portfolio back to historical stabilized levels, which is absolutely in the low to mid-90%. That will take a little bit longer to get to. Just keep in mind while we are leasing a lot of space— we leased a lot of space in the first quarter, and we think we are going to lease a lot of space in the second quarter—there is typically a lead time, in many cases of a year plus, from signing of a lease to actual occupancy. So our ability to incrementally keep driving occupancy up will be dependent upon the timing of the need of our customers.

But the underlying demand is there, and it is robust, and it is being driven by, certainly, the return to office, which might be more temporary, but more longer term, this flight to quality is insatiable, and the migration to the Sunbelt is only accelerating.

John P. Kim: And the large renewal you had in Austin—it sounds like that was with Amazon just based on your commentary—but I am wondering if you could share any insights that you have on your largest tenant, given they talked about reducing a lot of desks, almost 14 million square feet of office space globally. Is there anything we should read in the renewal term? It was a little bit lower at 4.7 years versus the new leases signed this quarter.

Colin Connolly: Hey, John. It is Colin. I cannot be overly specific due to certain confidentiality provisions, but you can go look at our supplement, and it seems like you are on a pretty good track there. A couple of thoughts. I shared this last quarter—some commentary specifically around Amazon, which has gotten a lot of publicity for announcing some small reduction in their workforce of, I think, 40,000 employees—but you have to put that in perspective that they grew their headcount over the past five years [inaudible].

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