Cousins Properties, with an eye on escalating leasing demand and return-to-office mandates, is leveraging discounted valuations to scoop up trophy properties ahead of what it expects will be a widespread market rebound.
The Atlanta-based real estate investment trust, one of the nation's largest Sun Belt-focused office landlords, is under contract on a $328.5 million deal to acquire Vantage South End, a two-building office campus in one of Charlotte, North Carolina's fastest-growing neighborhoods. The sale agreement with Spectrum Cos. and Invesco, the sellers and original developers of the campus, is expected to close before the end of the year.
"We are purchasing the property in an off-market transaction at a meaningful discount to replacement cost, and at a price that will be immediately accretive to earnings," Cousins President and CEO Colin Connolly said in a statement. "Cousins remains focused on identifying compelling opportunities to invest in highly-amenitized lifestyle office assets in the Sun Belt."
Once completed, the roughly 640,000-square-foot campus will be the latest addition to Cousins' North Carolina portfolio, which includes the RailYard South End complex just around the corner.
The pending purchase emboldens Cousins' position at the forefront of a growing cohort of national office landlords looking to pursue their own deals.
Earlier this summer, executives of the Atlanta REIT said they would take advantage of "compelling investment opportunities" to close on discounted office deals before valuations began to rebound.
Strong Bet
The two Vantage South End buildings have largely stood out against a backdrop of tenant downsizings and real estate cuts. LendingTree signed a prelease before the campus' groundbreaking in 2019 to relocate its global headquarters to the South End campus, where it anchors the property at 1415 Vantage Park Drive.
Other big-name tenants include Grant Thornton International, Hayward Holdings, Accenture, The Hartford and Holland & Knight, among a mix of other professional and financial services firms. The campus is collectively about 97% leased, according to CoStar data, a far healthier position compared to the more than 14% vacancy rate across the rest of the Charlotte office market.
With a mix of outdoor terraces, fitness and conference centers, on-site dining options and easy access to public transit, Cousins executives said the Vantage South End deal is a poster child for what makes a commute-worthy property.
What's more, it fits into Cousins' portfolio of high-end office properties in high-demand areas, a combination the REIT has attributed to its success despite the occupancy and leasing pitfalls plaguing owners of lower-quality buildings.
While the pool of companies signing new office deals has shrunk considerably since the pandemic's 2020 outbreak, the tenants that are willing to commit to space have homed in on high-quality real estate options as a tool to both aid in their return-to-office strategies and to help boost and retain talent.
"The office market remains highly bifurcated," Connolly recently said of the widening divide between prime and lower-quality properties. "There is little to no leasing demand or capital for commodity and older vintage properties, and values for these properties will reset so they can be reimagined or demolished. At the same time, the lifestyle office market continues to improve. The market is rebalancing and a shortage of premium space is not far off — it's Econ 101."
Back in the game
That prioritization of well-located, highly amenitized spaces has helped boost Cousins' portfolio occupancy rate to 88.4%, marking a consistent rise since the 87.3% average it reported by year-end 2022.
In August, Cousins closed a more than $80 million acquisition of a trophy office tower in midtown Atlanta, issuing a signal to the rest of the market that larger investors are gradually returning to capital markets after years of sitting on the sidelines.
Other big-name REITs such as BXP, Douglas Emmett and Kilroy Realty have expressed a rising interest in pursuing office deals, a position many have skirted around or shut down entirely as they waited for the post-pandemic market to rebalance.
For Cousins, that time has arrived.
"We are executing on compelling investment opportunities," Connolly said. "We are open to a wide variety of opportunities, including debt, structured transactions, joint ventures and property acquisitions at this point in the cycle. However, our core strategy remains the same: Invest in properties that already are or can be positioned into lifestyle office in our target Sun Belt markets, and near-term accretion remains a priority."