Cousins Properties Incorporated

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Cousins Properties third quarter conference call. At this time, note that all participants are in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. And if at any time during this call you require assistance, please press star zero for the operator. Note that this call is being recorded on Friday, October 30, 2026. I will now write to turn the conference over to Pamela Roper, General Counsel. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning and welcome to Cousins Property's third quarter earnings conference call. With me today are Colin Connolly, our President and Chief Executive Officer, Richard Hickson, our Executive Vice President of Operations, Kennedy Hicks, our Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, and Gregg 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 8K. and 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 do not receive a copy, these documents are available through the quarterly disclosures and supplemental SEC information links 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 security laws Thank you for joining us today.

Thank you, Pam, and good morning, everyone. We had a very strong third quarter at Cousins. We increased our earnings guidance, completed strategic transactions that will increase the quality of our portfolio, and had robust leasing and operational metrics. I would like to start by highlighting several important trends that continue to shape the office landscape. First, demand is improving. According to JLL, leasing activity during 2026 is on pace for a post-pandemic high. Net absorption has also been positive for five straight quarters. Together, stronger leasing and sustained positive absorption point to a tightening market, with available space declining at one of the fastest paces in office market history. Second, to date, AI is proving to be more of a friend than a foe to the office sector. On the ground, we are seeing AI-related office demand broaden across the country, including into many of our markets. We have not seen any evidence in the employment data of material negative trends attributable to AI, and these observations are very encouraging and will continue to monitor them going forward. Third, the flight to quality is unrelenting. Customers are prioritizing high-quality, well-located buildings that promote engagement and collaboration. The preference for newer buildings is particularly clear. Again, according to JLL, nearly all positive net absorption in the office sector since the onset of COVID has occurred in buildings delivered from 2010 to the present. Fourth, we are seeing renewed momentum in Sunbelt migration. Alongside full corporate relocations, We see an uptick in companies opening new Sunbelt corporate hubs from high-cost, less business-friendly cities in the Northeast and on the West Coast. We believe the trend remains in its early stages and expect these announcements to continue. Lastly, new construction starts are at historic lows. Given the three, in some cases four-year lead time to deliver a new project, Any meaningful uptick and new supply is unlikely until 2030 at the very earliest. So what are the implications of these trends? Simply stated, the office market has bifurcated. The commodity office sector has minimal demand and is significantly oversupplied. Or said differently, it is under-demolished. At the same time, the lifestyle office sector is increasingly undersupplied. The net result for Cousins is an emerging shortage of premier lifestyle office space in the best submarkets of the Sunbelt, a shortage that will become increasingly acute over the next several years and favor landlords. We are uniquely positioned to benefit from these trends. At Cousins, our strategy remains unchanged. We are sharply focused on driving sustainable earnings growth while maintaining our best-in-class balance sheet and continuously enhancing the quality of our Sunbelt Lifestyle Office Portfolio. Importantly, we advanced the strategy during the third quarter. I will share some highlights. First, we are growing earnings. We increased FFO guidance by two cents a share to $2.97 per share for the full year in 2026, which represents 4.6% growth over 2025. The Bureau of SFO Growth and represents a 4.3% compounded annual growth rate since 2023. Cousins' track record of delivering earnings growth during this three-year time frame is simply unmatched among traditional office REITs and, frankly, I believe underappreciated by investors. Second, we leased 546,000 square feet during the quarter, including 220,000 square feet of new and expansion leases. In addition, we have an exceptionally strong leasing pipeline. As a result, we are on track to hit our 90% occupancy target by year end. Third, our cash rent roll-up on second generation leasing was 19.8%, our strongest performance in five years. This marks 50 consecutive quarters of positive rent roll-ups and reflects our continued emphasis on aggressively increasing rental rates. Lastly, we closed on a series of new investments and dispositions which upgraded the quality of our portfolio, enhanced our geographic diversification, and positioned Cousins for long-term earnings growth. I would like to highlight one transaction Through a newly formed joint venture, we acquired a 97.5% equity interest in a 2.3 acre land parcel at 2401 McKinney in Uptown Dallas. Uptown continues to attract significant out-of-market demand and has a shortage of large blocks of space and premier properties. We believe 2401 McKinney is simply the best site in the city and an extraordinary opportunity for Cousins. As I have previously said, new development is becoming more compelling. Thus, our current plan is to commence construction in 2027 on a trophy office tower with a planned size of approximately 700,000 square feet. While I recognize there's been much media speculation regarding 2401 McKinney, I obviously cannot comment on that today. But rest assured, in any future development announcements that we make, Thank you for joining us today. These strengths position us for a market that is rebalancing. New construction is virtually non-existent, high-quality lifestyle office space is becoming increasingly scarce, and overall fundamentals in the Sunbelt are tightening. We expect the positive momentum to continue. Before turning the call over to Richard, I want to thank our talented Cousins employees. Their commitment to excellence and to serving our customers is the foundation of our success. Richard?