Cousins Properties Inc (NYSE:CUZ) has revealed that Amgen, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN) has entered a 10-year lease agreement that will see the biotechnology company take up office space measuring around 125,000 square feet at the Corporate Center in Tampa Florida. The offices are expected to formally open later this year.
“We are thrilled that Amgen has chosen Corporate Center for their new location in Tampa,” the chief executive officer and president of Cousins Properties, Larry Gellerstedt, said.
Capability center
Amgen intends to set up its capability center at the Corporate Center offices. Around 450 members of staff will be based at the new Amgen offices. As a capability center, the business-enabling services that will be provided from the premises include business, staff, analytical, and operational support.
In the first quarter of this year, Cousins Properties has leased out around 20,000 square feet of space in Tampa so far. This includes the lease that has just been signed with Amgen. At the Corporate Center, the total space available for leasing measures 1,224,000 square feet.
As a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust), the primary investments of Cousins Properties are mostly office towers in the Class-A category and which are situated in Sunbelt markets experiencing high growth. Besides Florida, other states that the firm has a presence in include North Carolina, Texas and Georgia.
Operational strategy
The self-managed, self-administered and fully integrated REIT was started in 1958 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. Cousins Properties’ comprehensive strategy is based on opportunistic investments, trophy assets and a simple platform. Shareholder value is created courtesy of the extensive expertise the firm enjoys in developing, acquiring, leasing and managing real estate assets of high quality.
The development comes slightly over a week since the real estate firm released its results for 2017’s quarter one and announced that it would be paying out a cash dividend of approximately $0.06 for every common share. This will paid out on April 13, 2017 to shareholders who will be on the record on third day of April this year.
On Tuesday shares of Cousins Properties Inc rose by 0.75% to close the day at $8.11.