The Company

Atlanta-based Cousins Properties is a fully integrated, self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust. The company has extensive expertise in development, acquisition, leasing and property management of Class A office towers. Cousins manages a 15-million-square-foot trophy office portfolio in high-growth Sun Belt markets.

The Challenge

A Growing Portfolio That Needed Consistency

Cousins wanted a consistent process for gathering, managing and reporting deal information across its portfolio. The company also wanted a simple, consistent workflow that would “help us move fast, which is in our team’s DNA,” recalled Richard Hickson, EVP of Operations at Cousins. Accomplishing these objectives required a one-stop shop for information in expiration reports, rent rolls, stacking plans, customers’ options and risk exposure—in essence, everything involved in portfolio metrics, leasing activity updates and the pipeline.

The Solution

Yardi Deal Manager

Cousins adopted Yardi Deal Manager to help its asset managers and leasing teams close deals faster with a single platform for managing deals and quickly comparing NERs across proposals. Yardi Deal Manager is part of Yardi Elevate, a suite of products that improves asset performance by lowering costs, balancing risk and increasing revenue.

The Story

Better Visibility, Faster Deals

Cousins enhanced visibility into its pipeline with Yardi Deal Manager, the most advanced leasing solution on the market, via quick access to stacking plans and real-time lease data drawn from Yardi Voyager.

Fully understanding its buildings, stacking plans and vacancies helps Cousins work faster and be more conversant with its customers while also helping identify new opportunities. Yardi Deal Manager helps the company interact more efficiently with its brokerage partners. “We’re serving that customer base better as well, and that’s critical,” Hickson said.

Cousins’ leasing teams can easily set up deals, attach all relevant analysis and comments, and request approval. “With all information at hand in real time, our team can evaluate and approve without back-and-forth phone calls and emails,” said Hickson. “Our leasing, asset management and legal teams communicate more efficiently with Yardi Deal Manager, and that makes us quicker. That’s the largest impact of Yardi Deal Manager for us.”