Rayonier and Cousins Properties Plan a New Project in Western Flagler County, Florida (updated 5-3-08)

April 24, 2008 – Palm Coast, FL – (Updated May 3, 2008)Jacksonville-based timber and real estate company, Rayonier, Inc. and Cousins Properties, an Atlanta-based development company announced a strategic alliance to master plan and entitle approximately 6,300 acres in Flagler County, Florida. The property is located west of Palm Coast astride the Old Brick Road, north of Espanola. The picturesque unused Old Brick Road was once part of the Dixie Highway, once the main road connecting Miami and Michigan.

 

“Flagler County is one of the fastest growing counties in the U.S. We’ve chosen this site to apply our strategy to work with premier developers, like Cousins, to create quality communities that are assets to area residents,” said Lee M. Thomas, Rayonier Chairman, President and CEO. “Cousins has a proven track record of successfully planning and developing outstanding communities and commercial real estate throughout the Southeast. While we have expertise in entitling properties, we believe Cousins’ land planning and development expertise will help create value for this new community and our shareholders,” he added. Flagler County is the point at which Interstate 95 is nearest the Atlantic coast (3 miles).

 

The Jacksonville Business Journal reports that the development will be known as Flagler Three Lakes. The property is owned by Rayonier’s real estate development subsidiary, TerraPointe LLC. No further details of the plan were available.

 

Rayonier is a leading international forest products company with three core businesses: Timber, Real Estate and Performance Fibers. The company owns, leases or manages 2.6 million acres of timber and land in the United States and New Zealand. The company’s real estate development subsidiary, TerraPointe LLC, maximizes the value of its extensive higher-and-better use properties, particularly in the fast-growing counties along Interstate 95 between Savannah, Georgia, and Daytona Beach, Florida, where Rayonier owns approximately 200,000 acres.

 

Cousins Properties Chairman and CEO Thomas D. Bell said, “Cousins has a long history of partnering with large land owners on groundbreaking projects and I am especially pleased to join forces with Rayonier to begin planning in Flagler County. This is an impressive tract of land and it could well be a project both companies will view with pride for years to come.”

 

Cousins Properties Incorporated, headquartered in Atlanta, has extensive experience in the real estate industry including the development, acquisition, financing, management and leasing of properties. The property types that Cousins actively invests in include office, multi-family, retail, industrial and land development projects. Since its founding in 1958, the Company has developed more than 20 million square feet of office space, 20 million square feet of retail space, more than 3,500 multi-family units and more than 60 single-family neighborhoods.

 

Update – Rayonair has since begun talks with Palm Coast officials to begin the process of annexation of these parcels as well as an 1,800-acre parcel directly to the east into the city. Both parcels would be contiguous to a westward  extension of Palm Coast Parkway and abut the city’s present western boundry.