Tom Cousins, a larger-than-life real-estate magnate and philanthropist who made a lasting impact on the Atlanta area, died Tuesday after being hospitalized in Florida. He was 93 years old.
In addition to his expansive business endeavors, which included residential and then commercial real estate as well as the purchases of NBA and NHL franchises in Atlanta, Cousins left arguably his biggest mark via his many charitable efforts, which included purchasing and restoring East Lake Golf Club and its surrounding neighborhoods.
Cousins was born in Atlanta and attended the University of Georgia, graduating with a finance degree in 1952. Six years later, after serving in the U.S. Air Force and then working for a homebuilder, he founded his own real estate business, Cousins Properties, which evolved from Cousins selling $11,000 homes with his father, who originally worked as a distributor for General Motors, to reshaping the downtown Atlanta skyline while extending as far west as Phoenix.
Cousins’ first downtown office high rise, the Piedmont-Cain Building, opened in downtown Atlanta in 1965; it has since been refurbished and renamed the Marcus Tower at Piedmont Atlanta Hospital. His original Omni complex was eventually sold to Ted Turner, who turned it into the CNN Center, which the news network called home from 1986 until last year. But Cousins’ most prominent build, the 1,023-foot-tall, 55-story Bank of America Plaza, was the tallest skyscraper outside of New York City or Chicago when it was completed in 1992.
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Cousins Properties now “controls more than 21 million square feet of high-end space.”
Cousins was CEO of Cousins Properties until 2002 and chairman of the company’s board until 2006.
In 1968, Cousins bought the St. Louis Hawks for over $2 million, and four years later, he purchased an NHL expansion franchise, which would become the Atlanta Flames. He later sold the Atlanta Hawks, also to Turner, in 1977, followed by the sale of the Flames in 1980; the team then relocated to Calgary.
Cousins’ sports ties, however, wouldn’t end there. Having already started the Cousins Foundation with his wife, Ann, in 1963, Cousins founded the East Lake Foundation in 1995, and though his initial goal was to save the dilapidated East Lake Golf Club, home of Bobby Jones, from potentially being turned into a junkyard, his purchase of the club at auction turned into a much larger project. Cousins spearheaded a $33.5 million investment of federal money and other donations into the nearby East Lake Meadows community, which had been overrun by poverty and violence. The project went beyond just building mixed-income housing but also included the new Drew Charter School and East Lake Family YMCA. Cousins also sought help from local churches to help transform the neighborhood, which had its murder rate drop to zero by 2002, per the AJC. The work with East Lake Meadows has since inspired numerous other like efforts across the country, including the formation of Purpose Built Communities, which has backing from Warren Buffet and Julian Robertson, among others.
“You don’t change a community just by building nice houses,” Cousins said in a Fortune Magazine story in 2001. “You have to provide people with a new way of life.”
East Lake secured its first Tour Championship in 1998, and in 2004, it became the permanent home of the FedExCup playoff finale. Since then, the tournament has helped raise more than $63 million for Atlanta-based non-profits, including the East Lake Foundation.
The Tom Cousins Award is handed out annually at the East Lake Cup, a college match-play event held each fall. The award is given to one male and one female competitor who “best exemplify civic, community and philanthropic qualities.”
“It’s difficult for me to find words that adequately pay tribute to a man who, throughout his 93 years, sought to make a difference and improve the lives of those around him,” said PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. “Mr. Cousins was a visionary and a man who had the unique ability to imagine what something could become and then make it happen. Our partnership with Tom and the East Lake Foundation will have a lasting impact and we look forward to honoring and celebrating him at this year’s tournament. We will miss Tom greatly and will cherish the memories we have of him. We grieve with his family and share our condolences.”
Cousins is survived by his wife, their two children, Grady and Lillian, and what the AJC wrote as “several grandchildren.” He is preceded in death by a third child, Caroline, who died in 1999.
