The lease brings 55 Second St. to 78% leased and will change its name to the KPMG Building. The parties involved did not release the negotiated rental rate, but local brokers tell GlobeSt.com that Cousins is quoting lease rates in the low- to mid-$30s per sf per year. CB Richard Ellis broker Philip Tippett, who represented Cousins and Myers in the transaction, tells GlobeSt.com there is now 67,000 sf available in the building, all of which is former Cable & Wireless space. Erich Sengelmann of Jones Lang LaSalle led the lease negotiations for KPMG.

Cousins Properties office division president Craig Jones says the KPMG lease backfills a large portion of the Cable & Wireless space "more quickly than anticipated." Myers EVP Todd Saunders says 55 Second is benefiting from "the fact that the traditional lines between the north and south financial districts are gone and that there continues to be a steady flight to quality in the marketplace."

In its November quarterly filing, Cousins Properties reported that rental revenues from 55 Second St., decreased by $1.9 million in the third quarter of 2003 but remained $17.2 million in the black through the first nine months of the year thanks to the Cable & Wireless termination fee in February. "The San Francisco market continues to be a difficult leasing market, and there is no guarantee that the (Cable & Wireless space at 55 Second St.) will be re-leased in the near future," states Cousins in the report.