Colonial Properties Trust (NYSE: CLP), today announced the acquisition of the 350-unit Class A apartment community Colonial Grand at Brier Creek Place (formerly Highlands at Brier Creek) located in Raleigh, North Carolina for a total purchase price of $45.0 million. The purchase was funded with proceeds from asset dispositions and borrowings on the company's unsecured credit facility.

Colonial Grand at Brier Creek Place is located in Raleigh's premier Brier Creek master planned community and features spacious floor plans, upgraded kitchen appliances, designer cabinetry and countertops, a cabana with grilling area and a cascading waterfall surrounding the pool. The community was built in 2008 and was 94 percent occupied at the time of acquisition.

Colonial Properties Trust is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that creates value for its shareholders through a multifamily focused portfolio and the management and development of select commercial assets in the Sunbelt region of the United States. As of September 30, 2011, the company owned or managed 34,369 apartment units and 13.3 million square feet of commercial space. Headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, Colonial Properties is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CLP and is included in the S&P SmallCap 600 Index. For more information, please visit the company's website at www.colonialprop.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Estimates of future earnings are, by definition, and certain other statements in this press release, including statements regarding signs of improvement in multifamily fundamentals and the company's efforts to further simplify the business and strengthen the balance sheet, may constitute, "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the company's actual results, performance, achievements or transactions to be materially different from the results, performance, achievements or transactions expressed or implied by the forward looking statements. Factors that impact such forward looking statements include, among others, real estate conditions and markets, including recent deterioration in the multifamily market and the strength or duration of the current recession or recovery; increased exposure, as a multifamily focused REIT, to risks inherent in investments in a single industry; ability to obtain financing on reasonable rates, if at all; performance of affiliates or companies in which we have made investments; changes in operating costs; higher than expected construction costs; uncertainties associated with the timing and amount of real estate dispositions, including our existing inventory of condominium and for-sale residential assets; legislative or regulatory decisions; our ability to continue to maintain our status as a REIT for federal income tax purposes; price volatility, dislocations and liquidity disruptions in the financial markets and the resulting impact on availability of financing; the effect of any rating agency action on the cost and availability of new debt financings; level and volatility of interest rates or capital market conditions; effect of any terrorist activity or other heightened geopolitical crisis; or other factors affecting the real estate industry generally.

Except as otherwise required by the federal securities laws, the company assumes no responsibility to update the information in this press release.

The company refers you to the documents filed by the company from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the section titled "Risk Factors" in the company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, which discuss these and other factors that could adversely affect the company's results.

Colonial Properties Trust
Jerry A. Brewer, 1-800-645-3917
Executive Vice President, Finance