Highwoods Announces $233.4M of Greensboro Asset Sales

RALEIGH, N.C., Jan. 31, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) has sold its industrial and single-story flex portfolio encompassing 2.8 million square feet for $193.4 million and expects to close on the sale of The Knollwood, a two-building office complex encompassing 250,000 square feet, on or before February 15, 2020 for $40.0 million.  These properties are located in the Company’s Greensboro market, are a combined 93.8% occupied and are projected to generate $14.3 million of annual cash and GAAP net operating income in 2020.

The Company expects to record non-FFO gains of approximately $123.5 million in the first quarter of 2020 in connection with these sales.

Ted Klinck, President and Chief Executive Officer of Highwoods Properties, said, “These sales are a significant step to completing the first phase of our plan to exit the Greensboro and Memphis markets and reinvest that capital in the BBDs of high-growth markets such as Charlotte. With these dispositions, we will have completed approximately 75% of the first phase of sales and we remain on track to complete the first phase by mid-2020.”

The sale of The Knollwood is subject to customary closing conditions. The buyer’s contractual due diligence period has ended and the buyer has posted earnest money deposits that are non-refundable except in limited circumstances.

As previously disclosed, the Company has a two-phased plan to exit the Greensboro and Memphis markets. The first phase consists of selling a select portfolio of assets in Greensboro and Memphis by mid-2020 with a total sales price that approximates the $436 million total investment for Bank of America Tower at Legacy Union in Charlotte, which closed in November 2019. The second phase is the planned sale of the remaining assets in Greensboro and Memphis. There is no pre-determined timetable for the second phase. 

About Highwoods
Highwoods Properties, Inc., headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW) real estate investment trust (“REIT”) and a member of the S&P MidCap 400 Index.  Highwoods is a fully-integrated office REIT that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Greensboro, Memphis, Nashville, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa.  For more information about Highwoods, please visit our website at www.highwoods.com.