Highwoods Properties Sells Non-Core Asset in Pinellas County, Florida for $9.5M

RALEIGH, NC--(Marketwire -04/26/12)- Highwoods Properties, Inc. (HIW - News) today announced that it has sold Feather Sound II, a 80,445 square foot, Class B office building in Pinellas County for $9.5 million, recording a non-FFO gain of $1.4 million. The property, which is currently 98.8% leased, is projected to generate approximately $900,000 of annual net operating income. The Company used the proceeds from this disposition to pay down its unsecured revolving credit facility.

Ed Fritsch, president and chief executive officer of Highwoods, stated, "We continue to improve the overall quality of our portfolio through the disposition of non-core assets. Feather Sound II, a 26-year-old office building, is located in Pinellas County (across the Bay from Tampa's Westshore submarket), a non-core submarket for our Company."

With the completion of this sale, Highwoods owns 20 office properties, encompassing 2.9 million square feet in Tampa, primarily in the Westshore and I-75 corridor submarkets. At March 31, 2012, these properties were, on average, 90.9% leased.

About Highwoods PropertiesHighwoods Properties, headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, is a publicly traded (HIW - News) real estate investment trust ("REIT") and a member of the S&P MidCap 400 Index. The Company is a fully integrated, self-administered REIT that provides leasing, management, development, construction and other customer-related services for its properties and for third parties. At March 31, 2012, Highwoods owned or had an interest in 338 in-service office, industrial and retail properties encompassing approximately 34.5 million square feet and owned 586 acres of development land. The Company's properties and development land are located in Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. For more information about Highwoods Properties, please visit our website at http://www.highwoods.com.

Certain matters discussed in this press release, such as projected net operating income of sold properties, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are distinguished by use of the words "will", "expect", "intend" and words of similar meaning. Although Highwoods believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that its expectations will be achieved.

Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from Highwoods' current expectations include, among others, the following: the financial condition of our customers could deteriorate; development activity by our competitors in our existing markets could result in excessive supply of properties relative to customer demand; development, acquisition, reinvestment, disposition or joint venture projects may not be completed as quickly or on as favorable terms as anticipated; we may not be able to lease or re-lease second generation space quickly or on as favorable terms as old leases; our markets may suffer declines in economic growth; we may not be able to lease our newly constructed buildings as quickly or on as favorable terms as originally anticipated; unanticipated increases in interest rates could increase our debt service costs; unanticipated increases in operating expenses could negatively impact our NOI; we may not be able to meet our liquidity requirements or obtain capital on favorable terms to fund our working capital needs and growth initiatives or to repay or refinance outstanding debt upon maturity; the Company could lose key executive officers; and others detailed in the Company's 2011 Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent SEC reports.

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Highwoods Properties Sells Non-Core Asset in Pinellas County, Florida for $9.5M