GREENSBORO, N.C. — Highwoods Properties Inc. (NYSE: HIW), a publicly traded REIT based in Raleigh, has sold its industrial and single-story flex portfolio in Greensboro, comprising 2.8 million square feet, for $193.4 million. The company also plans to close the $40 million sale of The Knollwood, a 250,000-square-foot office complex in Greensboro, by Feb. 15.
The sale follows Highwoods’ recent announcement of its initiative to exit both the Greensboro and Memphis, Tennessee, markets. That plan led to the recent $76.4 million sale of the 248,000-square-foot International Paper IV office building in Memphis.
“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 … high-growth markets such as Charlotte,” says Ted Klinck, president and CEO of Highwoods Properties. “With these dispositions, we will have completed approximately 75 percent of the first phase of sales, and we remain on track to complete the first phase by mid-2020.”
Highwoods’ two-phased exit plan consists of selling a select portfolio of its Greensboro and Memphis assets and acquiring Bank of America Tower at Legacy Union in Charlotte in November for $436 million. The second phase consists of selling all remaining assets in both markets, but no timeframe has been disclosed for that phase.
The buyers of the industrial portfolio and The Knollwood were undisclosed.
— Alex Patton