Highwoods Properties Enters Charlotte; Buys $436M Office Tower
The firm strategizes its Charlotte office sector expansion, and plans its exit from the Greensboro and Memphis markets.
CHARLOTTE, NC – Highwoods Properties has announced a series of future investment activities to enter into the Charlotte market and rotate out of the Greensboro and Memphis markets. At the same time, the REIT is planning its expansion into the office sector.
To that end, Highwoods Properties has entered into an agreement to acquire Bank of America Tower at Legacy Union for $436 million. Located in the Uptown CBD submarket of Charlotte, the 841,000-square-foot office building is currently 90% leased and LEED gold-registered. The transaction is expected to close in November of this year.
Along with its announcement about the acquisition, Highwoods has also shared a two-phase plan to exit the Greensboro and Memphis markets with various dispositions. The firm currently holds more than 2 million square feet of industrial space in Greensboro as well as more than 1 million square feet of office space and 30 acres of development land. Its Memphis assets total more than 1 million square feet of office space.
The first phase of the plan entails selling some $436 million of properties in the Greensboro and Memphis markets by mid-2020, effectively funding the firm’s Charlotte acquisition. Highwoods will also close its division offices in both markets as part of the exit strategy.
The second phase of the plan consists of selling the remaining assets in both markets, for which there is no predicted time table.