Highwoods Wraps Big Year for Non-Core Sales

Waterfront Plaza Office Portfolio in Glen Allen, Va. Image courtesy of Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s Capital Markets Group

Highwoods Properties ended the year with a series of dispositions of non-core assets including the sale of four office buildings and a development parcel in the Richmond, Va., and Raleigh, N.C., markets for a total of $56 million.

Since April, when the Raleigh-based REIT agreed to buy a portfolio of office properties in Raleigh, Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., from Preferred Apartment Communities Inc., Highwoods has sold more than 1.5 million square feet of space in non-core assets totaling $353 million.

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Runnymede Corp., based in Virginia Beach, Va., acquired the Waterfront Plaza Office Portfolio located within the Innsbrook Corporate Park at 4401 and 4421 Waterfront Drive in Glen Allen, Va., in the Richmond market, for a total of $20.8 million.

The portfolio comprises 97,489 square feet in two buildings. The Hamilton Beach Building at 4421 Waterfront Drive is a three-story, 58,366-square-foot, single-tenant, Class A office building fully leased to Hamilton Beach Brands. Waterfront Plaza, 4401 Waterfront Drive, is a two-story, 39,123-square-foot, multi-tenant building fully leased to four tenants including Hamilton Beach. It is connected via a climate-controlled walkway to the neighboring single-tenant building. The Hamilton Beach Building has been the international headquarters for Hamilton Beach Brands since it was developed in 1986.

Highwoods acquired both buildings in July 1995, paying Atack Properties about $2.9 million for 4401 Waterfront Drive and $5.4 million for 4421 Waterfront Drive, according to CommercialEdge data.

Eric Robison, executive vice president, and Bo McKown, associate, in Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer’s Capital Markets Group, represented the seller in the marketing and sale of the Waterfront Plaza Office Portfolio.

Highwoods said it also sold the Progress Center, consisting of two office buildings totaling 147,000 square feet in Raleigh, and an associated development parcel for a total of $35 million, at the end of the year.

The REIT also closed on the previously announced plan to sell three non-core buildings for a total of $65.9 million. The dispositions included Smoketree and Cottonwood, two office buildings with a total of 191,000 square feet in Raleigh for $35.5 million. Highwoods also sold Preserve V, a 175,000-square-foot office building in Tampa, Fla., for $30.4 million. Buyers of the three assets were not disclosed.

Funding Portfolio Deal

Highwoods said in a prepared statement it was ahead of its disposition schedule, having planned $250 million to $300 million on non-core asset sales by year-end 2021. The REIT stated the asset recycling program had improved the quality of its portfolio, reduced lease expiration risk, strengthened near-term cash flow and fortified its long-term growth trajectory. The company focuses on owning, developing and managing properties primarily in what it calls the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh, Richmond, Pittsburgh, Tampa, as well as Nashville, Tenn., and Orlando, Fla.

The REIT announced in April it intended to finance the purchase of the PAC office portfolio with the sale of a number of its non-core office properties. In July, Highwoods closed on the portfolio acquisition for $683 million. The largest part of the portfolio is in Raleigh and comprises the 560,000-square-foot Wells Fargo Capitol Center at 150 Fayetteville St. in the city center and the 300,000-square-foot CAPTRUST Tower in the North Hills submarket. The acquisition also included the 479,000-square-foot Capitol Towers and 291,000-square-foot Morrocroft Centre, both in the SouthPark submarket in Charlotte as well the Galleria 75 redevelopment site in the Cumberland/Galleria submarket of Atlanta.

The deal had changed slightly from the original $769 million announcement in April. A mezzanine loan related to a new office building in Atlanta was paid off in full by the third-party borrower and PAC sold Armour Yards, a multi-building creative office project in Atlanta to a third party.

Among the other non-core assets Highwoods has sold in recent months was the September disposition of an 87,000-square-foot medical office building in Richmond. JLL Income Property Trust purchased the portfolio for approximately $52 million. Located at 9101 Stony Point Drive, the property is leased to Virginia Urology.