Highwoods Signs New Office Lease

Highwoods Properties, Inc. (HIW - Analyst Report), a real estate investment trust (REIT), has recently signed a leasing agreement for its 24,000 square feet LakePointe One office building in Tampa. The deal was signed with the International Society for Pharmaceutical Engineering Inc., a leading organization for technical professionals in the healthcare manufacturing industry with offices spread across the globe.

The lessee will occupy the space on the second floor of a eight-story building at ‘3109 W. Martin Luther King Boulevard’ in Tampa Bay Park, a corporate park spanning across 72-acre of space. With about 2.6 million square feet, Highwoods is one of the largest office landlords in the Tampa Bay area, approximately two-thirds of which is located in the Westshore Business District.

Highwoods owns or has management interests in office, industrial, retail, and service center properties, including development projects and apartment units. It also provides customer-related and fee-based real estate management services for its properties and for third-party clients. As of June 30, 2009, the company owned or had interests in 377 in-service office, industrial holdings, and retail properties, with 35.2 million square feet of gross leaseable space.

Currently, Highwoods is also in the process of repositioning its portfolio to focus on stronger long-term markets and newer assets. A large part of the company’s portfolio is now concentrated in high-growth Sun Belt markets, including Atlanta, Nashville, and Tampa, which due to long-term demographic trends, should exhibit above-average job growth.