Highwoods Properties Selected as 2023 Gold Level Green Lease Leader

RALEIGH, N.C., April 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Highwoods Properties, Inc. (NYSE:HIW) announces it has been selected as a 2023 Gold Level Green Lease Leader by the Institute for Market Transformation (IMT) and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Better Buildings Alliance at the Better Buildings, Better Plants Summit.

Launched in 2014, Green Lease Leaders set standards for what constitutes a green lease, while recognizing landlords and tenants who modernize their leases to spur collaborative action on energy efficiency, cost-savings, air quality improvement and sustainability in buildings. Highwoods has achieved this recognition for demonstrating excellence in sustainability practices including energy efficiency, cost recovery for capital improvements, training and utility data tracking.

This honor follows another recognition by the Department of Energy in 2022 for selecting Highwoods Properties as ENERGY STAR Executive Member. Currently, 74 properties are ENERGY STAR certified.

Ted Klinck, President and CEO of Highwoods, stated, "We continue to advance our resiliency initiatives and drive performance improvements across our high-quality portfolio and are thrilled to be recognized as a GOLD Green Lease Leader.”

About Highwoods
Highwoods Properties, Inc., headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded (NYSE:HIW) real estate investment trust (“REIT”) and a member of the S&P MidCap 400 Index. The Company is a fully-integrated office REIT that owns, develops, acquires, leases and manages properties primarily in the best business districts (BBDs) of Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa.  For more information about Highwoods, please visit our website at www.highwoods.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Some of the information in this press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such statements include, in particular, statements about the Company’s long-term resiliency initiatives. You can identify forward-looking statements by our use of forward-looking terminology such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “continue” or other similar words. Although we believe that our plans, intentions and expectations reflected in or suggested by such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure you that our plans, intentions or expectations will be achieved.

Factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from Highwoods’ current expectations include, among others, the following: the financial condition of our customers could deteriorate; our assumptions regarding potential losses related to customer financial difficulties could prove incorrect; counterparties under our debt instruments, particularly our revolving credit facility, may attempt to avoid their obligations thereunder, which, if successful, would reduce our available liquidity; we may not be able to lease or re-lease second generation space, defined as previously occupied space that becomes available for lease, quickly or on as favorable terms as old leases; we may not be able to lease newly constructed buildings as quickly or on as favorable terms as originally anticipated; we may not be able to complete development, acquisition, reinvestment, disposition or joint venture projects as quickly or on as favorable terms as anticipated; development activity in our existing markets could result in an excessive supply relative to customer demand; our markets may suffer declines in economic and/or office employment growth; unanticipated increases in interest rates could increase our debt service costs; unanticipated increases in operating expenses could negatively impact our operating results; natural disasters and climate change could have an adverse impact on our cash flow and operating results; 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 repay or refinance outstanding debt upon maturity; and the Company could lose key executive officers.

This list of risks and uncertainties, however, is not intended to be exhaustive. You should also review the other cautionary statements we make in “Risk Factors” set forth in our 2022 Annual Report on Form 10-K. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. We undertake no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect any future events or circumstances or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.