Highwoods Properties, Inc: HIW Exits Bridgestone HQ At Favorable 6.7% Cap Rate

Research evidence excerpt

Highwoods Properties, Inc: HIW Exits Bridgestone HQ At Favorable 6.7% Cap Rate

13 May 2026

Highwoods Properties, Inc

Proceeds to Pay Down Debt; HIW Remains In Market For More Dispositions: HIW

recently guided to $190M-$210M of dispositions in 2Q26, so the sale of

Bridgestone Tower exceeds that target. Proceeds will mostly be used to pay down

debt, including a $175M balance on the line of credit. Given excess proceeds,

HIW can also keep cash on hand to go toward paying off a $300M bond maturity

in 1Q27. Despite exceeding its goal for 2Q26 dispositions, we believe HIW will

remain in the market to sell more assets, with incremental proceeds likely to go

toward a combination of share repurchases, targeted development opportunities

or further debt reduction.

Regarding pricing, we’ve received some pushback since our upgrade in January

that asset sales would come at a dilutive cost of equity and could weigh on the

near-term FFO trajectory. The 6.7% cap rate on the sale of Bridgestone Tower

demonstrates HIW’s ability to drive value creation despite headwinds to asset

values since the building was completed. We previously modeled 2026 asset

sales at a wtd avg 8.5% cap rate, slightly above the sub-8% wtd avg cap rate on

sales completed in 2025/1Q26. This puts pricing on asset sales in 2Q26 ahead of

our previous assumption, although we acknowledge that Bridgestone Tower is

not representative of HIW’s entire portfolio given that it’s a relatively new, 100%

leased asset with ~11 years of remaining WALT to a quality credit tenant, as

Bridgestone carries a long-term “A” credit rating from S&P. Further, we note the

6.7% cap rate exceeds CBRE’s estimate of Class-A cap rates in the Nashville CBD

of 7.5%-8.25% in its most recent cap rate survey, which speaks to strong demand