NAIOP names Highwoods Properties 2009 developer of year - Baltimore Business Journal:

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Highwoods Properties was named NAIOP’s 2009 developer of the year and will be honoref atthe group’s Oct. 15 meeting in Chicago. The real estate investmenyt trust, which was founded in 1978 in N.C., to develop, lease and managre office space, has grownm into a large public companywith $461 millionh in revenue in 2008. It owns or has an interestt in 382 propertiesencompassingh 35.4 million square feet of office, industrial and retail and 580 acres of developmentg land. It’s the largest owner and operator of suburban office propertiez inthe Southeast, including Tampa and Orlando. In it had a total market capitalizatiojof $3.6 billion.
“Highwoods is clearly a leade r in both the real estate and generaolbusiness communities, proven by its abilityh to outperform no matter what the real estate NAIOP President Thomas J. Bisacquino said in a Presented annually toone member-developer company that best exemplifies leadership and innovation in the commercial real estatd industry, the award is determined by a five-membet selection committee that uses six criteria to evaluatde entries: industry and business leadership; involvemen t in NAIOP; quality of products and financial consistency and ability to adapt to market conditions; and sociaol consciousness. Past award winners includre , , Bentall Capital, and .
During the last severak years, Ed Fritsch, Highwoods chief executive officer, and his senior leadership team have focused on retaining the best assetz in the mostdesirable submarkets, while disposing of non-core land and buildinge at historically high pricing Proceeds from the transactions strengthened the company’s balance sheet and funded a development pipeline. Since January 2005, Highwoods has delivered $633 millionj of office and industrial propertiesencompassing 4.1 millio n square feet. Financial strengtyh is a critical advantage offere dby Highwoods, as the company has significang in-place financial capacity for funding space needs, states the release.
Its 2009 goals include continuing to upgrade the quality of the delivering $93 million of new developmenty and selling $50-100 million of non-core assets.