“We believe in creating environments and experiences where the best and brightest can achieve together what they cannot apart,” said Dan Woodward, Senior Vice President and Tampa Market Leader for Highwoods Properties.
An office real estate investment trust that owns, develops, acquires, leases, and manages properties, Highwoods was founded in 1978 in Raleigh, North Carolina. Since then, Highwoods has expanded to serving 1,600 customers and owning over 27 million square feet across the best business districts in Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa. Highwoods entered the Tampa market in 1996 as part of its core strategy to own and operate office buildings in the most talent-supportive best business districts in the sun belt. Today, Highwoods owns approximately 3.1 million square feet of office space across 18 buildings in Downtown Tampa and Westshore, with an additional 130,000 square feet under development.
“Our customers are striving to produce a talent supportive environment that allows their employees to thrive and build the best quality office,” Woodward said. “It needs to have appropriate amenities, it needs to be walkable, it's needs to have flexible workspaces, you’ve got to have food and beverage options, it's got to feel safe, and it's got to have abundant parking."
After the Covid-19 lockdowns, there’s been a shift in the way that office spaces are viewed. With technology now allowing many people to work from anywhere, many have found that they prefer to work from home instead of going into an office every day. At Highwoods, they’re all about creating a “workplace space that’s commute worthy,” said Woodward. “In a post-Covid world, you’ve really got to provide a classic A+ building that’s highly 'amenitized', has flexible workspaces… food and beverages, places to hang out outside of the office in addition to access to sunlight, outdoor areas."
Highwoods’ new project Midtown East will be the epitome of a high amenity office in an increasingly popular area. Under construction now with 430,000 square feet, Midtown East is the future headquarters of Tampa Electric Company and People’s Gas. “In addition to those two industry leaders we will have 130,000 square feet of additional office space for lease to other customers,” Woodward said.
Members of the Chamber since 1996, Highwoods has been active in a variety of chamber activities including the mentor-protégé program of Emerging Leaders. Highwoods is grateful to the chamber for “the overall general support of our customers in the business community and the overall community as a whole,” Woodward said.
