We refer to Highwoods Properties, Inc. as the “Company,” Highwoods Realty Limited Partnership as the “Operating Partnership,” the Company’s common stock as “Common Stock” or “Common Shares,” the Company’s preferred stock as “Preferred Stock” or “Preferred Shares,” the Operating Partnership’s common partnership interests as “Common Units” and the Operating Partnership’s preferred partnership interests as “Preferred Units.” References to “we” and “our” mean the Company and the Operating Partnership, collectively, unless the context indicates otherwise.

The Company conducts its activities through the Operating Partnership and is its sole general partner. The partnership agreement provides that the Operating Partnership will assume and pay when due, or reimburse the Company for payment of, all costs and expenses relating to the ownership and operations of, or for the benefit of, the Operating Partnership. The partnership agreement further provides that all expenses of the Company are deemed to be incurred for the benefit of the Operating Partnership.

Certain information contained herein is presented as of January 29, 2021,26, 2024, the latest practicable date for financial information prior to the filing of this Annual Report.

This report combines the Annual Reports on Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 20202023 of the Company and the Operating Partnership. We believe combining the annual reports into this single report results in the following benefits:

To help investors understand the significant differences between the Company and the Operating Partnership, this report presents the following separate sections for each of the Company and the Operating Partnership:

Highwoods Properties, Inc., headquartered in Raleigh, is a publicly-traded real estate investment trust (“REIT”). 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, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa. Our Common Stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) under the symbol “HIW.”

AtAs of December 31, 2020,2023, the Company owned all of the Preferred Units and 103.5105.3 million, or 97.3%98.0%, of the Common Units in the Operating Partnership. Limited partners owned the remaining 2.82.2 million Common Units. Generally, the Operating Partnership is obligated to redeem each Common Unit at the request of the holder thereofunitholder for cash equal to the value of one share of Common Stock based on the average of the market price for the 10 trading days immediately preceding the notice date of such redemption, provided that the Company, at its option, may elect to acquire any such Common Units presented for redemption for cash or one share of Common Stock. The Common Units owned by the Company are not redeemable.

The Company was incorporated in Maryland in 1994. The Operating Partnership was formed in North Carolina in 1994. Our executive offices are located at 3100 Smoketree Court,150 Fayetteville Street, Suite 600,1400, Raleigh, NC 27604,27601, and our telephone number is (919) 872-4924.

Our primary business is the operation, acquisition and development of office properties. There are no material inter-segment transactions. See Note 1714 to our Consolidated Financial Statements for a summary of the rental and other revenues, net operating income and assets for each reportable segment.

Our website is www.highwoods.com. In addition to this Annual Report, all quarterly and current reports, proxy statements, interactive data and other information are made available, without charge, on our website as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed or furnished with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Information on our website is not considered part of this Annual Report.

During 2020,2023, the Company filed unqualified Section 303A certifications with the NYSE. The Company and the Operating Partnership have also filed the CEO and CFO certifications required by Sections 302 and 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 as exhibits to this Annual Report.

We are in the work-placemaking business. We believe that by creating environments and experiences where the best and brightest can achieve together what they cannot apart, we can deliver greater value to our customers, their teammates and, in turn, our stakeholders. Our Strategic Plan focuses on:simple strategy is to own and operate high-quality workplaces in the BBDs within our footprint, maintain a strong balance sheet to be opportunistic throughout economic cycles, employ a talented and dedicated team and communicate transparently with all stakeholders. We focus on owning and managing buildings in the most dynamic and vibrant BBDs. BBDs are highly-energized and amenitized workplace locations that enhance our customers’ ability to attract and retain talent. They are both urban and suburban. Providing the most talent-supportive workplace options in these environments is core to our work-placemaking strategy.

Our properties compete for customers with similar properties located in our markets primarily on the basis of location, rent, services provided and the design, quality and condition of the facilities. We also compete with other domestic and foreign REITs, financial institutions, pension funds, partnerships, individual investors and others when attempting to acquire, develop and operate properties.

We are subject to laws, rules and regulations of the United States and the states and local municipalities in which we operate, including laws and regulations relating to environmental protection and human health and safety. Compliance with these laws, rules and regulations has not had, and is not expected to have, a material effect on our capital expenditures, results of operations and competitive position as compared to prior periods. For more information about environmental laws and regulations, see “Item 1A. Risk Factors - Risks Related to our Operations - Costs of complying with governmental laws and regulations may adversely affect our results of operations.”

We focus our real estate activities in markets where we have extensive local knowledge and own a significant amount of assets. As a result, we operate division offices in Atlanta, Nashville, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Richmond and Tampa, which are led by seasoned real estate professionals with significant commercial real estate experience managing across multiple economic

Above all, being a fully-integrated REIT across these diverse functional areas gives us the benefit of engaging and responding to our customers’ needs as an owner versus a vendor. We believe this distinction, a core component of our Company’s value proposition, translates into improved customer serviceexperience and higher customer retention.

We had 359349 full-time employees as of December 31, 2020, 72 fewer2023, four more than we had as of December 31, 2019. The reduction in the number of employees was primarily due to our exiting of the Greensboro and Memphis markets and the subsequent closing of those division offices and the resulting synergies garnered from the ongoing simplification of our business.2022. Over the past three years, our average annual turnover rate was less17%, substantially lower than 10%.the average national industry turnover rate of 26% as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Our turnover rate was 13% for 2023, significantly lower than the turnover rate we experienced in 2021 and 2022 largely due to the volatility in the job markets in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through our efforts in providing internship and cooperative education opportunities for future real estate professionals, we have also identified a pool of talented professionals capable of filling future hiring needs. As of December 31, 2020,2023, the average tenure of our employees was 10.510 years and the average age was 49.049 years.

Approximately 69%70% of our employees work in one of our division offices, most of which are directly involved in the management and maintenance of our portfolio. These include property managers, maintenance engineers and technicians, HVAC technicians and project managers. Personnel salaries and related costs of employees directly involved in the management and maintenance of our portfolio are allocated to our portfolio and recorded as rental property and other expenses. Approximately 2% of our employees work in our corporate development department and are directly involved in our development pipeline. When applicable, personnel salaries and related costs of such development employees are capitalized as a development expenditure. Approximately 4%3% of our employees are leasing professionals principally responsible for leasing our portfolio. When applicable, commissions and related costs of such leasing employees are capitalized as a leasing expenditure. Generally, all other employee costs are recorded as general and administrative expenses. In 2020,2023, the total cost of our workforce, including salaries, commissions, bonuses, equity and non-equity incentive compensation and employee benefits, but excluding one-time severance charges, was approximately $58.5$59 million.

We continually conduct risk assessments of our human capital needs. Additionally, we prioritize succession planning across various levels of our company to ensure seamless transitions as employees are promoted, retire or otherwise depart from their current positions. One of our most significant human capital risks, which has been identified by many employers in our markets and throughout the country, is an expected shortage of trade professionals in the future, as there are fewer younger trade professionals entering the workforce to replace retiring workers. Approximately 31%34% of our employees are highly specialized and skilled trade professionals, such as maintenance engineers and technicians and HVAC technicians. The average

Our total rewards program, which includes compensation and comprehensive benefits, is crafted to provide fair and competitive pay, insurance plans and other programs to facilitate an overall work-life balance. The program is designed to incentivize and reward employees and emphasize our commitment to exemplary work.

Our total rewards program is constructed to meet certain objectives, such as:

In addition to offering competitive salaries and wages, we offer comprehensive, locally relevant and innovative benefits to all eligible employees. These include, among other benefits:

We have a development cash incentive plan pursuant to which certainall employees, (but notexcluding executive officers)officers, can receive a cash payout from a development incentive pool. The amount of funds available to be earned under the plan depends upon the timing and cash yields of a qualifying development project and is included in the pro forma budget for the project. ThePayouts under the plan have generally ranged from $1,000 to $10,000 but could be higher under certain circumstances.

We do not believe that we have compensation policies or practices that create risks that are reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on our company. For example, the development cash incentive program does not create an inappropriate risk because all development projects (inclusive of any such incentive compensation) must be approved in advance by our named executivesexecutive officers and, in most cases, the full board or the investment committee of our board, none of whom are eligible to receive such incentives. We also pay our in-house leasing professionals commissions for signed leases. TheLikewise, the payment of leasing commissions does not create an inappropriate risk because amounts payable are derived from net effective cash rents (which deducts leasing capital expenditures and operating expenses) and leases must be executed by an officer of our Company,company, none of whom isare eligible to receive such commissions. Generally, lease transactions of a particular size or that contain terms or conditions that exceed certain guidelines also must be approved in advance by our senior leadership team. Additionally, we have an internal guideline whereby customers that account for more than 3% of our annualized revenues are periodically reviewed with the board. As of December 31, 2020,2023, only the Federal Government (4.3%) and Bank of America (4.1%(4.0%) and Asurion (3.5%) accounted for more than 3% of our annualized cashGAAP revenues.

In addition to supporting the career growth of our employees, we also seek to grow as an employer. We periodically solicit feedback from our employees through the use of employee engagement surveys to monitor and improve employee satisfaction in order to retain and recruit a talented workforce. During 2021, we surveyed all of our employees with respect to diversity and inclusion and many of our employees with respect to work environment satisfaction. We conducted an engagement survey in Raleigh and our division offices to working remotely and successfully executed our business continuity plan with no disruption to our financial, operational, communications and other systems.each of the last two years.

We have a robust diversity and inclusion initiativeprogram, called the “Heart of Highwoods,” with the overall goal of creating opportunities for all people in the commercial real estate industry, in the local communities in which we operate and withinamong our own workforce.teammates at the Company. First, like all federal government contractors, we have established goals and methods to be sure we are providing opportunities to small and minority vendors to compete for work with our Company.company. Second, we have created a new employee-focused program, called the “Heart of Highwoods,” to provideare providing opportunities for our employees to volunteer for community service in any ways important to them. To support these efforts, we

An investment in our securities involves various risks. Investors should carefully consider the following risk factors in conjunction with the other information contained in this Annual Report before trading in our securities. If any of these risks actually occur, our business, results of operations, prospects and financial condition could be adversely affected.

The key components affecting our rental and other revenues are average occupancy, rental rates, cost recovery income, new developments placed in service, acquisitions and dispositions. Average occupancy generally increases during times of improving economic growth, as our ability to lease space outpaces vacancies that occur upon the expirations of existing leases. Average occupancy generally declines during times of slower or negative economic growth when new vacancies tend to outpace our ability to lease space. In addition, the timing of changes in occupancy levels tends to lag the timing of changes in overall economic activity and employment levels. Occupancy in our office portfolio decreased from 92.0% at91.0% as of December 31, 20192022 to 90.3% at88.8% as of December 31, 2020.2023. Average occupancy in 2021future periods will be lower, perhaps significantly, lower, if the COVID-19 pandemic causes vacancies and move-outs due to (a) customers that default on their leases, file bankruptcy or otherwise experience significant financial difficulty and/or (b) potential changes in customer behavior, such as the continued social acceptance, desirability and perceived economic benefits of work-from-home arrangements, which could materially and negatively impact theresult in reduced future demand for office space over the long-term. Further, given the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on economic activity, we have been experiencing slower speculative new leasing and we expect that trend will continue in 2021. For additional information regarding our average occupancy and rental rate trends over the past five years, see “Item 2. Properties.” Lower rental revenues that result from lower average occupancy or lower rental rates with respect to our same property portfolio will adversely affect our results of operations unless offset by the impact of any newly acquired or developed properties or lower variable operating expenses, general and administrative expenses and/or interest expense.

If our competitors offer space at rental rates below current market rates or below the rental rates we currently charge our customers, we may lose existing and potential customers, and we may be pressured to reduce our rental rates below those we currently charge in order to retain customers upon expiration of their existing leases. Even if our customers renew their leases or we are able to re-let the space, the terms and other costs of renewal or re-letting, including the cost of required renovations, increased tenant improvement allowances, leasing commissions, reduced rental rates and other potential concessions, may be less favorable than the terms of our current leases and could require significant capital expenditures. From time to time, we may also agree to modify the terms of existing leases to incentivize customers to renew their leases. If we are unable to renew leases or re-let space in a reasonable time, or if our rental rates decline or our tenant improvement costs, leasing commissions or other costs increase, our financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.

Compliance with new laws or regulations or stricter interpretation of existing laws may require us to incur significant expenditures. Future laws or regulations may impose significant environmental liability. Additionally, our customers’ operations, operations in the vicinity of our properties such as the presence of underground storage tanks, or activities of unrelated third parties may affect our properties. In addition, there are various local, state and federal fire, health, life-safety and similar regulations with which we may be required to comply and that may subject us to liability in the form of fines or damages for noncompliance. Any expenditures, fines or damages we must pay would adversely affect our results of operations. Proposed legislation to address climate change could increase utility and other costs of operating our properties.

We have obtained title insurance policies for each of our properties, typically in an amount equal to its original purchase price. However, these policies may be for amounts less than the current or future valuesvalue of our properties, particularly for land parcels on which we subsequently construct a building. In such event, if there is a title defect relating to any of our properties, we could lose some of the capital invested in and anticipated profits from such properties.

A security breach or other significant disruptioncybersecurity incident involving our IT networks and related systems owned or used by us could:

Any or all of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, financial condition and cash flows.

Further, we face significant competition for attractive investment opportunities from an indeterminate number of other real estate investors, including investors with significantly greater capital resources and access to capital than we have, such as domestic and foreign corporations and financial institutions, publicly-traded and privately-held REITs, private institutional investment funds, investment banking firms, life insurance companies and pension funds. Moreover, owners of office properties may be reluctant to sell, resulting in fewer acquisition opportunities. As a result of such increased competition and limited opportunities, we may be unable to acquire additional properties or the purchase price of such properties may be significantly elevated, which would reduce our expected return from making any such acquisitions.

In addition to acquisitions, we periodically consider developing or re-developing properties. Risks associated with development and re-development activities include:

Development and re-development activities are also subject to risks relating to our ability to obtain, or delays in obtaining, any necessary zoning, land-use, building, occupancy and other required governmental and utility company authorizations. Further, we hold and expect to continue to acquire non-income producing land for future development. See “Item 2. Properties - Land Held for Development.” No assurances can be provided as to when, if ever, we will commence development projects on such land or if any such development projects would be on favorable terms. The fixed costs of acquiring and owning development land, such as the ongoing payment of property taxes, adversely affects our results of operations until such land is either placed in service or sold.

Certain of our properties have low tax bases relative to their estimated current market values, and accordingly, the sale of such assets would generate significant taxable gains unless we sold such properties in a tax-deferred exchange under Section

Further, we obtain credit ratings from Moody’s Investors Service and Standard and Poor’s Rating Services based on their evaluation of our creditworthiness. These agencies’ ratings are based on a number of factors, some of which are not within our control. In addition to factors specific to our financial strength and performance, the rating agencies also consider conditions affecting REITs generally. We cannot assure you that our credit ratings will not be downgraded. If our credit ratings are downgraded or other negative action is taken, we could be required, among other things, to pay additional interest and fees on outstanding borrowings under our revolving credit facility and bank term loans.

We generally do not intend to reserve funds to retire existing debt upon maturity. We may not be able to repay, refinance or extend any or all of our debt at maturity or upon any acceleration. If any refinancing is done at higher interest rates, the increased interest expense would adversely affect our cash flow and ability to pay distributions. Any such refinancing could also impose tighter financial ratios and other covenants that restrict our ability to take actions that could otherwise be in our best interest, such as funding new development activity, making opportunistic acquisitions, repurchasing our securities or paying distributions. While we do not currently have significant amounts of mortgage debt, we may in the future mortgage additional

We depend on our revolving credit facility for working capital purposes and for the short-term funding of our development and acquisition activity and, in certain instances, the repayment of other debt upon maturity. Our ability to borrow under the revolving credit facility also allows us to quickly capitalize on opportunities at short-term interest rates. If our lenders default under their obligations under the revolving credit facility or we become unable to borrow additional funds under the facility for any reason, we would be required to seek alternative equity or debt capital, which could be more costly and adversely impact our financial condition. If such alternative capital were unavailable, we may not be able to make new investments and could have difficulty repaying other debt.

Our efforts to manage these exposures may not be successful. Our use of interest rate hedge contracts to manage risk associated with interest rate volatility may expose us to additional risks, including athe risk that a counterparty to a hedge contract may fail to honor its obligations. Developing an effective interest rate risk strategy is complex and no strategy can completely insulate us from risks associated with interest rate fluctuations. There can be no assurance that our hedging activities will have the desired beneficial impact on our results of operations or financial condition. Termination of interest rate hedge contracts typically involves costs, such as transaction fees or breakage costs.

In particular, we must ensure that at the end of each calendar quarter, at least 75% of the value of our assets consists of cash, cash items, government securities and qualified real estate assets. The remainder of our investment in securities (other than government securities, securities of taxable REIT subsidiaries and qualified real estate assets) generally cannot include more than 10% of the outstanding voting securities of any one issuer or more than 10% of the total value of the outstanding securities of any one issuer. In addition, in general, no more than 5% of the value of our assets (other than government securities, securities of taxable REIT subsidiaries and qualified real estate assets) can consist of the securities of any one issuer, and no more than 25% of the value of our total assets can be represented by the securities of one or more taxable REIT subsidiaries. If we fail to comply with these requirements at the end of any calendar quarter, we must correct the failure within 30 days after the end of the calendar quarter or qualify for certain statutory relief provisions to avoid losing our REIT qualification and suffering adverse tax consequences. As a result, we may be required to liquidate otherwise attractive investments, which could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

The following table sets forth information about in-service office properties that we wholly ownour portfolio by geographic location atas of December 31, 2020:2023:

The following table sets forth the net changes in rentable square footage of in-service properties that we wholly own:our portfolio:

The following table sets forth operating information about in-service properties that we wholly own:our portfolio:

The following table sets forth information concerning the 20 largest customers in our portfolio as of properties that we wholly own at December 31, 2020:2023:

The following tables settable sets forth scheduled lease expirations for existing leases at office properties that we wholly owned atin our portfolio as of December 31, 2020:2023:

As of December 31, 2020, we were developing 0.8 million rentable square feet of office properties. The following table summarizes these announced andour in-process office developments:development activity as of December 31, 2023:

We wholly owned 220 acresAs of development land at December 31, 2020. We2023, we estimate that we can develop approximately 5.04.9 million rentable square feet of office space on the 161 acreswholly-owned development land that we consider core assets for our future development needs. Our core office development land is zoned and available for development, and nearly all of the land has utility infrastructure in place. We believe that our commercially zoned and unencumbered land gives us a development advantage over other commercial real estateoffice development companies in many of our markets. We also own additional development land on which we or third parties can develop approximately 2.8 million square feet of mixed-use real estate projects, including retail and multi-family.

The following table sets forth information about our in-service joint venture investments by geographic location atas of December 31, 2020:2023:

In addition, we own an 80.0% interest50.0% interests in 2827 Peachtree (Atlanta), Granite Park Six (Dallas), 23Springs (Dallas) and Midtown One, a consolidatedEast (Tampa), four unconsolidated joint venture. See “Item 2. Properties - In-Process Development.”ventures that are currently developing projects that have not yet been placed in service.

We are fromFrom time to time, we are a party to a variety of legal proceedings, claims and assessments arising in the ordinary course of our business. We regularly assess the liabilities and contingencies in connection with these matters based on the latest information available. For those matters where it is probable that we have incurred or will incur a loss and the loss or range of loss can be reasonably estimated, the estimated loss is accrued and charged to income in our Consolidated Financial Statements. In other instances, because of the uncertainties related to both the probable outcome and amount or range of loss, a reasonable estimate of liability, if any, cannot be made. Based on the current expected outcome of such matters, none of these proceedings, claims or assessments is expected to have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations or cash flows.

The Company is the sole general partner of the Operating Partnership. The following table sets forth information with respect to the Company’s executive officers:

Our Common Stock is traded on the NYSE under the symbol “HIW.” On December 31, 2020,2023, the Company had 782602 common stockholders of record. There is no public trading market for the Common Units. On December 31, 2020,2023, the Operating Partnership had 10797 holders of record of Common Units (other than the Company). AtAs of December 31, 2020,2023, there were 103.9105.7 million shares of Common Stock outstanding and 2.82.2 million Common Units outstanding not owned by the Company.

For information regarding our dividend payment history as well as a discussion of the factors that influence the decisions of the Company’s Board of Directors regarding dividends and distributions, see “Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations - Liquidity and Capital Resources - Dividends and Distributions.”

The following stock pricetotal return performance graph compares the performance of our Common Stock to the S&P 500 Index, and the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index and the FTSE NAREIT Equity Office Index. The stock pricetotal return performance graph assumes an investment of $100 in our Common Stock and the twothree indices on December 31, 20152018, and further assumes the reinvestment of all dividends. The FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index is a free-float adjusted, market capitalization-weighted index of U.S. equity REITs. ConstituentsThe FTSE NAREIT Equity Office Index consists of those REITs in the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index that principally operate in the office sector. In future years, we plan to discontinue inclusion of the FTSE NAREIT All Equity REITs Index include all tax-qualified REITs withbecause management believes a comparison of our performance to the performance of the FTSE NAREIT Equity Office Index would provide a more than 50% of total assets in qualifying real estate assets other than mortgages secured by real property. Stock pricerelevant comparison and therefore be more useful to investors. Total return performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

The performance graph above is being furnished as part of this Annual Report solely in accordance with the requirement under Rule 14a-3(b)(9) to furnish the Company’s stockholders with such information and, therefore, is not deemed to be filed, or incorporated by reference in any filing, by the Company or the Operating Partnership under the Securities Act of 1933 or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

The Company has a Dividend Reinvestment and Stock Purchase Plan (“DRIP”) under which holders of Common Stock may elect to automatically reinvest their dividends in additional shares of Common Stock and make optional cash payments for additional shares of Common Stock. The Company satisfies its DRIP obligations by instructing the DRIP administrator to purchase Common Stock in the open market.

The Company has an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“ESPP”) pursuant to which employees may contribute up to 25% of their cash compensation for the purchase of Common Stock. At the end of each quarter, each participant’s account balance, which includes accumulated dividends, is applied to acquire shares of Common Stock at a cost that is calculated at 85% of the average closing price on the NYSE on the five consecutive days preceding the last day of the quarter. Generally, shares purchased under the ESPP must be held at least one year. The Company satisfies its ESPP obligations by issuing additional shares of Common Stock.

Information about the Company’s equity compensation plans and other related stockholder matters is incorporated herein by reference to the Company’s Proxy Statement to be filed in connection with its annual meeting of stockholders to be held on May 11, 2021.14, 2024.