The law firm Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein is moving a block south from the Wells Fargo Capitol Center in downtown Raleigh to Highwoods Properties' PNC Plaza building at 301 Fayetteville Street.

Parker Poe will occupy about 50,000 square feet of space in PNC Plaza after its current Wells Fargo lease expires next year.

Parker Poe will sublease space now occupied by PNC. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

The new space is about the same square footage as the firm's current offices in the Wells Fargo Capitol Center.

Parker Poe's managing partner, Tom Griffin, said in a statement that the PNC Plaza space can be configured to accommodate significantly more attorneys that its current space.

Parker Poe has 52 attorneys and 41 support staff personnel in its Raleigh office.

Tom Fritsch has been named managing director of CBRE's Raleigh office.

Fritsch replaces J.D. "Butch" Miller, who remains with the firm as a broker and principal.

Fritsch was previously a senior leasing agent with Raleigh-based Highwoods Properties, where his brother, Ed Fritsch, is CEO.

“Tom is a highly regarded professional with a diverse, customer-service focused background in the Raleigh area. The CBRE|Raleigh office will undoubtedly thrive even more under his leadership and experience,” said J. Scott Adams, CBRE's president in the Mid-South region, in a statement. 

“His knowledge of the Raleigh area, proven track record and outstanding reputation will be well received by all of our employees, clients and other Raleigh-area corporations and owners considering which real estate service firm to align with."

Tom Fritsch is also president of the Triangle chapter of NAIOP, an association for developers, owners and investors in commercial real estate.

Highwoods Properties announced Monday that it will develop a 241,000-square-foot, 9-story building in Memphis for International Paper.

The Raleigh-based real estate investment trust will invest $56.1 million in the build-to-suit project. International Paper will lease 100 percent of the building, which is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2015.

Highwoods already purchased the land for the project, which will be across the street from International Paper's world headquarters in the Poplar Avenue area of the city.

Highwoods owns 1.3 million square feet of space in the corridor.

This is the largest build-to-suit project for Highwoods since the company was selected in November 2011 to build a $48.4 million headquarters in Nashville for LifePoint Hospitals.

Highwoods shares closed Monday at $39.17, up 35 cents. The stock is up 17 percent this year.

Highwoods Properties announced Wednesday that it has acquired two office buildings in Greensboro for $32.8 million.

The buildings total 195,000 square feet of space in the city's Green Valley submarket.

The properties are 95.5 percent leased and are expected to generate net operating income of $3.1 million in 2013.

Highwoods has made a number of acquisitions over the past year and a half. Last month the Raleigh real estate investment trust acquired the 32-story EQT Plaza building in Pittsburgh for $99.2 million.

Analysts at Jefferies have upgraded Highwoods Properites (HIW) to a buy rating, saying the Raleigh real estate investment trust should benefit from an improving jobs picture and the rolling over of leases that were signed during the recession.

Jefferies put a 12-month price target of $40 per share on the stock, up from $35 per share. Highwoods shares were trading at $34.50 this afternoon.

In addition to benefiting from an improving economy, Highwoods also should see increased acquisition and development opportunities, Jefferies said. The stock is also attractive because it offers a 5 percent dividend.

Many of the leases Highwoods signed in 2008 and 2008 were 5-year terms, Jefferies notes, meaning the company should benefit as those leases are renewed at higher rates in 2013 and 2014.

"We believe HIW stands to benefit the most out of its suburban peers given its high quality assets, clean balance sheet, and solid management team," the analysts wrote.

"While some challenges remain, particularly the backfill of the AT&T and PwC space in Atlanta and Tampa, respectively, we believe that positive outcomes for both of these spaces could be a significant positive catalyst for HIW stock."

Highwoods Properties reported third-quarter earnings late Tuesday that beat Wall Street estimates as the company leased 1.1 million square feet of space in the quarter.

The Raleigh real estate investment trust reported funds from operations, a profitability measure for REITs, of 66 cents per share for the quarter, compared with the 59 cents per share the company reported in the third quarter of 2011.

That beat the consensus of Wall Street analysts by a penny.

Highwoods, the Triangle's largest office landlord, ended the quarter with an occupancy rate of 90.2 percent, up from 89.3 percent a year ago. The company made $177 million in acquisitions during the quarter while selling $134 million in assets.

The biggest of those acquisitions was Two Alliance Center, one of Atlanta's premier office towers, which Highwoods paid $146.7 million for in September.

Highwoods shares closed Friday at $31.58. The markets were closed Monday and Tuesday because of Hurricane Sandy.

The stock is up 6 percent this year.

Raleigh-based Highwoods Properties announced Friday that it has acquired a 492,000-square-foot office tower in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood for $146.7 million.

Two Alliance Center, a 29-story building, is 90 percent occupied and is expected to generate $11.1 million in operating income in 2013.

"This investment garners us one of the best Class A office buildings in the southeast, a new building with a well-diversified rent roll that we acquired at a 10 percent discount to replacement cost," Highwoods CEO Ed Fritsch said in a statement.

"The building has an average remaining lease term of ten years and no lease expirations until 2017, when less than 24,000 square feet is scheduled to expire."

The purchase price includes $800,000 in planned improvements Highwoods will make to the building.

Highwoods has been extremely active in recent months, both selling older assets and acquiring newer ones. A number of the deals have involved assets in Atlanta, where Highwoods now owns 6.4 million square feet of office and industrial space.

Highwoods announced in July plans to sell two build-to-suit  properties in Atlanta that it constructed for the federal goverment.

A year ago, Highwoods paid $86.3 million for Riverwood 100, a 24-story building in Atlanta with a half-million square feet of office space.

Highwoods Properties announced Wednesday that it has leased 69,000 square feet in the PPG Place office complex in downtown Pittsburgh that the company acquired last year.

The leases are all new customers and bring the occupancy rate in PPG Place to 83.6 percent.

Highwoods paid $214.1 million in September for PPG Place, a six-building complex that includes 1.54 million square feet of office space. The price included $17.1 million in planned building improvements and $8.1 million in tenant improvements that were promised under existing leases.

The Pittsburgh properties represented the first new market that Highwoods, one of the largest office landlords in the Southeast, had entered in more than a decade. The complex was 81 percent leased at the time Highwoods acquired the properties.

Ed Fritsch, Highwoods CEO, said in a statement that the company expects occupancy levels in PPG Place to reach 86.5 percent by the end of the year.

Highwoods also announced Tuesday that it had sold a 3-story, 62,000-square-foot building in Kansas City for $6.5 million. Highwoods had been emptying out the building of tenants to accommodate the sale of the building to Country Club Bank, which will occupy the entire space.

The sale is the latest in a series of divestitures by Highwoods. The real estate investment trust sold $148 million in assets during the second quarter. 

Highwoods shares closed Tuesday at $32.90. The stock is up 11 percent this year.

Highwoods Properties reported second-quarter earnings late Thursday that beat Wall Street estimates as the company ended the quarter with 90.7 percent of its portfolio occupied.

The Raleigh real estate investment trust reported funds from operations, a profitability measure for REITs, of 70 cents per share for the quarter, compared with the 60 cents per share the company reported in the second quarter of 2011.

That beat the consensus of Wall Street analysts by a penny.

Highwoods, the Triangle’s largest office landlord, leased 1 million square feet of space during the quarter. The company made $50.1 million in acquisitions during the quarter while selling $148 million in assets.

With the sales, Highwoods has reduced its ratio of debt plus preferred stock to gross assets to 43.7 percent, or about what it was before the company spent $300 million acquiring seven buildings in Atlanta and Pittsburgh.

The company's overall occupancy level was up from 89.8 percent during the second quarter of 2011.

Highwoods shares closed Thursday up 38 cents at $33.11. The stock is up 12 percent this year.

Highwoods Properties announced Wednesday that it has sold three properties in Atlanta and Mississippi for $86.5 million.

The properties were all build-to-suits that Highwoods constructed for the federal government. They are 100 percent leased and were projected to generate $6.1 million in income this year for the Raleigh-based real estate investment trust.

The properties include a 353,04-square-foot industrial property in Atlanta leased to the National Archives and Record Administration; a 90,688-square-foot office building in Atlanta leased by the Department of Homeland Security; and a 109,819-square-foot office building in Mississippi leased by the General Services Administration.

Highwoods CEO Ed Fritsch described the properties as noncore assets in a release.

"NARA was by far our largest industrial asset in Atlanta; DHS is located in downtown Atlanta, a non-core submarket for us; and the GSA field office was our only asset in the State of Mississippi,” he said in a statement.