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In one of the largest office lease renewals in the Tampa area in the past year, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. has chosen to remain in its space in a pair of Highwoods Properties Inc.’s buildings north of downtown.
MetLife’s 176,000-square-foot lease in the Raleigh, N.C.-based company’s Highwoods Preserve VII and Highwoods Preserve V properties had been set to expire in 2021.
MetLife’s deal in the 18205 and 18216 Crain Nest Drive buildings was also the largest of a half-dozen upcoming lease renewals over 100,000 square feet, the real estate investment trust indicated.
The company’s second-largest pending lease renewal is with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, also in Tampa. The FBI’s 138,000-square-foot deal ends in 2020.
Highwoods President and CEO Ted Klinck says keeping MetLife in place secures “steady cash flow for the foreseeable future” and reduces “our near-term lease rollover risk.”
The two buildings occupied by MetLife represent the last of what was once a seven-building cluster owned by the REIT in Highwoods Preserve, says Brendan Maiorana, the company’s executive vice president of finance.
“This was certainly one of the bigger lease renewals that was remaining, so we’re very pleased to have completed it,” says Maiorana, who declined to identify MetLife at the tenant’s request.
Completed in 2007, Highwoods Preserve VII is a four-story building comprising 115,230 square feet with amenities that include a state-of-the-artt fitness center and an on-site cafeteria. Highwoods Preserve V is a six-story structure with 176,766 square feet, according to Highwoods’ website.
Highwoods is among the largest office landlords in the Tampa area, with a portfolio that contains in excess of 50 buildings.
The company also has been selected to develop a trio of new office buildings in the planned, $500 million Midtown Tampa project in the city’s Westshore Business District.
In addition to Tampa, Highwoods also is active in eight other markets, including Atlanta, Orlando, Nashville and Richmond, Va.
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