Highwoods putting the Country Club Plaza up for sale

Highwoods Properties, the real estate firm that has owned the Country Club Plaza for more than 15 years, is putting the Kansas City destination up for sale.

In a presentation to investors published on Wednesday, Highwoods announced that it has hired a listing agent to sell all or most of the Plaza. It wants to use proceeds from the sale of the Plaza to pay down debts taken on from buying real estate in Tampa, Florida, and Atlanta.

Highwoods wants to close on the sale of the Plaza by early 2016.

“This is an opportune time for us to monetize our retail-dominated assets in Kansas City and redeploy those proceeds into more strategically focused, higher-yielding office investments,” Highwoods CEO Ed Fritsch said in a written statement. “The Plaza, which has been a solid and improving performer for our company since our acquisition in 1998, is the Midwest’s premier shopping destination and the ‘Crown Jewel’ of Kansas City.”

The news might come as a welcome development for Plaza enthusiasts, who have had an uneasy relationship with Highwoods and its ownership of the J.C. Nichols-designed district.

For more, read last week’s cover story: Highwoods isn’t bowled over by the Kansas City Plan Commission’s vision for the future for the Country Club Plaza.