Highwoods Properties Inc. announced positive quarterly earnings in its latest report, as well as a dividend increase and plans for a new construction in Raleigh.

The Raleigh-based real estate investment trust reported funds from operations — a key metric for measuring REIT performance — at 86 cents per share in the last quarter, meeting Zacks’ consensus estimate; it was up 2 cents from the same period a year prior.

Total funds from operations for the quarter was $91.8 million, up about 3.5 percent from $88.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2017.

Quarterly net income was $53 million, or 51 cents per share. A year ago, net income was $56.6 million for the quarter.

Highwoods’ strong cash flow for the year influenced its executive team to grow its quarterly cash dividend to 47.5 cents per share from 46.3 cents per share.

“2018 was a solid year for Highwoods,” says Chief Executive Officer Ed Fritsch in a statement “We announced a $285 million, 98.3 percent pre-leased development; delivered $85 million of new projects that were 99.6 percent leased, and increased the pre-leased rate on our $691 million development pipeline to 92.9 percent.”

The release also announced a GlenLake Seven — a $41 million, 126,000 square foot, LEED-certified office building at GlenLake campus in West Raleigh. GlenLake Seven marks the fifth construction in the 606,000-square-foot project.

Highwoods plans to occupy 28 percent of the new building, which will start construction in the second quarter of 2019 and target completion in the third quarter of 2020.

The REIT’s stock was trading $45.28, down 16 cents, in Wednesday morning trading.