HOUSTON-Whitestone REIT said that week that it intends to sell 4,000,000 of its common shares in an underwritten public offering. In connection with the offering, Whitestone intends to grant the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 600,000 common shares to cover over-allotments, if any. Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. and JMP Securities LLC are acting as joint-book running managers of the offering.

Whitestone will contribute the net proceeds of the offering to its operating partnership in exchange for units of limited partnership interest in the operating partnership. The operating partnership intends to use the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, which may include acquisitions of additional properties, the repayment of outstanding indebtedness, capital expenditures (including tenant improvements), the expansion, redevelopment and/or re-tenanting of properties in Whitestone's portfolio, working capital and other general purposes.

The offering will be made pursuant to Whitestone's existing effective shelf registration statement, previously filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The offering of these securities will be made only by means of a preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying base prospectus, when available. A copy of the preliminary prospectus supplement and accompanying base prospectus may be obtained by mail to Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Attention: Syndicate Department, 777 E. Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee, WI 53202, by telephone at 800-792-2473 or by emailing [email protected]; or by mail to JMP Securities LLC, Attention: Prospectus Department, 600 Montgomery Street, 10th Floor, San Francisco, California 94111, or by telephone at (415) 835-8985.