ATLANTA - January 10, 2012 - Piedmont Office Realty Trust (NYSE: PDM) announced today that its subsidiary, Piedmont Office Holdings, Inc., has successfully executed a development contract to construct a 1.4 Megawatt solar canopy at its 400 Bridgewater property in Bridgewater, NJ.  Upon completion, the project will contain 5,850 solar panels supplied by Suniva.

Some of the significant features of this initiative include the following:

• The generation of approximately 1,680,000 kWh's of power annually, which equates to 30% of the building's annual consumption, and as much as 60% during the summer months
   
• The offset of approximately 880,000 kilograms of CO2 per year
   
• Projected $7 Million investment in clean energy  

"This solar implementation will offer the tenants of 400 Bridgewater lower energy costs and provide additional energy resources to the Bridgewater community, while creating an attractive investment opportunity for our firm,"  said Chip Stansfield of Piedmont's Capital Markets group.

"In a time period when corporate social responsibility has become increasingly important, we are excited to embark on this clean energy project," commented Piedmont President and CEO, Donald A. Miller, CFA.  "This initiative complements our existing efforts in the areas of LEED and Energy Star certification and demonstrates our continued commitment to finding practical solutions to environmentally sustainable opportunities," Miller added.  "I applaud the combined efforts of our own Chip Stansfield, Jason Williams, Alex Valente and Mark Landstrom for their time and diligence in preparing for this project launch," concluded Miller.

Piedmont Office Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE:PDM) is a fully-integrated and self-managed real estate investment trust (REIT) specializing in high-quality, Class A office properties located primarily in the ten largest U.S. office markets, including Chicago, Washington, D.C., New York, Dallas, Los Angeles and Boston.  As of December 31, 2011, Piedmont's 79 wholly-owned office buildings were comprised of approximately 21 million rentable square feet. The Company is headquartered in Atlanta, GA with local management offices in each of its major markets. Investment-grade rated by Standard & Poor's and Moody's, Piedmont has maintained a low-leverage strategy while transacting $5.9 billion and $1.6 billion in property acquisitions and dispositions, respectively, during its fourteen year operating history.  For more information, see www.piedmontreit.com.

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Contact:                 Kerry Hughes
Company:              Piedmont Office Realty Trust
Phone:                   1 770 418 8678
Email:                     Kerry.Hughes@Piedmontreit.com