Howard Hughes Corp. may be up for sale
Summerlin’s developer and owner of the Las Vegas Aviators is weighing a possible sale of the company.
The Howard Hughes Corp., developer of Las Vegas’ largest master-planned community, announced Thursday its board of directors is considering selling the company.
The board — led by chairman Bill Ackman, a billionaire hedge-fund operator — is also considering a sale, joint venture or spin-off of a portion of the company’s assets; a recapitalization; or changes to its “corporate structure.”
Dallas-based Hughes Corp. hired Centerview Partners, an investment banking firm that says it has advised on nearly $3 trillion of transactions, to help with the “strategic review.”
The goal of the review is to “maximize shareholder value,” the developer said.
Investors cheered the news. Shares of Howard Hughes Corp. soared 41.75 percent Thursday, or $38.66, to close at $131.25, according to Yahoo Finance.
Hughes Corp., led locally by Summerlin president Kevin Orrock, sells land to homebuilders in its massive Las Vegas community, which spans 22,500 acres along the valley’s western rim. Summerlin boasts more than 100,000 residents and some of the highest home and land prices in Southern Nevada.
The company also developed the 106-acre Downtown Summerlin mall and, across the street, the new 10,000-fan-capacity Las Vegas Ballpark – home stadium of the Hughes Corp.-owned Aviators minor-league baseball team.
Summerlin is expected to sell out of land in 2039, according to Hughes Corp. By the end of last year, the community had 3,311 acres of saleable residential tracts and 831 acres of commercial land.
The land holdings include a spread of acreage across from the Downtown Summerlin mall, and projects are in the works there. Hughes Corp. is developing the 267-unit Tanager apartment complex near the ballpark, and it received Clark County approval in December for a 14-story hotel next to the stadium.
The company has indicated in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it envisions 1.2 million square feet of offices, 77,000 square feet of retail space and 4,000 residential units on the land just east of the mall.
Led by CEO David Weinreb, Hughes Corp. also has projects or properties in Hawaii, Texas, Chicago and Maryland, among other locations.
The company said Thursday it did not “set a timetable” for when it hoped to conclude the review.
Contact Eli Segall at esegall@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0342. Follow @eli_segall on Twitter.