The Howard Hughes Corp. (HHC) has announced a series of changes.
Paul Layne, President of HHC’s Central Region, has been named ceo, effective immediately. Layne will replace David Weinreb on the board of directors. Weinreb and Grant Herlitz will step down from the company.
Layne has more than 35 years of diverse real estate operating and development experience. Since 2012, he has been a senior executive at HHC, most recently serving as president, Central Region, which includes The Woodlands, The Woodlands Hills® and Bridgeland®. During his eight-year tenure at Howard Hughes, Layne identified and led the development of more than $1.2 billion of office, retail, apartment, hotel and storage properties in The Woodlands. Prior to joining HHC, Layne was executive vice president at Brookfield Properties Corp., overseeing a 9.7 million square-foot portfolio in Houston’s CBD.
The company has also identified approximately $2 billion of non-core assets it expects to sell over the next 12 months to 18 months. The estimated $600 million of net cash proceeds from the sale, after debt repayment and transaction costs, will be used for share repurchases and development opportunities in the core master planned communities.
As part of the new plan, the company will eliminate its holding-company-type organizational structure and move to a decentralized regional management model supported by a lean corporate team. HHC will consolidate its Dallas corporate headquarters with its largest regional office in The Woodlands.