Corp. as Corporate HQ Moves to The Woodlands: Paul Layne Named CEO of Howard Hughes

Paul Layne

In Houston, Howard Hughes Corp., the developer of The Woodlands, Bridgelands, Summerlin in Las Vegas, has named Paul Layne as CEO and is moving the company’s headquarters to The Woodlands.

Following a “strategic review process” the firm reported Monay it would sell $2 billion in “non-core assets” and redeploy assets into stock repurchases and advancing development in its core large-scale planned communities.

Former CEO David Weinreb and company president, Grant Herlitz, have left the firm. The company will take a one-time charge of about $40 million related to severage and relocating the headquarters from Dallas to The Woodlands.

Layne formerly was an executive with Brookfield Properties, overseeing that firm’s office towers in downtown Houston, before moving in 2012 to an executive position managing The Woodlands, a 28,000-acre community north of downtown Houston.

“Having had the opportunity to observe Paul’s successful stewardship of The Woodlands and the Company’s Central Region over the past eight years, the Board is extremely pleased that Paul will be our new CEO,” stated Bill Ackman, Chairman of the Board. “Paul’s extensive purchase, development, and operating experience coupled with his superb leadership style has earned him the respect of the Board and the entire Howard Hughes team. Paul’s efficient operating approach along with our headquarters move from Dallas to Houston will enable Howard Hughes to be a more focused, profitable, and free-cash-flow-generative company.”

“During his eight-year tenure at Howard Hughes, Mr. Layne identified and led the development of more than $1.2 billion of office, retail, apartment, hotel and storage properties in The Woodlands, increasing The Woodlands NOI (net operating income) by nearly eight-fold to more than $104 million in 2019. Most recently, Mr. Layne led the development of 110 North Wacker in Chicago, a Class AAA, 56-story office tower which is currently 69 percent pre-leased and estimated to be completed in October 2020,” the company said.