Bill Ackman Stepping Down As Howard Hughes Chairman
Hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman is stepping away from his longtime role as Howard Hughes Holdings’ chairman.
Ackman, the CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, has served as chairman since Howard Hughes’ spinoff from General Growth Properties in 2010. Scot Sellers, the CEO of former multifamily real estate investment trust Archstone, will succeed Ackman, according to an announcement from the publicly traded development REIT. He has served on Howard Hughes’ board since the company’s inception.
Sellers also sits on the board of The Irvine Co. and is chairman of the board of Maui Land & Pineapple Co.
“Howard Hughes is entering an exciting new chapter in the company’s history, with tremendous opportunities for growth and an active development pipeline of transformative projects that will continue to distinguish the company’s national portfolio of acclaimed communities,” Sellers said in a statement.
Pershing Square plans to remain a long-term shareholder in Howard Hughes, Ackman said in a statement. Pershing Square Partner Ben Hakim is being nominated to replace Ackman on the board.
Since its founding, Howard Hughes has developed large-scale, mixed-use, master-planned communities, including in Las Vegas, Honolulu, Maryland and the greater Houston area. In Manhattan’s Seaport neighborhood, the company is building a 25-story residential tower, pushing through years of resistance from local residents.
Last year, the company announced another spinoff, named Seaport Entertainment, which would include the lower Manhattan project, along with the company’s Las Vegas assets and its $55M stake in Jean-Georges Restaurants. Seaport Entertainment is expected to become its own publicly traded company by the end of this year.
“When we spun-out Howard Hughes from General Growth Properties 14 years ago, it was a complicated collection of development assets, master planned communities, income-producing properties, and other assets,” Ackman said in a statement. “The upcoming spinoff of Seaport Entertainment will complete the company’s transformation into a pure-play MPC company with a portfolio of award-winning assets delivering record-breaking results that can be more easily understood by investors.”
Last year, Howard Hughes also introduced a new corporate structure that created a holding company as the parent company of the development and investment firm.
Ackman, whose net worth is estimated to be $4.3B, has reached a new degree of celebrity recently through his use of the X social media platform. The hedge fund manager has used the platform to campaign against former Harvard University President Claudine Gay over her response to antisemitic rhetoric on campus and allegations of plagiarism, as well as Business Insider, which published an article alleging Ackman’s wife, Neri Oxman, plagiarized academic work.
