Las Vegas Now$7.2 Billion Deal For Hughes' Parent Company

$7.2 Billion Deal For Hughes' Parent Company

(Aug. 20) -- A multi-billion dollar business deal will lead to a change of ownership for one of the Valley's most influential businesses, which includes the Summerlin planned community. One of the nation's largest real estate investment companies, General Growth Properties, is buying the parent company of the Howard Hughes Corporation -- the Rouse Company -- for $7.2 billion. A Valley financial analyst says the move is not surprising, as companies nationwide look to tap into the Las Vegas market.

The Hughes Corporation's Las Vegas portfolio includes office buildings, the Fashion Show Mall and the Summerlin planned community. All successful ventures are just diversified enough to attract larger companies with money to spend.

"It is happening because we have a great tax base, which pulls in corporations and that is very important to look at." Las Vegas financial analyst Vicki Wille believes the General Growth buyout of the Hughes Corporation parent company is a herald of things to come. With Las Vegas growing the way it is, many businesses want to get in on the ground floor before the market becomes too crowded. "I think we're only at the beginning of it."

Kevin Peltier is looking for a new beginning as well. "I feel that way I think they can only get better I can't imagine them getting worse." Peltier welcomes the buyout news with open arms. For the last eight months, he's been fighting with the Hughes owned Summerlin planned community where he lives. The battle is over artificial turf Peltier put in his front yard last January to save water. "Summerlin had given me a deadline of August 6th to rip it out of I'd start receiving fines."

While it's multi-billion dollar numbers getting the attention, Kevin Peltier is hoping a change in ownership will lead to a change at home.

Neither the Rouse Company, the Howard Hughes Corporation nor General Growth Properties are commenting on the deal. But one Howard Hughes insider tells Eyewitness News the buyout is being met with optimism here in Las Vegas.

The Hughes Corporation was sold to the Rouse Company in 1996. Before that it was its own entity, started by the man himself. David Millman is a historian at the Nevada State Museum. "Howard Hughes really set the stage for the modern day Las Vegas," he said. 

Hughes' influence here started in 1966 when he moved into the Desert Inn Hotel and Casino. He bought it a year later, followed by the Sands, Castaways, Silver Slipper, Frontier and the Landmark. "His presence here brought a respectability Las Vegas did not have before." Millman says Hughes buying up so many casinos helped push the mob out of town.

It wasn't only casinos. In 1968 Hughes bought Channel 8. He also bought 23,000 acres of land west of Las Vegas. "At the time he bought it, in the 50s and 60s, that land was so far out of town there was nothing but jackrabbits and tarantulas."

Hughes wanted to use the land to build an airplane manufacturing plant. Instead it became Summerlin. Howard Hughes has been dead for 28 years. His name lives on in Las Vegas, as history continues to judge his influence. "In some ways he gets too much credit in some ways he doesn't get enough."