Howard Hughes chief is retiring

Wednesday, May 20, 1998 | 10:27 a.m.

John Goolsby is retiring July 31 as president and chief executive of the Howard Hughes Corp., the largest developer in the Las Vegas area.

Goolsby, 56, is leaving because the company is hugely successful and is on track to remain so; and because he wants to spend more time with his family, said Hughes executive Mark Brown.

"It was his choice," Brown said.

Hughes, which employs 200 people here, is developing the 22,500-acre Summerlin master-planned community; the Hughes Center business park in midtown Las Vegas; office and retail centers in Summerlin, Fashion Show mall on the Strip, and industrial parks at McCarran Airport and in North Las Vegas.

The company is newly focused on Las Vegas after exiting the Los Angeles market last month. Arden Realty Inc. bought the undeveloped commercial property portions of the 70-acre Howard Hughes Center in Los Angeles for $26 million.

Brown said Hughes left the Los Angeles market because Arden made an "offer we couldn't refuse."

Hughes, a division of the Maryland-based Rouse Corp., will be led by three executives: Brown, a senior vice president who oversees government and community relations; John Kilduff, head of the commercial and industrial division; and Dan Van Epp, head of the Summerlin operation.

Goolsby joined the Howard Hughes organization in 1980 as vice president of real estate. He assisted in administration of the estate of Hughes, who died in 1976. He developed a plan for Hughes's heirs to develop Hughes's real estate, which included more than 49,000 acres.

Goolsby was named president of Howard Hughes Corp. in 1988 and in 1996 merged it into Rouse Co. He will stay on as chairman of the Nevada Development Authority and a member of the board of directors of Nevada Power Co., America West Holdings Corp. and the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.

"We accomplished essentially all of the primary objectives of the Hughes heirs and completed a remarkably smooth transition to the ownership of the Rouse Co.," Goolsby said in a statement. "We have now fully integrated our operations with those of Rouse and are positioned to continue to contribute to its future growth."

"I have decided that this is the time for me to retire and I am looking forward to pursuing personal interests that I never had sufficient time to enjoy," Goolsby said.