Summa Corporation was a holding company for the business interests of

Howard Hughes Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, record-setting pilot, engineer, film producer, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in th ...

after he sold the tool division of

Hughes Tool Company Hughes Tool Company was an American manufacturer of drill bits. Founded in 1908, it was merged into Baker Hughes Incorporated in 1987. History The company was established in December 1908 as Sharp-Hughes Tool Company when Howard R. Hughes Sr. ...

in 1972. Its holdings included casino hotels, aviation businesses, and television channels. After Hughes's death in 1976, most of the company's assets were sold off, and it focused on developing the

master-planned community A planned community, planned city, planned town, or planned settlement is any community that was carefully planned from its inception and is typically constructed on previously undeveloped land. This contrasts with settlements that evolve ...

Summerlin, Nevada Summerlin is a master-planned community in the Las Vegas Valley of Southern Nevada. It lies at the edge of the Spring Mountains and Red Rock Canyon to the west; it is partly within the official city limits of Las Vegas and partly within uninc ...

. Summa was renamed as The Howard Hughes Corporation in 1994. It was acquired by

The Rouse Company The Rouse Company, founded by Hunter Moss and James W. Rouse in 1939, was a publicly held shopping mall and community developer from 1956 until 2004, when General Growth Properties (GGP) purchased the company. Beginnings - Moss-Rouse Company ...

in 1996.

Properties

This holding company contained Hughes' varied investments including: *

KLAS-TV KLAS-TV (channel 8) is a television station in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, affiliated with CBS and owned by Nexstar Media Group. The station's studios are located on Channel 8 Drive near the northern portion of the Las Vegas Strip in the ...

- the

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

affiliate, reportedly purchased because Hughes was dismayed that the station never played his favorite late night movies. *

Hughes Airwest Hughes Airwest was a regional airline in the western United States, backed by Howard Hughes' Summa Corporation. Its original name in 1968 was Air West and the air carrier was owned by Nick Bez. Hughes Airwest flew routes in the wes ...

- a regional airline * Hughes Sports Network * Hughes Helicopters - a former division of Hughes Aircraft Company retained by Summa when the remainder of the aircraft business was donated to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as its endowment * Sands Hotel * Frontier Hotel and Casino * Landmark Hotel and Casino *

Castaways Hotel and Casino The Showboat Hotel and Casino, known as the Castaways Hotel and Casino from 2000-2004, was a hotel and casino located at the north end of the Boulder Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. The hotel consisted of a 19 story tower containing 445 rooms, a c ...

* Desert Inn * Silver Slipper Casino * Xanadu Princess Resort * Hughes Nevada Mining * General American Oil Company

History

Before 1972, Summa Corporation was named

. It was established in 1908 as a manufacturer of oil drilling tools. Under the ownership of Howard Hughes, the company expanded over the years into various other businesses, including aviation, media, and casino hotels. In 1972, the company sold its tool business to investors via an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

as a new entity named Hughes Tool Company. At that time, the parent company changed its name to Summa Corporation. The name "Summa", Latin for "highest", was allegedly chosen by several of Hughes's employees without consulting him first. Hughes was allegedly dissatisfied, and preferred the name "HRH Properties", with the initials standing for both "Howard Robard Hughes" and "Hughes Resort Hotels", but his suggestion was ignored. Howard Hughes died in 1976 at the age of 70, without a valid will. Administrators were appointed, led by his cousin William Lummis. Under Lummis, Summa began to liquidate most of its operations. Summa's money-losing mining interests in Nevada were sold by the end of 1976, while

and Hughes Sports Network were both sold in 1978.

was sold to

Republic Airlines Republic Airlines was an American airline formed by the merger of North Central Airlines and Southern Airways on July 1, 1979. Their headquarters were at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, in what is now Fort Snelling, Minnesota, Fort ...

for $38.5 million in October 1980, and Hughes Helicopters was sold to

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it pro ...

for $470 million in January 1984. The hotel and casino properties were gradually sold off during the 1980s. As its original businesses were sold, Summa recast itself as a real estate developer, using the vast tracts of undeveloped land Hughes had amassed around Las Vegas as a starting point. In the early 1980's Summa Corporation supervised its holdings from leased office space in the Alexander Dawson building, owned by Girard B. Henderson of Alexander Dawson, Inc., in Las Vegas. It was perfect for security reasons, since it had two underground floors. In September 1994, Summa Corporation was renamed The Howard Hughes Corporation, both to honor Howard Hughes and to fulfill his original intentions of keeping his name on the business. In February 1996, Hughes's heirs sold the Howard Hughes Corporation to the

Rouse Company The Rouse Company, founded by Hunter Moss and James W. Rouse in 1939, was a publicly held shopping mall and community developer from 1956 until 2004, when General Growth Properties (GGP) purchased the company. Beginnings - Moss-Rouse Company T ...

for $520 million, plus half of any future profits from the company's undeveloped land holdings. The Rouse Company was, in turn, acquired by

General Growth Properties GGP Inc. (an initialism of General Growth Properties) was an American commercial real estate company and the second-largest shopping mall operator in the United States. It was founded by brothers Martin, Matthew and Maurice Bucksbaum in Ceda ...

in November 2004. A new company named The Howard Hughes Corporation was spun off from GGP in 2010 and is now a developer of master-planned communities.

References

{{Authority control Holding companies of the United States Howard Hughes American companies established in 1972 Holding companies established in 1972 Manufacturing companies established in 1972 Technology companies established in 1972 Holding companies disestablished in 1996 Technology companies disestablished in 1996 1972 establishments in Nevada 1996 disestablishments in Nevada Defunct manufacturing companies based in Nevada