Howard Hughes Holdings, a real estate company formed this summer as part of the reorganization of Howard Hughes Corp., picked a name and CEO for the entertainment-and-hospitality spinoff it's creating for its dining, hotel and sports properties in Las Vegas and New York City.
The spinoff, called Seaport Entertainment, is set up to be an independent subsidiary of Houston-based Howard Holdings. "The planned separation of Seaport Entertainment from Howard Hughes will refine the identity of HHH as a pure-play real estate company focused solely on its portfolio" of master-planned communities, the company said in a statement.
Hospitality industry veteran Anton Nikodemus has been appointed CEO of Seaport Entertainment, a business with holdings including the Seaport entertainment district in New York and the Las Vegas Aviators, a Triple-A Minor League Baseball team in Summerlin, Nevada. Jean-Georges Restaurants, a high-end dining concept owned by HHH, as well as the air rights above Fashion Show Mall in Las Vegas, would also be included under the Seaport Entertainment umbrella. HHH owns 80% of those air rights above the mall and, according to a company statement, intends to use those rights to build a casino property on the Las Vegas Strip.
The creation of Seaport Entertainment comes about three months after Howard Hughes Corp. reorganized as Howard Hughes Holdings Inc. to separate the company’s entertainment properties from its real estate operations.
At Seaport Entertainment, Nikodemus will “focus on delivering a world-class guest experience, accelerating growth and operating performance, and exploring new strategic opportunities for expansion," an HHH spokesperson said in a statement. Nikodemus most recently served as an executive with MGM Resorts International in Las Vegas, according to his LinkedIn profile.
At MGM Resorts, Nikodemus served as president and chief operating officer of CityCenter and The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and president and COO of Monte Carlo Resorts and Casino. He also spent time as a senior vice president of hotel operations at the Bellagio and the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino Las Vegas.
“Anton is an outstanding leader in the entertainment and resort world. It speaks to the quality of our entertainment assets that we have been able to recruit an executive of his caliber to Howard Hughes,” HHH Chairman Bill Ackman said in a statement. “Anton’s experience, track record, and superb leadership skills will facilitate the creation, management, and eventual spinoff of Seaport Entertainment, positioning it and Howard Hughes for greater success as more-focused, easier-to-understand companies.”
Spinoff Set for 2024
HHH said it intends to complete the spinoff of Seaport Entertainment as a publicly traded company by the end of 2024.
The Seaport property in Manhattan is a former fishing port that has been converted into an entertainment destination serving as the home to a fish market, restaurants, bars and a studio set for ESPN. However, ESPN plans to shut down its Seaport studio location, where shows such as First Take and Get Up were filmed, by 2025, the Sports Business Journal reported in late September.
HHH, meanwhile, would focus specifically on its real estate holdings. They include Bridgeland in Houston; Merriweather District in Columbia, Maryland; the master-planned development in Summerlin and Teravalis just outside of Phoenix.
The company has had a presence in Las Vegas since the late 1960s, when the late billionaire Howard Hughes bought casino-hotel properties such as Desert Inn, Sands, Castaways, Frontier and Silver Slipper, according to the National Endowment for the Humanities. His other Nevada holdings included a local airline, ranching properties and mining operations.
Seaport Entertainment, meanwhile, would operate as a “pure-play entertainment enterprise, equipped with a robust team of industry leaders,” according to a statement from HHH.
“The assets of the Seaport Entertainment lie at the intersection of real estate and entertainment,” HHH CEO David R. O'Reilly said in a statement. “Anton brings tremendous experience building some of the country's most-acclaimed entertainment destinations, and we are fortunate to have him taking the helm of this exciting new division of Howard Hughes.”