Emulating Howard Hughes?

In his latest letter to shareholders, Howard Hughes Corp. CEO David Weinreb clearly feels an affinity with the company’s namesake’s background as a movie producer.

Yes, Weinreb reported the numbers: Consolidated master-planned community revenues totaled $475 million, with operating income and income from non-consolidated affiliates rising from $76 million in 2012 to $118 million last year. Most important was that the company, spun off in 2010 from General Growth Properties as part of the latter’s bankruptcy, launched some of its signature retail projects, which Weinreb continues to liken to motion picture production, an apt analogy given Howard Hughes’ own career as a maverick moviemaker (Hell’s Angels, The Outlaw and the original Scarface).