Gerald Hines, Development Pioneer, Dies at 95

Gerald Hines and Wells Fargo Center in Denver. Image courtesy of Hines

Hines Founder & Chairman Gerald D. Hines has died at the age of 95, leaving his son Jeffrey Hines at the helm of the Houston-based commercial real estate powerhouse. The elder Hines passed away peacefully in his home, according to a statement by Jeffrey Hines, who has been running the firm as President since 1990 and now assumes the role of  chairman & CEO.

Born in Indiana in 1925, Gerald Hines established the development firm as a one-man office in Houston in 1957. Over the decades, he built Hines into a diversified global firm that has shaped the built environment on five continents by means of world-class architecture, sustainability and financial savvy. The real estate giant is currently active in 25 countries and 225 cities from Atlanta to Shanghai. With more than 4,800 employees, the firm has $144.1 billion of assets under management and 165 developments underway around the globe.

The developer’s property and asset management portfolio currently includes 576 properties totaling 246 million square feet. Hines is known for such iconic developments as One Shell Plaza in Houston, which set a record as the world’s largest reinforced concrete building when it was completed in 1971, and the Galleria, another Houston landmark and an early example of the upscale mixed-use retail project.

Other notable properties include 53^rd at Third, known as the Lipstick Building, in Manhattan; 101 California in San Francisco; Three First National Plaza in Chicago and One Ninety One Peachtree in Atlanta. Hines is currently spearheading a 60-story tower designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli, forming the 1.2 million-square-foot third phase of the Wolf Point master plan in the Windy City.

An extended account of Gerald Hines’ life and contributions to the commercial real estate industry will appear in tomorrow’s CPE Daily newsletter.