Howard Hughes Holdings (HHH) Risk Analysis

Approval to develop real property sometimes requires political support and generally entails an extensive entitlement process involving multiple and overlapping regulatory jurisdictions and often requires discretionary action by local governments. Real estate projects must generally comply with local land development regulations and may need to comply with state and federal regulations. We incur substantial costs to comply with legal and regulatory requirements. An increase in legal and regulatory requirements may cause us to incur substantial additional costs, or in some cases cause us to determine that the property is not feasible for development. In addition, our competitors and local residents may challenge our efforts to obtain entitlements and permits for the development of properties. The process to comply with these regulations is usually lengthy and costly, may not result in the approvals we seek and can be expected to materially affect our development activities.

We depend on the efforts of key executive personnel. The loss of the services of any key executive personnel could adversely affect our business and operations. While we believe we have proper succession planning and are confident we could attract and train new personnel if necessary, this could impose additional costs and hinder our business strategy.

We are highly dependent on our relationships with homebuilders to purchase superpad sites and lots at our MPCs. Our business will be adversely affected if homebuilders do not view our MPCs as desirable locations for homebuilding operations or due to a change in demand, our inability to achieve certain pricing arrangements, or upon an overall decline in general market conditions. Also, some homebuilders may be unwilling or unable to close on previously committed lot purchases due to our failure to meet certain conditions in our agreements or otherwise. As a result, we may sell fewer lots and in certain instances suspend any of our MPC developments. This would result in lower land sales revenues, which could have an adverse effect on our financial position and results of operations.

A variety of legislation is being enacted, or considered for enactment, at the federal, state, and local levels relating to energy and climate change. This legislation relates to items such as carbon dioxide emissions control and building codes that impose energy efficiency standards. New building code requirements that impose stricter energy efficiency standards could significantly increase our cost to construct buildings. Such environmental laws may affect, for example, how we manage storm water runoff, wastewater discharges, and dust; how we develop or operate on properties on or affecting resources such as wetlands, endangered species, cultural resources, or areas subject to preservation laws; and how we address contamination. As climate change concerns continue to grow, legislation and regulations of this nature are expected to continue and to make compliance more costly. In addition, it is possible that some form of expanded energy efficiency legislation may be passed by the U.S. Congress or federal agencies and certain state legislatures, which may, despite being phased in over time, significantly increase our costs of building MPCs and the sale price to our buyers and adversely affect our sales volumes. We may be required to apply for additional approvals or modify our existing approvals because of changes in local circumstances or applicable law. Energy-related initiatives affect a wide variety of companies throughout the U.S. and the world. Because our operations are heavily dependent on significant amounts of raw materials, such as lumber, steel, and concrete, energy-related initiatives could have an indirect adverse impact on our operations and profitability to the extent the manufacturers and suppliers of our materials are burdened with expensive cap and trade and similar energy-related taxes and regulations. Noncompliance with environmental laws could result in fines and penalties, obligations to remediate, permit revocations, and other sanctions.

The nature and extent of the competition we face depend on the type of property. With respect to our MPCs, we compete with other landholders and residential and commercial property developers in the development of properties in the respective MPC regions. Numerous residential and commercial developers, some with greater financial and other resources, compete with us in seeking resources for development and prospective purchasers and tenants. Competition from other real estate developers may adversely affect our ability to attract purchasers and sell residential and commercial real estate, sell undeveloped rural land, attract and retain experienced real estate development personnel, or obtain construction materials and labor. These competitive conditions can make it difficult to sell land at desirable prices and can adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. There are numerous shopping facilities that compete with our operating retail properties in attracting retailers to lease space. In addition, retailers at these properties face continued competition from other retailers, including internet retailers, retailers at other regional shopping centers, outlet malls and other discount shopping centers, discount shopping clubs, and catalog companies. Competition of this type could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. In addition, we compete with other major real estate investors with significant capital for attractive investment and development opportunities. These competitors include REITs and private institutional investors.

A tenant may experience a downturn in its business, due to a variety of factors including rising inflation or supply chain issues, which may weaken its financial condition and result in its failure to make timely rental payments or result in defaults under our leases. The rate of defaults may increase from historical levels due to tenants' businesses being negatively impacted by higher interest rates. In the event of default by a tenant, we may experience delays in enforcing our rights as the landlord and may incur substantial costs in protecting our investment.

We enter into contracts for the sale of condominium units that generally provide for the payment of a substantial portion of the sales price at closing when a condominium unit is ready to be delivered and occupied. A significant amount of time may pass between the execution of a contract for the purchase of a condominium unit and the closing thereof. The rate of defaults may increase from historical levels due to the personal finances of purchasers being negatively impacted as a result of changing macroeconomic and other conditions, including slow growth or recession, higher interest rates, high unemployment, inflation, and/or tighter credit. Defaults by purchasers to pay any remaining portions of the sales prices for condominium units under contract may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

We may hire and supervise third-party contractors to provide construction, engineering, and various other services for wholly owned development projects or development projects undertaken by real estate ventures in which we hold an equity interest. Certain of these contracts are structured such that we are the principal rather than the agent. As a result, we may assume liabilities in the course of the project and be subjected to, or become liable for, claims for construction defects, negligent performance of work or other similar actions by third parties we have engaged. Adverse outcomes of disputes or litigation could negatively impact our business, results of operations, and financial condition, particularly if we have not limited the extent of the damages to which we may be liable, or if our liabilities exceed the amounts of the insurance that we carry. Moreover, our tenants and condominium owners may seek to hold us accountable for the actions of contractors because of our role even if we have technically disclaimed liability as a legal matter, in which case we may determine it necessary to participate in a financial settlement for purposes of preserving the tenant or customer relationship or to protect our corporate brand. Acting as a principal may also mean that we pay a contractor before we have been reimbursed by our tenants or have received the entire purchase price of a condominium unit from the purchaser. This exposes us to additional risks of collection in the event of a bankruptcy, insolvency, or a purchaser default. The reverse can occur as well, where a contractor we have paid files for bankruptcy protection or commits fraud with the funds before completing a project which we have funded in part or in full.

In the ordinary course of our business, we collect and store sensitive data, including intellectual property, our proprietary business information and that of our tenants and business partners and personally identifiable information of our employees on our networks. The collection and use of personally identifiable information are governed by federal and state laws and regulations. Privacy and information security laws continue to evolve and may be inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another. Compliance with all such laws and regulations may increase our operating costs and adversely impact our ability to market our properties and services. Additionally, we rely on our information technology systems to be able to monitor and control our operations, adjust to changing market conditions and implement strategic initiatives. We own and manage some of these systems but also rely on third parties for a range of products and services. Any disruptions in or the failure of our own systems, or those managed by third parties, to operate as expected could adversely affect our ability to access and use certain applications and could, depending on the nature and magnitude of the problem, adversely affect our operating results by limiting our ability to effectively monitor and control our operations, adjust to changing market conditions, and implement strategic initiatives. The security measures that we and our vendors put in place cannot provide absolute security, and the information technology infrastructure we and our vendors use may be vulnerable to criminal cyber-attacks or data security incidents. Any such incident could compromise our networks or our vendors' networks (or the networks or systems of third parties that facilitate our business activities or our vendors' business activities), and the information we or our vendors store could be accessed, misused, publicly disclosed, corrupted, lost, or stolen, resulting in fraud, including wire fraud related to our assets, or other harm. Moreover, if a data security incident or breach affects our systems or our vendors' systems, whether through a breach of our systems or a breach of the systems of third parties, or results in the unauthorized release of personally identifiable information, our reputation and brand could be materially damaged, and we may be exposed to a risk of loss or litigation and possible liability, including, without limitation, loss related to the fact that agreements with our vendors, or our vendors' financial condition, may not allow us to recover all costs related to a cyber-breach for which they alone are responsible or for which we are jointly responsible, which could result in a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition. Like many companies, we and our third party vendors have been impacted by security incidents in the past and will likely experience security incidents of varying degrees. While we do not believe these incidents have had a material impact to date, privacy and information security risks have generally increased in recent years because of the proliferation of new technologies, such as ransomware, and the increased sophistication and activities of perpetrators of cyber-attacks. The rapid evolution and increased adoption of artificial intelligence technologies may also intensify our privacy and information security risks. Further, there has been a surge in widespread cyber-attacks during and since the COVID-19 pandemic, and the use of remote work environments and virtual platforms may increase our risk of cyber-attack or data security breaches. In light of the increased risks, we have dedicated substantial additional resources of expense, labor, and time to strengthening the security of our computer systems. In the future, we may expend additional resources to continue to enhance our information security measures and/or to investigate and remediate any information security vulnerabilities. Despite these steps, there can be no assurance that we will not suffer a significant data security incident in the future, that unauthorized parties will not gain access to sensitive data stored on our systems, or that any such incident will be discovered in a timely manner. Any failure in or breach of our information security systems, those of third-party service providers, or a breach of other third-party systems that ultimately impacts our operational or information security systems as a result of cyber-attacks or information security breaches could result in potentially serious harm to our business and results of operations.