Rouse Sale Ends Independence of Unique Visionary

[Dover]

Rouse Sale Ends Independence of Unique Visionary

Fri Aug 20, 2004 05:30 PM ET
By Jessica Hall

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The $7.2 billion sale of The Rouse Co. marks the end of a fiercely independent real estate and shopping mall company that oversaw America's 20th Century migration from cities to suburbs by developing planned communities.

Rouse, which developed the town of Columbia, Maryland, as "The Next America" in the wake of desegregation, agreed on Friday to be acquired by the No. 2 shopping mall company General Growth Properties Inc.

Investors of the company -- which brought life and commerce to once-depressed city neighborhoods like Baltimore's Inner Harbor, and created tony shopping centers like Chicago's Water Tower Place -- cheered the deal, sending the stock up more than 30 percent to close at $66.61 on the New York Stock Exchange....cont'd

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