Howard Hughes Corp., an owner, manager and developer of different types of real estate throughout the U.S., has hired bankers at Centerview Partners to explore strategic alternatives that include a sale of the company, according to people familiar with the situation.

The company, a one time spinoff from General Growth Properties, has been struggling to command a valuation that the board, led by its Chairman Bill Ackman, feels is appropriate for a company with its collection of assets and performance metrics.

People familiar with the board's thinking say it is unclear the company is well suited to the public markets because — unlike most other real estate companies — it is not a REIT, but a C-Corp and has a diverse collection of assets that does not lend itself to the recurring and predictable cash flows real estate investors may be looking for.

The company is both an owner of land, such as 60 acres of beach front in Honolulu, and a developer of residential communities, such as the Woodlands in Houston and commercial developments such as the South Street Seaport, only a few blocks east of the New York Stock Exchange in downtown Manhattan.