Business & Finance: Happy Westerner

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Another U.S. landmark, Los Angeles' Biltmore Hotel, changed hands last week. Its buyer: Dallas Real-Estate Man Leo F. Corrigan, 57, whose holdings stretch from coast to coast (TIME, Jan. 27,1947). Corrigan estimates he controls more than $500 million worth of buildings and land. Among them: 14 office buildings, 40 apartment projects, 55 shopping centers, and 15 hotels.

As usual, Corrigan got the Biltmore, which cost $13 million to build and furnish in 1923, at less than cost. Of the $12.3 million purchase price, he paid $9.4 million in cash. Corrigan himself put up $2,000,000, the Equitable Life Assurance Society the rest.

The Biltmore is the biggest hotel west of Chicago, but it won't be for long. Corrigan is now completing a 695-room addition to his Adolphus Hotel in Dallas which will make it the biggest (1,500 rooms) completely air-conditioned hotel in the world. Says Corrigan, who is dickering for several more hotels and shopping centers: "I've got to expand or I'm not happy."