The story
In 1984, the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway and the Southern Pacific Lines announced plans to merge all their assets into a single railway. As part of the merger, Santa Fe Pacific Realty, the real estate arm, was incorporated after the announcement. In 1986, the Interstate Commerce Commission denied the merger, as it would have created a monopoly on mainline freight movements in California and its bordering states. As a result, the two railroads split in 1988. The real estate arm was spun off in 1989 and was renamed Catellus Development Corporation to manage the stations and land parcels next to the railroad tracks remaining under their ownership. It would later come to own numerous properties across the continent. Catellus became independent from Santa Fe Pacific in 1990.
Between 1999 and 2004, The Wildlands Conservancy acquired more than 587,000 of lands in the Mohave Desert from Catellus and donated it to the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management.
On June 7, 2005, Catellus Development Corporation announced it will merge into ProLogis (NYSE: PLD) for $3.6 billion ($5.5 billion in 2018 dollars). The deal closed on September 15, 2005.
In late 2010, the private equity firm TPG Capital announced its intent to acquire a collection of real estate and the Catellus trademark from ProLogis. The deal closed in 2011.
Today, the developer operates with headquarters in Emeryville, California with regional offices in Austin, Texas; Newport Beach, California; and Tempe, Arizona.
From Wikipedia’s article on Catellus Development Corporation, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4