Houston-based Hines is under contract to buy the Houston Chronicle building and parking garage put on the market earlier this year, as the newspaper plans to move from downtown to a location on the Southwest Freeway. John Mooz, senior managing director of Hines, confirmed the company's plans to acquire the property late Tuesday but would not expand on what it plans for the site or provide any other details. The development firm was founded here by Gerald Hines, who came to Houston in 1948 with a mechanical engineering degree and later built some of the city's most prominent skyscrapers.