From left: Queens Place and Nine Metrotech

Forest City Ratner’s Cleveland-based parent company Forest City Enterprises completed more than $300 million in property financings in the quarter ending Jan. 31, 2012, including two worth a combined $163 million in New York City, it announced today.

The company closed a 10-year, $87 million loan for Queens Place, a 455,000-square-foot, five-level retail center on Queens Boulevard. It also purchased the existing $75 million loan at Nine Metrotech, a 317,000-square-foot office building in the MetroTech Center office campus in downtown Brooklyn, and then closed a new 10-year, $63 million loan for the same property. [more]

From left: David LaRue and a rendering of Atlantic Yards

Forest City Enterprises, developer of the Barclay’s
Center at Atlantic Yards, reported third-quarter losses of $41.9
million, or 25 cents per share, according to a report from
International Business Times. Leasing difficulties at a Florida mall and disposition of an office building in Cleveland were cited as main reasons for the third quarter net loss.
The company saw $4.3 million in losses from vacancies in two Brooklyn
office properties, $4 million
in write-offs from stalled development projects, and $3.3 million in losses
from slower-than-expected leasing at 8 Spruce Street, the Frank
Gehry-designed residential tower. The company said it has
leased 550 of 903 apartments in the building. [more]

Clockwise from upper left: Daniel Shallit, director of Northeast development at the Sports Authority, Dennis Bachman, a senior real estate representative for Wakefern Food, Bronx Terminal Market, Larry Rose, a principal with advisory firm RK Realty Advisors, Patrick Smith, vice president of real estate for BJ’s Wholesale Club, Michael Shanahan, vice president of real estate at Burlington Coat Factory, and developer Ken Narva

Developers have built too much parking garage space in some of the city’s newest mall developments including the Gateway Center at the Bronx Terminal Market, according to real estate professionals speaking at a panel this morning at the International Council of Shopping Centers New York convention.

Parking floors are sitting mostly empty in some projects even as the overall mall might do well, the retail owners and brokers said.

“What that really tells you going forward is that there is a case to be made that you don’t necessarily need as much parking if it is just urban vertical retail,” said Larry Rose, a principal with advisory firm RK Realty Advisors.
[more]

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From left: David LaRue of Forest City Enterprises, 8 Spruce Street and DKLB BKLN

Forest City Enterprises and National Real Estate Advisors announced agreements to restructure the financing at 8 Spruce Street, the Frank Gehry-designed 76-story rental tower in Lower Manhattan and at DKLB BKLN the luxury tower in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, saving the companies hundreds of millions of dollars in debt payments.
The development is key for Forest City, the parent firm of Forest City Ratner, as this $876 million rental tower, formerly known as the Beekman, was under pressure to bring in enough renters to become profitable in a market that is just getting its sea legs.

“By extending the bank credit facilities, it allows for additional time for economic conditions and rents to further improve before refinancing is necessary,” said David LaRue, CEO of Forest City Enterprises, in a statement. [more]

Joanne Minieri stepped down as president of the New York subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises today, the same day the firm sold 49 percent of its stake in 15 New York City properties. Minieri will continue to advise the New York arm, Forest City Ratner, on major projects, but will launch her own venture geared towards consulting real estate developers and financial services companies.

Minieri joined Forest City Enterprises in 1995 and was promoted to president and COO in 2007. As president she has been closely involved in Forest City’s Atlantic Yards project including breaking ground on the Barclays Center that will be home to the Nets.TRD [more]

From left: Charles Ratner, 42nd Street Retail and Entertainment Complex, Atlantic Center and Harlem Center

Madison International Realty today said it entered a joint venture to buy a 49 percent stake in Forest
City Enterprises’ 15 retail and entertainment properties in New York City for $172.3 million in cash.
Cleveland-based Forest City, the parent company of Forest City Ratner, said it will retain a 51 percent
stake in the properties and will continue to manage and control leasing at the properties.”Today’s announcement represents both the significant value represented in our mature portfolio and
our continuing ability to create liquidity by monetizing select elements of that portfolio,” Forest City
President and CEO Charles Ratner said in a statement.
[more]

Atlantic Yards developer Bruce Ratner is looking to tap into overseas financing for his $4.9 billion project with the help of a federal program that gives green cards to investors in exchange for development capital. According to the Wall Street journal, Ratner is planning a trip to China next month in the hopes of drumming up $250 million in funds through the so-called EB-5 program, which has helped developers who create jobs in struggling areas raise more than $1 billion since its inception in 1990 by enticing prospective financiers with employment-based visas. Following the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s success in seeking $125 million in financing through the program this spring, the city suggested that Forest City Ratner try it, too. The company has thousands of apartments, the new Nets basketball arena and office space planned for the Downtown Brooklyn complex and would be seeking potentially the largest amount ever borrowed through EB-5, pending approval by the federal government for its participation. Ratner broke ground on the $900 million Barclays Center this year and is looking to start constructing its first of 16 Atlantic Yards towers in 2011. [WSJ]

[more]

Charles Ratner

Forest City Enterprises, the parent company of Forest City Ratner, swung to a profit in the fiscal second quarter as rental income rose and the company closed on the sale of the New Jersey Nets to a Russian billionaire. The Cleveland-based firm reported net income of $122.8 million, or 61 cents a share, in the quarter ended July 31, compared with [more]

A top Bloomberg Administration official has around $5,000 invested in Forest City Enterprises — the developer behind the controversial Atlantic Yards project that’s getting more than $200 million in city funding, in addition to tax breaks, the Post reported. A city financial disclosure report made public yesterday revealed that Howard Wolfson, the city’s deputy mayor for governmental affairs and a former political strategist for Hillary Clinton, listed investments worth between $5,000 and $39,000 in Bruce Ratner’s company, though a spokesperson for the city said the actual value is “close to $5,000″ and thus “far below the threshold that raises potential conflict of interest issues.” Wolfson bought the stock in 2007, three years before he took the job with the city, the spokesperson said. Still, others called upon Wolfson to sell the stock or to put it in a trust until he finishes out his term. [Post]

[more]

Saks Fifth Avenue is pulling out of Forest City Enterprises’
controversial Ridge Hill real estate project in Westchester County,
raising further questions about the future of the $685 million
mixed-use complex.
Forest City announced yesterday that Saks pulled out as the anchor
tenant of the project, less than a year from signing a deal to develop
an 80,000-square-foot store at the Yonkers site, making it the chain’s
only store in Westchester County. Saks told The Real Deal that the
developer failed to meet a key provision of the deal.
“Saks Fifth Avenue had signed a letter of intent to be a part of the
Ridge Hill development, but Forest City was unable to secure our agreed
upon list of co-tenants for the development,” said Julia Bentley,
spokesperson for Saks. [more]