CLEVELAND, Oct. 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Forest City
Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: FCEA) today announced the closing of the
sale of its interest in The Shops at Northfield Stapleton, a 1.1
million-square-foot, open-air regional mall in Denver, to QIC. The sale is the first
completed transaction as part of a recently announced definitive
agreements under which QIC will acquire Forest City's ownership interest in a total of
10 regional malls in markets across the country.
The Shops at Northfield Stapleton is the first mall divestiture
to close as part of the larger QIC transaction. Sales of five
additional malls to QIC are expected to close by yearend. The
remaining four malls in the portfolio will be transferred to QIC
under a fixed-price option and are expected to close as
Forest City secures replacement
assets or other opportunities into which it will redeploy its
ownership stake in those malls.
"This closing is an important milestone for our company," said
David J. LaRue, Forest City president and chief executive
officer. "It marks an acceleration of Forest City's transformation as a focused,
urban placemaker with a high-quality portfolio of multifamily,
office and mixed-use assets in great markets."
As previously disclosed, the overall transaction values the 10
regional malls at approximately $3.175
billion, or $1.55 billion at
Forest City's share. Valuations
for the individual malls were not disclosed.
The five remaining malls expected to transact by yearend are:
Westchester's Ridge Hill in Yonkers,
NY, The Shops at Wiregrass in Tampa, FL, Mall at Robinson in Pittsburgh, PA, Antelope Valley Mall in
Palmdale, CA, and South Bay
Galleria in Redondo Beach, CA. The
remaining four malls, which are expected to transact as
Forest City secures replacement
assets, are: Victoria Gardens in Rancho
Cucamonga, CA, Galleria at Sunset in Henderson, NV, Promenade Temecula in
Temecula, CA, and Short Pump Town
Centre in Richmond, VA.
About Forest
City
Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. is a NYSE-listed
national real estate company with $8.2
billion in consolidated assets. The Company is principally
engaged in the ownership, development, management and acquisition
of commercial and residential real estate throughout the United
States. For more information, visit www.forestcity.net.
Safe Harbor Language
Statements made in this news
release that state Forest City's
or its management's intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations or
predictions of the future are forward-looking statements. The
company's actual results could differ materially from those
expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements due to
various risks, uncertainties and other factors. Risks and factors
that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in
the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the
uncertain outcome, impact, effects and results of the Board's
review of operating, strategic, financial and structural
alternatives, the company's ability to carry out future
transactions and strategic investments, as well as the acquisition
related costs, unanticipated difficulties realizing expected
benefits expected when entering into a transaction, the company's
ability to qualify or to remain qualified as a REIT, its ability to
satisfy REIT distribution requirements, the impact of issuing
equity, debt or both, and selling assets to satisfy its future
distributions required as a REIT or to fund capital expenditures,
future growth and expansion initiatives, the impact of the amount
and timing of any future distributions, the impact from complying
with REIT qualification requirements limiting its flexibility or
causing it to forego otherwise attractive opportunities beyond
rental real estate operations, the impact of complying with the
REIT requirements related to hedging, its lack of experience
operating as a REIT, legislative, administrative, regulatory or
other actions affecting REITs, including positions taken by the
Internal Revenue Service, the possibility that the company's Board
of Directors will unilaterally revoke its REIT election, the
possibility that the anticipated benefits of qualifying as a REIT
will not be realized, or will not be realized within the expected
time period, the impact of current lending and capital market
conditions on its liquidity, its ability to finance or refinance
projects or repay its debt, the impact of the slow economic
recovery on the ownership, development and management of its
commercial real estate portfolio, general real estate investment
and development risks, litigation risks, vacancies in its
properties, risks associated with developing and managing
properties in partnership with others, competition, its ability to
renew leases or re-lease spaces as leases expire, illiquidity of
real estate investments, its ability to identify and transact on
chosen strategic alternatives for a portion of its retail
portfolio, bankruptcy or defaults of tenants, anchor store
consolidations or closings, the impact of terrorist acts and other
armed conflicts, its substantial debt leverage and the ability to
obtain and service debt, the impact of restrictions imposed by the
company's revolving credit facility, term loan and senior debt,
exposure to hedging agreements, the level and volatility of
interest rates, the continued availability of tax-exempt government
financing, its ability to receive payment on the notes receivable
issued by Onexim in connection with their purchase of our interests
in the Barclays Center and the Nets, the impact of credit rating
downgrades, effects of uninsured or underinsured losses, effects of
a downgrade or failure of its insurance carriers, environmental
liabilities, competing interests of its directors and executive
officers, the ability to recruit and retain key personnel, risks
associated with the sale of tax credits, downturns in the housing
market, the ability to maintain effective internal controls,
compliance with governmental regulations, increased legislative and
regulatory scrutiny of the financial services industry, changes in
federal, state or local tax laws and international trade
agreements, volatility in the market price of its publicly traded
securities, inflation risks, cybersecurity risks, cyber incidents,
shareholder activism efforts, conflicts of interest, risks related
to its organizational structure including operating through its
Operating Partnership and its UPREIT structure, as well as other
risks listed from time to time in the company's SEC filings,
including but not limited to, the company's annual and quarterly
reports.
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SOURCE Forest City Realty Trust, Inc.