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January 22, 2007
Forest City Reaches Agreement with Barclays PLC for Naming Rights to Brooklyn Atlantic Yards Arena
Here's last week's press release from Forest City Enterprises, via Cleveland dBusinessNews.com (pay no attention to the mention of a "park," which is typically publicly — not privately — owned, and the project's contributing to the "revitalization of downtown Brooklyn," even though it's located in Prospect Heights):
CLEVELAND -- Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE:FCEA) and (NYSE:FCEB) today announced that Barclays PLC, a major global financial services provider, has signed a partnership agreement for naming rights to a planned new sports and entertainment arena at Forest City’s Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn. The arena is expected to become home to the National Basketball Association’s Nets, in which Forest City has an ownership interest. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The agreement gives U.K.-based Barclays 20-year naming rights to the arena, which will be called Barclays Center and is scheduled to open for the 2009-2010 NBA season. The 850,000-square-foot arena, designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry, will seat up to 20,000 people. It will be the centerpiece of Atlantic Yards, Forest City’s long-term mixed-use development project in downtown Brooklyn. In addition to Barclays Center, Atlantic Yards is anticipated to include new urban retail, office buildings, apartments, and parks and open space.
Charles A. Ratner, president and chief executive officer of Forest City Enterprises, said, “This agreement is a critical milestone in the development of our Atlantic Yards project. The new Barclays Center will be a world-class professional sports complex and international entertainment destination. With the arena as a centerpiece, Atlantic Yards will continue the revitalization of downtown Brooklyn, and create thousands of jobs and mixed-income housing for the local community.”
In addition to the naming rights, Barclays has agreed to work with Forest City to promote athletics, education and personal development among young people in Brooklyn. The Nets-Barclays Sports Alliance will, as its first objective, repair and renovate basketball courts and other sports facilities throughout Brooklyn and sponsor amateur athletic tournaments and clinics for Brooklyn’s youth.
Corporate Description
Forest City Enterprises, Inc. is an $8.5 billion NYSE-listed national real estate company. The Company is principally engaged in the ownership, development, management and acquisition of commercial and residential real estate and land throughout the United States.Safe Harbor Language
Statements made in this news release that state the Company or management’s intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements. It is important to note that the Company’s actual results could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, real estate development and investment risks, economic conditions in the Company’s core markets, reliance on major tenants, the impact of terrorist acts, the Company’s substantial leverage and the ability to service debt, guarantees under the Company’s credit facility, changes in interest rates, continued availability of tax-exempt government financing, the sustainability of substantial operations at the subsidiary level, significant geographic concentration, illiquidity of real estate investments, dependence on rental income from real property, conflicts of interest, competition, potential liability from syndicated properties, effects of uninsured loss, environmental liabilities, partnership risks, litigation risks, risks associated with an investment in a professional sports franchise, and other risk factors as disclosed from time to time in the Company’s SEC filings, including, but not limited to, the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2006.
Posted by lumi at January 22, 2007 9:50 AM