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September 25, 2008
Forest City in the News
TradingMarkets.com, Forest City Enterprises Declares 8 Cent Dividend
September 24, 2008 (FinancialWire) -- Forest City Enterprises, Inc.'s (NYSE: FCE) (Current Market Cap: US$3.24 Bil.) board has declared a cash dividend of $0.08 for each outstanding share of both class A and class B common stock.
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Forest City closes on financing for D.C. project
Forest City Enterprises Inc. has closed on $250 million in construction financing for the initial phase of a project in southwest Washington, D.C.
The Cleveland-based real estate company has secured financing for the first two buildings of Waterfront Station, a mixed-use redevelopment project on M Street Southwest and Fourth Street near a rail station. The first two buildings comprise 628,000 square feet of offices and retail. The office space is fully leased to the District of Columbia for government offices. The retail tenants will include a Safeway supermarket and a CVS pharmacy.
Forest City executives said the financing deal is a testament to the project's strength in tough times. The $10.9 billion company continues to make announcements about financing deals and developments, though Forest City has pulled back on some projects and is taking a more cautious stance amid financial turmoil and a tight lending market.
Construction financing for the Waterfront Station project involved the Bank of Ireland, Wachovia Corp., PB Capital Corp. and the New York branch of Landesbank Baden-Wurttemberg. Bank of New York Mellon will serve as the administrative agent for the lenders.
Washington Business Journal, Forest City lands $250M for Southwest project
“Closing this nonrecourse financing in the midst of current credit-market conditions is a testament to a strong project in an excellent location, as well as to Forest City’s sponsorship, its partners and a great group of lenders,” said Charles A. Ratner, president and chief executive officer of Forest City (NYSE:FCEA) (NYSE:FCEB).
It’s also indicative of the creative approaches developers are taking to get the money to build projects. While the construction financing market was once dominated by regional and local banks, developers are increasingly turning to sovereign wealth funds, foreign banks and syndication arrangements with pools of participating banks.
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The project is being developed by Waterfront Associates, a joint venture between affiliates of Forest City Washington Inc., Bresler & Reiner Inc. and Vornado/Charles E. Smith.
GlobeSt.com, $250M Finances Waterfront Station
Cleveland Scene, Conventional Wisdom
Despite the fact that siting Cleveland's new convention center behind Tower City flies in the face of the logistical needs of those who actually run and service conventions and trade shows, there's one reason that the site selection committee might have chosen the land owned by Forest City over the site where the current convention center is located:
OFFICIALLY, THERE ARE two sites in play: land behind Tower City, on the Cuyahoga River, occupied mainly by parking lots; and the current, city-owned convention center, under Malls B and C downtown. Both were evaluated by the Greater Cleveland Partnership, a coalition of major area businesses.
In August, the GCP's 13-member site-selection committee, formed at the county commissioners' behest, released a report explaining the pros and cons of both locations (available online at www.positivelycleveland.com/mediacenter/conventioncenter). The committee also announced that it had voted unanimously in favor of the Tower City location, which is owned by Forest City, whose board chairman, Sam Miller, is a contributor to many campaigns and arguably the most powerful non-elected person in Cleveland.
Posted by lumi at September 25, 2008 4:55 AM