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February 5, 2009
Forest City in the News
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Scott Wolstein site on Flats east bank is second choice for medical mart
The news is getting worse for Forest City Enterprises in its home town of Cleveland, where the site it proposed for the city's big new Medical Mart project has slipped to third place.
Needless to say, Forest City execs are not used to not getting their way.
Forest City Enterprises spokesman Jeff Linton said the Cleveland company is disgusted to learn it is now, at best, a third option.
Said Linton: "It's a very strange process indeed by which our site goes from the first-place site based on a very detailed analysis that the [Greater Cleveland Partnership] did, to the second-place site based on MMPI's analysis that no one has seen, to third place based on one meeting in Chicago - and all without one single substantive discussion with us about the merits of our site and the opportunities for cost savings."
NoLandGrab: Atlantic Yards watchers will get a kick out of Forest City's indignation over backroom deals and missed "opportunities for cost savings," since Extell Development outbid Forest City Ratner 3-to-1 for Brooklyn's Vanderbilt Railyard in 2005, only to have the Metropolitan Transportation Authority decide to "negotiate" exclusively with Forest City — a process that netted a deal still worth $50 million less than Extell's original bid.
Brewed Fresh Daily, News Flash: Forest City “disgusted” by “strange” process
Apparently, not everyone in Cleveland OH shares the developer's "disgust":
Au contraire, mon ami, it looks like people are disgusted instead with your Forest City.
Crib Notes [Cleveland Plain Dealer real estate blog], Forest City says Las Vegas casino is several years off
Recent media reports that Forest City Enterprises Inc. plans to build a hotel-casino project in Las Vegas aren't inaccurate -- but they're somewhat premature, a spokesman says.
The real estate company, based in Cleveland, has shelved most development in favor of managing its existing properties during a nasty commercial real estate slump. That's why it seemed somewhat surprising when Las Vegas media outlets recently reported that Forest City was pitching a 47-story hotel-casino project on a piece of land in Union Park.
...Forest City bought land in downtown Las Vegas in 2007 and signed a development agreement to build a new Las Vegas city hall on part of the property. The company expects to start construction this year on the project, which is publicly funded -- and therefore somewhat easier to launch right now than a development that relies on bank financing or other private sources.
NoLandGrab: "Easier to launch" if not for Las Vegas's most powerful union, which is pulling out all the stops to stop the building of an expensive new city hall.
Posted by eric at February 5, 2009 5:33 PM