Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. was a real estate investment trust that invested in

office building An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific dut ...

shopping center A shopping center (American English) or shopping centre (Commonwealth English), also called a shopping complex, shopping arcade, shopping plaza or galleria, is a group of shops built together, sometimes under one roof. The first known collec ...

s and

apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are ma ...

s in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, and the greater metropolitan areas of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and

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The company was organized in

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

with its headquarters in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. As of December 31, 2017, the company owned 29 office buildings, 29 shopping centers, and 78 apartment complexes. On December 7, 2018, the company was acquired by Brookfield Asset Management.

History

In 1920, Forest City was founded as a family-owned

lumber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

and

household hardware Household hardware (or simply, hardware) is equipment that can be touched or held by hand such as keys, locks, nuts, screws, washers, hinges, latches, handles, wire, chains, belts, plumbing supplies, electrical supplies, tools, utensils, cutler ...

business by siblings Charles, Leonard,

Max Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

and Fannye Ratner, immigrants from Poland. Beginning in the 1930s, the company invested in residential garages, apartments, retail strip centers. During World War II, the company manufactured and prefabricated governmental housing. In 1960, Forest City became a publicly-traded company. In 1987, the company sold its retail lumber business to

Handy Andy Home Improvement Center Handy Andy Home Improvement Centers was founded as Arrow Lumber Company by Joseph Rashkow in 1947 on the south side of Chicago. His son, Ronald Rashkow, bought out the single store operation in 1967 from his father. He converted the company to Han ...

. In 2011, the company sold a 49% stake in a retail portfolio in New York for $172.3 million. In 2013, the company acquired a 100% interest in a mall in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

. The company also sold a Sheraton hotel in Station Square in Pittsburgh for $61 million. It also announced plans to redevelop

Ballston Common Mall Ballston Quarter, formerly known as Ballston Common Mall, originally opened as Parkington Shopping Center, was one of the first major suburban shopping centers in the Washington, D.C., area. It opened in 1951 and was the nation's first shopping ce ...

. The company acquired a key parcel from

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

for $13.4 million. In 2016, for tax purposes, the company converted into a real estate investment trust. The company also sold its stake in the

Brooklyn Nets The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Nets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The t ...

and the

Barclays Center Barclays Center is a multi-purpose list of indoor arenas, indoor arena in the New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough of Brooklyn. The arena is home to the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association and the New York Liberty o ...

Mikhail Prokhorov Mikhail Dmitrievich Prokhorov ( rus, Михаил Дмитриевич Прохоров, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ˈdmʲitrʲɪjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈproxərəf; born 3 May 1965) is a Russian-Israeli oligarch, politician, and former owner of the Brooklyn Nets. I ...

, sold its military housing division to Hunt Companies for $208.8 million, sold

Terminal Tower Terminal Tower is a 52-story, , landmark skyscraper located on Public Square in Downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Built during the skyscraper boom of the 1920s and 1930s, it was the second-tallest building in the world when it was comple ...

to K&D Group for $38.5 million, and sold 7.7 acres and 8 buildings in Cleveland to an investor group for $3.5 million. In June, 2017 Forest City shareholders voted to eliminate the dual share structure that had enabled the founding Ratner family to control the company. The City of New York also filed a lawsuit against the company in conjunction with the rent due pursuant to a ground lease. In August, 2017 the company sold 25 acres in Cleveland. In October, 2017 the company sold its interests in 10 malls to Queensland Investment Corporation for $1.55 billion. On December 7, 2018, the company was acquired by Brookfield Asset Management.

Investments

Notable projects that were owned by the company are: * 8 Spruce Street, also known as "New York by Gehry", for its designer,

Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry, , FAIA (; ; born ) is a Canadian-born American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become world-renowned attractions. His works are considered ...

. *

Pacific Park, Brooklyn Pacific Park is a mixed-use commercial and residential development project by Forest City Ratner that will consist of 17 high-rise buildings, under construction in Prospect Heights, adjacent to Downtown Brooklyn, Park Slope, and Fort Greene in ...

, a

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

that includes the

. * Central Station, a primarily residential development on the site of a former railroad terminal in

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. *

Mercantile National Bank Building The Mercantile National Bank Building (known colloquially as The Merc) is a 31-story, skyscraper at 1800 Main Street in the Main Street district of downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the former home of the Mercantile National Bank, which later bec ...

, a mixed-use urban redevelopment project of a historical office complex in

. *

Mesa del Sol Mesa del Sol (Spanish for "table of the sun") is an uncompleted mixed-use master planned community in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Mesa del Sol, a 12,900-acre mixed-use community, is located on Albuquerque's South Mesa. By combining job creation with ...

, planned for 100,000 inhabitants in

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

, is the company's largest mixed-use development, co-owned by Covington Capital Partners. * New York Times Building, a 52-story building in Midtown

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Renzo Piano Renzo Piano (; born 14 September 1937) is an Italian architect. His notable buildings include the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (with Richard Rogers, 1977), The Shard in London (2012), the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (20 ...

. *

Northfield Stapleton The Shops at Northfield, formerly Northfield Stapleton, is an open-air, retail town center located at the Stapleton International Airport redevelopment in Denver, Colorado, United States. It is owned and operated by QIC. Northfield Stapleton is ...

is an open-air, retail town center at the company's mixed-use redevelopment project at

Stapleton International Airport Stapleton International Airport was a major airport in the western United States, and the primary airport of Denver, Colorado, from 1929 to 1995. It was a hub for Continental Airlines, the original Frontier Airlines, People Express, United Ai ...

. * Public Health Service Hospital District in

's Presidio. * Radian, a 26-story, curved residential tower in the Financial District of

. *

Showcase Mall Showcase Mall is a shopping center on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is known for its landmark facade, featuring a tall Coca-Cola bottle and a colossal bag of M&M's. History After the 1989 announcement of plans for the MGM Grand Las ...

, a shopping center on the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of ...

. * Short Pump Town Center, an

outdoor mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to ref ...

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. * Station Square, a indoor and outdoor shopping, dining and entertainment complex in

. * University Park at MIT, a mixed-use urban redevelopment project on an abandoned industrial site near the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

. * Victoria Gardens, a mixed-use shopping center development in

Rancho Cucamonga, California Rancho Cucamonga ( ) is a city located just south of the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and Angeles National Forest in San Bernardino County, California, United States. About east of Downtown Los Angeles, Rancho Cucamonga is the 28th ...

. *

Westchester's Ridge Hill Ridge Hill, formerly known as Westchester's Ridge Hill is a mixed-use lifestyle center located between Interstate 87 and the Sprain Brook Parkway in Yonkers, New York. With its grand opening in 2011, Ridge Hill features a variety of retail store ...

, an upscale, urban open-air shopping center in

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...

anchored by Lord & Taylor, until the store closed in 2020. *

Westfield San Francisco Centre The Westfield San Francisco Centre is an upscale shopping mall located in San Francisco, California, managed by the Westfield Group and co-owned by Westfield and Brookfield Asset Management. It is anchored by Nordstrom and Bloomingdale's, and inc ...

, an upscale, urban shopping center in San Francisco co-owned and managed by The Westfield Group.

References

{{Authority control 1920 establishments in Ohio Defunct companies of the United States Forest City Realty Trust Real estate companies established in 1920 Ratner family