November 11, 20177 yr NOVEMBER 10, 2017 / 7:01 PM / UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO Exclusive: Equity Commonwealth approaches Forest City about merging - sources Greg Roumeliotis, Carl O'Donnell (Reuters) - Equity Commonwealth (EQC.N), a U.S. real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on office space and chaired by property mogul Sam Zell, has approached Forest City Realty Trust Inc (FCEa.N) to discuss a possible merger, people familiar with the matter said. Combining the two companies would create an office- and apartments-focused REIT worth more than $10 billion, making it one of the biggest mergers in the sector this year. MORE: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-forestcity-m-a-equitycommonwealth-exc/exclusive-equity-commonwealth-approaches-forest-city-about-merging-sources-idUSKBN1DA2ZW "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 11, 20177 yr With FC just signing a new lease for space in Key Tower, hopefully this deal going through would mean the consolidated company (and more jobs) headquartered in Cleveland, rather than Chicago.
November 13, 20177 yr Crains writer Stan Bullard tweeted: Interesting understates how important, and intriguing, this may be. https://t.co/Nugoq60mqd Sam Zell will not leave Chicago. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Zell At Zell's age (76), don't you think this is about him taking care of his family after he's gone? Zell approached Forest City. Forest City is the larger of the two. I don't see Zell being part of the post-merger picture, if there is a merger. BTW, Equity's Chicago portfolio is down to one building -- http://www.chicagobusiness.com/realestate/20170919/CRED03/170919887/zell-putting-former-wilson-hq-up-for-sale I don't know what Stan Bullard is seeing, because Equity is smaller than FCE both in terms of portfolio and employment. But he seems to think there is some intriguing possibility for Cleveland if this transaction occurs. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 7, 20187 yr Brookfield Is in Talks to Buy Forest City Realty Brookfield Asset Management Inc., Canada’s largest alternative-asset manager, is in talks to acquire Forest City Realty Trust Inc., people familiar with the matter said. Negotiations between Toronto-based Brookfield and Forest City are ongoing and could still fall apart, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. Other bidders may also emerge for the company, they said. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-03-06/trump-aides-like-nunberg-and-cohen-haunt-his-white-house Forest City Realty Trust extends timeline for board nominations Forest City Realty Trust (NYSE: FCEA) announced it is extending the window for nominations to its board to 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 21. The news release on Thursday evening, Feb. 23, also indicated that the Cleveland-based developer's board expects to conclude its examination of strategic alternatives prior to that time. It's the first time the board has put an end date on the potential sale, merger or other options it undertook last September. Forest City said it has not set the date for its annual meeting where shareholders will elect directors, along with other company business. The annual meeting usually is held in early June. The Forest City statement referred to the deadline for nominations as being for it to "receive proper written advance notice of nomination of a director candidate." Toronto-based Brookfield Asset Management has been reported to be in talks with Forest City since early January. http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20180223/news/152821/forest-city-realty-trust-extends-timeline-board-nominations I think that with Brookfield in talks with FC and that FC is extending the window for nominations to its board to March 21, that Brookfield will BUY FC in the near future. And hopefully with Brookfield being based in Toronto, that it will keep FC existing HQ as their USA base!
March 23, 20187 yr #CLE-based @ForestCityREIT won't sell itself off or merge with another company, after six-month review. Board shakeup under way: https://t.co/7dIjiVIqvj $FCE.A #REITs "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
July 1, 20186 yr July 01, 2018 4:00 am Forest City set to sell big, local apartment portfolio By STAN BULLARD The latest trio of Northeast Ohio properties that Forest City Realty Trust is offering to sell as part of its shift to larger, more profitable markets than its hometown has Michael Barron and colleagues in his Marcus & Millichap sales team also selling Cleveland for a change. "It's really nice to get investors into Northeast Ohio who don't know Cleveland and have not invested here before," said Barron, a Marcus & Millichap senior managing director. "We've found ourselves describing the region and showing it to people who have never looked at it before." That's because the 1,837 suites are in just three communities and each alone a tasty morsel for a big fish in the multifamily game: Tamarac in Willoughby, Hamptons in Beachwood and Deer Run in Twinsburg. Each is of enough scale, quality or rent range to attract large investment groups that won't look at small deals in the region or were turned off by the region's sour economic state. They're also debt-free and high quality, and they've never been marketed before. MORE: http://www.crainscleveland.com/article/20180701/news/166781/forest-city-set-sell-big-local-apartment-portfolio "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
July 1, 20186 yr How is it that there are a bunch of out of state investors looking to jump into our market because it's on an upswing at the same time FCE says the market isn't worth being in?
July 1, 20186 yr ^ i dont think its about that, i think its just about fce. they are obviously shedding, but there seems to be some debate in the family to selling the company all at once. or more likely they arent getting the price they want from brookfield or whoever else, so they are selling off the good solid stuff they control development by development. just a guess tho — who knows?
July 1, 20186 yr Not all development companies are publicly traded. FCE is, and it's heavily driven by Wall Street. If you don't earn enough of a return, Wall Street is simply going to put its money elsewhere. I can tell you that, from a railroad perspective, they are literally turning away shippers that don't give them enough profit to please their Wall Street overlords. It's extremely frustrating to watch shippers that want to use rail and save money vs. trucking but can't because the railroads purposely ignore them or try to discourage them from choosing rail. The greed of Wall Street is what drives these market failures. It's amazing how many hedge funds have seats on the boards of so many companies these days. And their greed is what keeps publicly traded developers from even considering lower rent markets like Cleveland. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
July 31, 20186 yr Forest City acquired by Brookfield Asset Management in a $6.8 billion deal Brookfield Asset Management Inc. agreed to acquire Forest City Realty Trust Inc., one of Cleveland's best-known companies, for about $6.8 billion, $11.4 billion value including debt, Bloomberg news reported this morning. The Toronto-based alternative asset manager said in a statement Tuesday morning it will acquire Forest City for $25.35 a share in cash, a 10 percent premium over where shares closed Monday and about 26 percent above where they were trading the day before Bloomberg reported that the pair had restarted talks. MORE: https://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2018/07/forest_city_acquired_by_brookf.html#incart_std
July 31, 20186 yr Ugh. Another local corporate HQ to bite the dust. Yeah. Could result in a massive loss in local jobs too. Their US headquarters is in New York. Do they have any other regional offices, like Chicago or wherever? Maybe Cleveland could remain a regional HQ for the former FCE operations.
July 31, 20186 yr sad to see the end of an era, but not at all unexpected. yeah, hopefully the former fce remains a regional brookfield office --- this says forest city has 700 jobs in ne ohio: https://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2015/12/forest_city_cuts_51_jobs_45_of.html
July 31, 20186 yr If they're smart they'll keep an office here. How long is the brand new lease they just signed in Key Tower? 10 years? 15? Wouldn't make much sense for them to empty the office and still be stuck with the space for all that time. Most all of their subsidiaries are based in Toronto, with Residential based in Calgary and Office based in NYC. The one that seems to most overlap with FCE is Brookfield Property Partners, which has their hq in Bermuda - likely just for taxes. The career opportunities they have lists positions in the US in NY, Chicago and Atlanta (most are in Toronto). I could see them keeping a Cleveland office, possibly even moving positions from other cities depending on when leases run out.
August 1, 20186 yr more like the "abandoned Cleveland" section. I don't think another JCC donation is going to make things right this time, Ratners.
September 4, 20186 yr As #CLE-based @ForestCityREIT readies for a sale to Brookfield Asset Management, another member of the Ratner family will depart. https://t.co/S937eofgmB "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
September 18, 20186 yr Forest City’s Cleveland HQ Is Complete Vocon designed the 110,000-square-foot downtown office that the real estate company leased last year, allowing the tenant to reduce its footprint by 40 percent. https://www.cpexecutive.com/post/forest-citys-cleveland-hq-is-complete/ "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
September 25, 20186 yr Forest City’s board narrowly approved the sale to Toronto-based Brookfield. mjarboe[/member] has details on the internal divisions over the company’s future: https://t.co/D1gSyrjmnd "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
October 15, 20186 yr "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 16, 20186 yr "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
November 16, 20186 yr It does seem sort of a generational thing. Old line companies (Jacobs, FC, DDR, Assoc Estates) giving way to newer Stark, Weston, Millenium, Marous, etc. Remember: It's the Year of the Snake
March 7, 20196 yr "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
March 7, 20196 yr I was fresh out of college, looking for a career in real estate but had no experience and naively didn't really know how to find a job or what exactly I wanted to do. My aunt knew him and setup a meeting for me with him. I don't recall much about it besides his office. He was gracious with his time and after we met for a while, he sent me to talk to another executive. Nothing came out of it, but it was nice of him to take the meeting. One thing - I didn't get a "gift" that people always talked about!
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