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Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park infographics: what's built/what's coming/what's missing, who's responsible, + project FAQ/timeline (pinned post)

What does Forest City have on the block in New York City?

According to Crain's Cleveland Business (via NLG), Forest City Enterprises (FCE) is so desperate for cash that, rather than sell only poor-performing properties, it is now marketing a very different portfolio, "gem office and retail buildings in superior markets and apartments in hot rental markets."

On the block are 10 apartment buildings around the country, office space in Boston, and, via brokers CB Richard Ellis and the Holliday Fenoglio Fowler, four retail properties in New York City.

What's on the block?

There are no Forest City Ratner listings publicly available via either the CBRE or the Holliday Fenoglio Fowler web sites.

I've listed the properties below, in the order they appear on the FCE web site. I'll bet that the 42nd Street Complex, Atlantic Center Mall, and Atlantic Terminal Mall are untouchable, because the latter two would benefit enormously from Atlantic Yards and the Times Square location is prime.

(Remember, as the New York Times Magazine told us Sunday, in an articled headlined Where Is the New Brooklyn?, Brooklyn is a euphemism for gentrification,)

The Shops at Atlantic Center Site V aren't on the block, either, because a) FCR doesn't control all the land and b) the site is in the Atlantic Yards footprint. The Museum of Jewish Heritage is a small retail space.

The rest is up for grabs. I don't know enough about the retail market, nor FCR's sense of core efforts, to know whether movie theaters--which do reasonably well in bad economies, right?--are more or less likely to be sold.

But Forest City has a lot more property than you might think. The text below is excerpted from the FCE web site.

42nd Street Complex

42nd St. Retail and Entertainment Complex
234 West 42nd St.
New York, NY 10036
A key part of the new 42nd Street and booming Times Square area, the project is steps away from various entertainment destinations, including Disney's New Amsterdam Theatre, the Ford Performing Arts Center and the 24-hour, neon signage of Times Square. The area's role as a major corporate center has been enhanced by the Reuters building, the new Condé Nast building and the new headquarters for Ernst & Young.

Date opened June 2000
Square footage 306,000 square feet
Number of shops 9

Atlantic Center Mall

Atlantic Center
625 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Atlantic Center is adjacent to Atlantic Terminal, the third-largest mass transportation hub in New York City. Nearly 40 million passengers pass through Atlantic Terminal each year. It is accessible by subways M, N, R, W, Q, 1,2,3,4,5, C and the Long Island Railroad.

Date opened November 1996

Square footage 393,713 square feet

Atlantic Terminal

Atlantic Terminal
139 Flatbush Avenue
Brooklyn, N.Y. 11217

Atlantic Terminal sits atop the largest transportation hub in the 2.5-million-person borough of Brooklyn. The retail center includes five levels and more than 370,000 square feet of retail space, including Target, DSW, Chuck E. Cheese’s and The Children’s Place.

Above the retail center is a new, 400,000-square-foot office building for The Bank of New York. Employees and visitors to Atlantic Terminal benefit from internal access to the retail shopping center, nine subways and the Long Island Railroad.

More than 30 million passengers pass through the Atlantic Terminal station every year.

Date opened March 2004

Square footage 373,000 square feet

Brooklyn Commons

Brooklyn Commons
124-136 2nd Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11215

Opening date 2004

Property size 151,000

Property location
Located in Brooklyn on 2nd Avenue and 11th Street, adjacent to the Gowanus Canal.

Castle Center

Castle Center
1685 Eastchester Road
Bronx, NY 10461

Date opened July 2000

Square footage 63,000 square feet

East River Plaza

East River Plaza
East 116th Street at the FDR Drive
New York, NY 10035

Forest City Ratner Companies and Blumenfeld Development Group will transform the former Washburn Wire Factory into East River Plaza, a vibrant commercial center in East Harlem.

With some of the country’s top retailers opening in Upper Manhattan for the first time, East River will provide premium shopping with plenty of on-site parking for the community and all New Yorkers.

The project will create thousands of new jobs and generate millions of dollars in new tax revenue. East River Plaza is an investment in the East Harlem community and will be a catalyst for further economic development.

Property size 517,000 square feet

Forest Avenue Cinemas

Forest Avenue Cinemas
2474 Forest Avenue
Staten Island, NY 10303

Date opened May 2000

Square footage 70,000 square feet

Harlem Center

Harlem Center
125 West 125 Street
New York, NY 10027

Located on 125th Street – the busiest shopping street in Harlem.

Date opened September 2002

Square footage 126,000 square feet

Museum of Jewish Heritage

Museum of Jewish Heritage
18 First Place
New York, NY 10004

Square footage 30,000 square feet

Shops at Atlantic Center Site V

Shops at Atlantic Center Site V
590 Atlantic Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217

Adjacent to the Atlantic Terminal subway and train stations, the Shops at Atlanic Center Site V is located across the street from Forest City's Atlantic Center and Atlantic Terminal retail projects.

Date opened June 1998

Square footage 16,980

Queens Place

Queens Place
88-01 Queens Blvd
Forest Hills, NY 11379

Queens Place is a vertical power center located in the heart of Queens.

This center offers 440,000 square feet of prime retail space on five levels, with easy access to more than 1,200 parking spaces, along with outstanding visibility and access from major roads. Destination tenants like Target and Best Buy provide a high profile and assured traffic to the center.

More than 900,000 consumers live within a three-mile radius of Queens Place. Adjacent to the Queens Center Mall and easily accessible from the rest of the borough, Queens Place offers retailers superb access to this massive, but traditionally under served, consumer market.

Date opened/acquired September 2001

Square footage 221,509 square feet

[Note: the address says Forest Hills. Everyone else identifies the location as Elmhurst. NLG last month tweaked Forest City Ratner for misidentifying the mall.]

Shops at Bruckner Boulevard

Shops at Bruckner Boulevard
1910 Story Avenue
Bronx, NY 10473

Date opened November 1996

Square footage 113,485 square feet

Shops at Grand Avenue / Maspeth Center


Shops at Grand Avenue / Maspeth Center
74-17 Grand Avenue
Maspeth, NY 11378

Date opened December 1997

Square footage 100,000 square feet

Shops at Gun Hill Road


Shops at Gun Hill Road
1806 Gun Hill Road
Bronx, NY 10469

Date opened 1997

Square footage 147,000 square feet

Shops at Northern Boulevard

Shops at Northern Boulevard
48-18 Northern Blvd
Long Island City, NY 11101

Date opened November 1997

Square footage 218,059 square feet

Shops at Richmond Avenue


Shops at Richmond Avenue
2505-2535 Richmond Avenue
Staten Island, NY 10311

Located in front of the Staten Island Mall, the only regional mall on Staten Island, this center offers 76,000 square feet of retail.

Date opened February 1998

Square footage 76,000 square feet

Steinway Street Theaters / Kaufman Studios


Steinway Street Theaters / Kaufman Studios
3501 37th Street
Astoria, NY 10132

Date opened October 1999

Square footage 84,000 square feet

Location description
Directly off Steinway Street at 35th Street, and located between the Steinway Street local shopping district and the Northern Boulevard regional shopping area.

The Heights


The Heights
94-110 Court Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201

The Heights offers retail and entertainment opportunities for the 2.5 million residents of Brooklyn.

Date opened July 2000

Square footage 102,177 square feet

Location description
Located between downtown Brooklyn and affluent Brooklyn Heights in New York.

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