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Hedge fund head says she's short on Forest City, which has a lot of debt coming due in 2009

In Trading the Real Estate Bounce on CNBC's Closing Bell yesterday, it's worth watching the segment to hear all the comments from Karen Finerman of Metropolitan Capital (a hedge fund) about Forest City Enterprises.

Where do you stand after the rate cut by the Federal Reserve, she was asked by Dylan Ratigan.

"Generally, we are still short," she replied. "I don't really think that the Fed's action has materially changed the commercial real estate picture."

How are you defining the commercial real estate picture, Ratigan asked.

"Well, it really depends on the area, of course, and how levered, but things that have development projects," Finerman replied. "And a name that we're short is Forest City, FCE slash A is the ticker. This is one probably best known for the Atlantic Yards development, which is in Brooklyn, which is where the Nets will be playing. They were and touted themselves as a development company and now that’s not a business model that’s working. And they have a lot of debt. And a lot of it comes due in '09. And so, that's the kind of thing that we're focusing on, where I think there could be some near-term issues.“

Btw, I couldn't find any report on the recent results for Metropolitan Capital, but it did recently hire Silda Wall Spitzer.

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