Forest City Closes Permanent Financing on $214M Loan

June 14, 2010
By Allison Landa, News Editor

A subsidiary of Forest City Enterprises Inc. has closed on the conversion of a construction facility for the East River Plaza retail Center in Manhattan to a $214.3 million term loan. The loan has a fixed interest rate of less than 4.5 percent and matures in January 2019.

In addition, the existing $40 million credit enhancement in tax-exempt Empowerment Zone bonds has also been extended to the 2019 maturity date. In addition to conventional bank financing, financing was also provided by the State of New York, New York City and the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone.

“This is a great outcome for East River Plaza and for the public/private partnership that made it possible,” Forest City president and CEO Charles Ratner said when announcing the news.

Located on the site of the former Washburn Wire factory in Harlem, the 527,000-square-foot East River Plaza saw its first tenant – Costco – open in November 2009. Since that time, Best Buy has also opened and tenants including Target, Marshall’s, PetSmart, Old Navy, Bob’s Furniture and GameStop are slated for opening this summer. The Plaza is 93 percent leased.

Forest City is an $11.5 billion company engaged in the ownership, development, management and acquisition of commercial and residential real estate and land throughout the United States