Madison buys out JV partner’s stake in $1b retail portfolio

Forest City Realty Trust has sold its 51 percent interest in a 2.1 million-square-foot, 12-asset prime retail portfolio to Madison International Realty for a gross price of about $1 billion.

The portfolio is located throughout Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Staten Island and Northern New Jersey.

The 12 retail centers that are part of the transaction are Shops at Gun Hill Road (Waring), Shops at Gun Hill Road (Ely) and Castle Center in the Bronx; Harlem Center in Manhattan; Shops at Northern Boulevard and Queens Place in Queens; The Heights, Atlantic Terminal Mall and Atlantic Center in Brooklyn; Forest Avenue and Shops at Richmond Avenue in Staten Island; and Columbia Park Center in North Bergen, N.J.

The move is in line with Forest City’s strategy revealed in August 2016 that it was exploring strategic alternatives for its regional mall and urban infill retail portfolios, which it has been gradually exiting since.

Final closing of the transaction is expected in the fourth quarter of 2017.