CLEVELAND—Forest City Realty Trust Inc. said Monday it's reviewing its strategic options, including a merger or sale of the company. The Cleveland-based office, residential and retail owner/developer, which began trading as a REIT in January 2016, said there was no guarantee that the review would lead to a transaction of any kind.

“The board believes thoroughly evaluating all alternatives, while simultaneously continuing to execute on our current strategies and supporting our associates in doing so, are the appropriate steps to assess how best to unlock stockholder value,” says James A. Ratner, non-executive chairman of FCRT's board. Over the past several years, he adds, “we have made substantial progress transforming Forest City by focusing on core urban markets and products, reducing complexity, paying down debt, driving operational excellence and enhancing our corporate governance structure.”

This past April, activist investor Jonathan Litt called for just such a review. “We are highly confident that a formal strategic review process would produce indications of interest from credible private equity and public real estate investment trust buyers that could provide full value to shareholders,” wrote Litt, founder and CIO of Land and Buildings Investment Management.