Comparable property net operating income increased 3.1% in 2005 compared with the prior year's first quarter. NOI for the retail and office portfolios was up 3.3 % and 0.7%, respectively. In the residential portfolio, comparable property NOI increased 3.5%, following a 1.3% increase in the fourth quarter of 2004.

The company reports that comparable occupancies in the first quarter with the same period last year were up portfolio-wide. Retail and office occupancies each increased 2% to 94%; and residential increased 1% to 92%.

Forest City's land development group, which oversees Denver Stapleton and Chicago Central Station, generated $13.9 million in net earnings and $14.7 million of EBDT in the first quarter. Sales of land in the investment real estate portfolio contributed an additional $10.6 million in net earnings and EBDT during the first quarter.

In the fist quarter, the company sold the Showcase specialty retail center in Las Vegas and the ground lease and expansion rights to the property, which generated cash proceeds of $26 million. Also during the quarter, Forest City disposed of Colony Place, a 300-unit residential community in Fort Myers, FL for $6.6 million in cash proceeds.

Forest City also opened two projects in Q1, representing a total cost of $49.2 million. Among the first-quarter openings was 23 Sidney at the Company's University Park in Cambridge, MA, as well as the $31 million, 359,000-sf first phase of Saddle Rock Village retail center in Aurora, CO.

Early in the second quarter, Forest City acquired the 176,000-sf Ballston Common Office Center in Arlington, VA for $62.9 million. The office building sits above the company's existing Ballston Common Mall, a four-level, 578,000-sf urban retail center.

Forest City reports that at the end of Q1, 15 projects were under construction or in the pipeline for acquisition, representing a cost of $805.4 million on a full consolidation basis and $1.2 billion of cost at the company's pro-rata share. Including the two projects that opened in the first quarter, a total of 11 projects are scheduled to open this year. The openings include three retail properties, one office building, six apartment communities and one condominium building.

Q1 also brought new collaborations with governmental units as the US Navy selected the company's military communities group to participate in exclusive negotiations for a housing contract covering the Navy's Great Lakes Region. In early second quarter, the company signed an agreement with the federal government for the 42-acre redevelopment of Southeast Federal Center to create a mixed-use community on the site of a former military supply depot in Washington, DC.

"We are cognizant of the risks inherent in our business and remain confident in our ability to execute our plans even as the nation's economy continues to send mixed signals," Ratner said in closing.