Brookfield Closes $11.4B Forest City Acquisition

NEW YORK and CLEVELAND–Brookfield Asset Management closed on its $11.4 billion acquisition of Forest City Realty Trust.

The portfolio, which is in many respects complimentary with Brookfield’s existing real estate operating business, includes 6.3 million square feet of office space, 2.3 million square feet of life sciences assets, 2.2 million square feet of retail and 18,500 multifamily units. The REIT’s portfolio features five large-scale development projects in the New York Metro area, San Francisco and Washington, DC.

Shareholders of the REIT approved the acquisition last month at a special meeting, despite some high profile opposition from Albert Ratner, the former CEO of Forest City. Ratner took issue with the deal’s price, its timing and the process, which he called flawed. He claimed that Forest City could strike a better deal as it has a low debt structure and that there were superior value opportunities available to the REIT.

Forest City has been struggling with the issue of whether to sell itself or not for a year or more. In March of this year it announced it would not sell itself after considering the strategic alternatives. Instead the REIT opted to give certain stakeholders in the company a greater voting share on the Board — a nod to the demands activists shareholders have been making on the REIT for the past several months.

Later, in July, Forest City Realty Trust agreed to be acquired by Brookfield for $25.35 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at $11.4 billion including debt.