From the Forest City Enterprises 10-Q Quarterly Report, filed September 10:
"The team expects to operate at a loss in 2007 comparable to prior years and required additional capital from its members to fund the loss. As a result, our percentage share of losses to be recognized over the remainder of the year is expected to be comparable to that recognized in prior years."
From Forest City Analyst Conference Call, September 11, 2 p.m. EDT
Bob O'Brien, Executive Vice President, Strategy and Investment Management:
"We continue to move forward with our most visible and perhaps most ambitious project, Atlantic Yards. As we’ve indicated previously, we’ve acquired or controlled the vast majority of the land in Brooklyn necessary for this development. We’ve obtained all of the public approvals needed to proceed with this development. However, those approvals have been challenged in the courts. We are working with the support of the city and state and other interested public parties to defend and clear those lawsuits. We remain confident in our positions in all legal challenges and we are targeting resolution by the first half of fiscal year 2008.
"Our long-term objective there is to build the Nets basketball team into a great franchise, relocate them to Brooklyn, a city of more than two-and-a-half million people, and develop a large-scale mixed-use project with the Nets and a Frank Gehry-designed arena as catalysts for the project and the further revitalization of downtown Brooklyn. Our commitment to build not only market-rate but also affordable housing as part of this development is one of the largest of its kind and addresses a significant housing shortfall for the people of New York."
Joanne Minieri, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Forest City Ratner:
"We think it’s still a very strong office market, we continue to look for opportunities where they exist and as part of—some of the development in the Atlantic Yards project, there will also be some office opportunity there. Y’know, we’re very committed to the office development.
"We believe New York is a strong market. We’re committed to the office business in the New York area. We’ll continue to look for opportunities to the extent they’re available. Land is difficult to find, but we keep our options open, and we’ll continue to produce that product here in the city."
Chuck Ratner, Chief Executive Officer of Forest City Enterprises:
"As we’ve told you guys often, as a large developer, perhaps the more risky part of the real estate business, as opposed to acquisition, but the part where we think we can add more value, clearly you have to look to ways to moderate and manage your risks. And one of the ways we’ve learned that you manage and moderate your cost risks is by making sure you don’t start before you have complete plans and prices.
"Particularly in a market with the kind of cost pressure that New York has and building a building with a signature architect like Frank Gehry, we’re being very cautious and careful that we know where we are before we start, and Joanne and her team have done a great job of managing this process."