CLEVELAND, Jan. 19, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. (NYSE: FCEA and FCEB) announced today that it has executed a master purchase and sale agreement with Jonathan Rose Companies under which Rose will acquire Forest City's equity interest in a portfolio of 47 federally assisted housing apartment communities in nine states and the District of Columbia. The gross transaction price is $80 million with anticipated net cash proceeds to Forest City of approximately $65 million after capital reserves and closing costs.

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"We're pleased to execute this agreement, which reflects our continued strategic emphasis on core retail, office and apartment asset classes, and on major urban markets," said David J. LaRue, Forest City president and chief executive officer. "While our federally assisted housing business has created value and contributed to our results for many years, this transaction, together with the anticipated sale of our military housing business that we previously announced, will continue the process of simplifying our business model and focusing our multifamily portfolio around conventional rental apartment communities."

"Forty years ago, Forest City began the development of an extraordinary portfolio of affordable housing that they have maintained with care ever since," said Jonathan F. P. Rose, President of Jonathan Rose Companies. "This is a perfect portfolio for the Jonathan Rose Companies to expand its national development and preservation of safe, stable, green and affordable housing in which families and seniors can thrive."

Because of the involvement of multiple partners, lenders and housing authorities across the federally assisted housing portfolio, the individual communities are expected to close separately, beginning in the second quarter, with all closings expected to be completed by the fourth quarter.

About Forest City

Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. is an NYSE-listed national real estate company with $10.0 billion in consolidated assets. The company is principally engaged in the ownership, development, management and acquisition of commercial and residential real estate throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.forestcity.net.

Safe Harbor Language

Statements made in this news release that state the company's or management's intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements. Risks and factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the inability of the company to complete the disposition of its ownership interest in a portfolio of 47 federally assisted housing apartment communities on agreed terms and on an agreed timeline, or at all, failure of either party to the master purchase and sale agreement with Jonathan Rose Companies to obtain any required third-party or regulatory consents or approvals or otherwise to satisfy any conditions to closing, unexpected market or economic conditions, and the possibility that the anticipated benefits of the disposition will not be realized, as well as other risks listed from time to time in the company's SEC filings, including but not limited to, the company's annual and quarterly reports.

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SOURCE Forest City Realty Trust, Inc.