Forest City Realty Trust, a real estate company that owns more than two dozen malls and shopping centers across the country, may soon be getting out of the shopping mall business altogether.
The Cleveland-based firm says that it is “reviewing strategic alternatives for its retail portfolio.” According to Chain Store Age, this could mean shifting or significantly reducing its investment in the mall and retail center industry to instead focus on apartments and office buildings.
Forest City Realty Trust owns 14 regional malls throughout the country and 19 specialty retail centers, which are mostly located in New York City, like the East River Plaza near the FDR Drive at 116th Street.
The company said it expects to complete its review of its retail portfolio by the first quarter of 2017, with any sales or changes in strategy expected to follow soon after.
“We intend to look at a range of options and expect the review process to be concluded by the first quarter of 2017,” David J. LaRue, Forest City Realty Trust’s president and CEO, said in a statement. “Assuming we identify and transact on a chosen alternative, or alternatives, our intent would be to redeploy the value from our retail portfolio into apartment and office assets that align with our focus on core markets and urban, mixed-use place-making projects.”
Forest City Realty Trust has already begun to convert the former Ballston Common Mall in Arlington, Virginia, into an urban mixed-use project known as the Ballston Quarter, which includes a retail component.
More and more malls across the country are rethinking strategies and what their very nature is all about due to a shift in consumer trends that has seen more traffic migrate to online retailers and shoppers who seem off-put or unenthusiastic about the traditional mall concept.
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