Forest City Ratner Companies announced it has struck a deal to sell 70 percent of the Atlantic Yards development site to Shanghai-based Greenland Group Co.
The deal should help the developer finish the massive project, according to Bruce C. Ratner, executive chairman of FCRC. “This partnership would allow us to deliver the 6,400 units of housing, including 2,250 units of affordable housing, to market more expeditiously, which is important for Brooklyn and the entire city.” The deal does not include the alreayd finished Barclays Center and the first housing tower, B2.
Instead, Greenland signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding for a joint venture to develop phase one and phase two of the project including infrastructure, a platform and residential units.
Under the proposed joint venture, Greenland would acquire 70 percent of the project, co-develop the project with FCRC, and share in the entire project costs going forward at the same percentage interest. FCRC would manage the day-to-day activities on behalf of the joint venture, which would develop the project consistent with the approved master plan.
Zhang Yuliang, chairman and president of Greenland Group, said, “Greenland is proud of its reputation at home and globally and we look forward to working in Brooklyn with Forest City. Brooklyn has become an international brand because it symbolizes how the old and the new can exist together, creating a dynamic environment for people to live and work.”
Zhang added, “Atlantic Yards is about more than Brooklyn and New York, as important as this development is for the City. It is about how we build sustainable, well-designed housing to meet the needs of diverse groups of people. If we can do that in New York, we can do that elsewhere. That is at the very foundation of what Greenland Group is about.”
Atlantic Yards would be Greenland Group’s second project in the United States. In July, the company purchased a 275,450 s/f site in downtown Los Angeles and plans to build a hotel and residential units. The developer is the number one multiple-function real estate developer in China, with projects in more than 70 cities in 25 provinces. Greenland Group is respected in particular for developing well designed, high-rise buildings that are part of large urban complexes built around transit and high-speed rail. Four of their buildings are among the ten tallest buildings in the world.
