Forest City Community Development Entity Receives $55 Million in Tax Credit Allocation to Stimulate Investment in Low-Income Communities

CLEVELAND, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Forest City Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE: FCEA and FCEB) today announced that its subsidiary, Forest City Community Development Entity, LLC, (FCCDE) was one of ninety-nine groups recently chosen to receive an allocation of New Market Tax Credits (NMTC), as part of a $5 billion federal program to create jobs and revive neighborhoods.

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The allocation of $55 million will go toward providing financing for real estate development projects located in specific distressed and low-income communities. This is the third time FCCDE has received an NMTC allocation, for a total of $151 million in allocations under the program.

"We're honored that our community development entity has received this allocation, which reflects our track record of investing -- and encouraging others in the private sector to invest -- in low-income communities," said Charles A. Ratner, Forest City Enterprises president and chief executive officer. "With continued economic uncertainty, this type of investment is more important than ever, and the New Market Tax Credits program promotes development where it is needed most."

"This program and others like it complement our approach of building public/private partnerships to make transformational projects a reality," Ratner said. "By effectively reducing the cost of capital, the tax credits help make investment possible in projects that might not otherwise be feasible, and they make additional investment possible for other projects."

The NMTC program, established by Congress in December 2000, permits individual and corporate taxpayers to receive a credit against federal income taxes for making equity investments in designated community development entities, like FCCDE. The investor receives a credit, claimed over a seven-year period, totaling 39 percent of the cost of the investment. The U.S. Department of the Treasury's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund administers the NMTC program. Thirty percent of the program's $5 billion funding for the latest round of allocations came from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

About Forest City
Forest City Enterprises, Inc., is an $11.7 billion NYSE-listed national real estate company. The Company is principally engaged in the ownership, development, management and acquisition of commercial and residential real estate and land throughout the United States. For more information, visit www.forestcity.net.

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