Bruce Ratner, chairman and chief executive officer of Forest City Ratner Companies, the company's New York-based subsidiary, and other Forest City executives, were joined by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Barclays PLC President Robert E. Diamond, Jr., NETS investor and cultural icon Shawn "JAY-Z" Carter, and many other community leaders to happily announce that they realized the depravity of constructing a money-losing, billion dollar arena in the middle of housing crisis and will immediately commence construction of affordable housing towers.

Bruce Ratner announced, specifically, that all work on the arena would cease immediately so that the construction crews could begin constrcution of the residential towers, all fourteen of which Ratner said would be built within five years.

Forest City has told Mikhail Prokhorov's Onexim Sports & Entertainment that Barclays Center may be a good business venture for him and his ownership of the Nets may be good for his portfolio, but that they are sorry, the priority must be housing over bread and circuses.

ACORN Executive Director Bertha Lewis joined Bruce Ratner in saying, "The arena can wait. Affordable housing now!"

Bruce Ratner added, "We know that we will construct all 2,250 units of middle and moderate income housing within the next five years. We will do this if it is the last thing I ever do. What we do not know is if we'll ever build the Barclays Center Arena. That is for another day. Maybe we will, maybe we won't. Once we complete the affordable housing, then we'll decide if we can do the arena. I'm trying to be as up front as possible because this is, after all, a public project. For now I can proudly say that it feels good to truly respond to the needs of the Borough of Brooklyn, rather than the needs of that limey bank, that jet-skiing Russian playboy and my uncles in Cleveland."

Ms. Lewis also added, "I'm shocked that Bruce is now prioritizing affordable housing. We hadn't even asked him to do this!"

Governor Cuomo said, "What's the Atlantic Yards project?"

Nets President Brett Yormark took a break from a brown bag lunch and not sleeping to announce that he'd incorporate the new found interest in affordable housing into the season's final Nets game at The Rock. Yormark said that all fans who attend the final game will get a priority voucher for the affordable housing lottery, giving each fan a 25% chance of getting one of the units.

"When we announced Atlantic Yards in December 2003, we anticipated that we'd build a world class arena. Then we got ACORN and the politicians on our side by saying we'd build affordable housing. Then we jettisoned most of the affordable housing, and put it all on the backburner with no timeline. Frankly we never planned on building most of it," said Ratner. "But now...the affordable housing is back and we're sticking to it!"

Robert E. Diamond, Jr. the President of Barclays PLC, which holds the naming rights for the arena, said, "Barclays is proud to be part of the ongoing renaissance of Brooklyn. And we understand that an arena, which sits empty nearly all of the time, will do nothing to alleviate the crisis in affordable housing, it will only take up scarce land resources. Who are we to waste land that Brooklynites need? Having said that, we'd be happy to place our logo on any affordable housing tower Bruce builds, even they are prefab!"

"The Barclays Center at Atlantic Yards is supposed to be the first piece of what will be one of the largest private investments and job generators in Brooklyn's history," said Mayor Bloomberg. "Now Bruce says he's not going to build it because he thinks we need to prioritize housing? Enough already; I'm done with this guy. At least we won't have to watch that crap basketball team any time soon."

Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz said, "Fuggedaboudit. People of good will can disagree, but as for me, this is the last straw. I now oppose Atlantic Yards."

The affordable housing towers will be designed by the award-winning architectural firms Ellerbe Becket and SHoP Architects. The residential towers are expected to be built as quickly as is humanly possible in accordance with the mandate announced by Bruce Ratner today. Ratner also announced that he would not skimp on square footage for the affordable units, and because of the new plan to use modular construction half the number of construction worker vehicles will clog the streets of Prospect Heights.

In addition to Barclays, the naming rights partner, the Barclays Center had 10 major partners, including: ADT, Cushman & Wakefield, EmblemHealth, MetroPCS, MGM Grand at Foxwoods, Jones Soda, Haier America, Phillips-Van Heusen, Anheuser-Busch, and High Point Solutions. Bu today they all walked away in a huff.

About Forest City
Forest City Enterprises, Inc. is an $11.9-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 http://www.forestcity.net/.

Safe Harbor Language
Statements made in this news release that state Forest City Enterprises' or management's intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements and may be untrue or may not be, and may be honest or may not be. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in such forward-looking statements due to various risks, uncertainties and other factors. 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 impact of current market conditions on our liquidity, ability to finance or refinance projects and repay our debt, the impact of the current economic environment on our ownership, development and management of our commercial real estate portfolio, general real estate investment and development risks, liquidity risks we could face if we do not close the transaction with Onexim Group to create a strategic partnership for our Brooklyn Atlantic Yards project, vacancies in our properties, further downturns in the housing market, competition, illiquidity of real estate investments, bankruptcy or defaults of tenants, anchor store consolidations or closings, international activities, the impact of terrorist acts, risks associated with an investment in a professional sports team, our substantial debt leverage and the ability to obtain and service debt, the impact of restrictions imposed by our credit facility and senior debt, exposure to hedging agreements, the level and volatility of interest rates, the continued availability of tax-exempt government financing, the impact of credit rating downgrades, effects of uninsured or underinsured losses, environmental liabilities, conflicts of interest, risks associated with developing and managing properties in partnership with others, the ability to maintain effective internal controls, compliance with governmental regulations, increased legislative and regulatory scrutiny of the financial services sector, volatility in the market price of our publicly traded securities, litigation risks, 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.