Series Examines Forest City Enterprises

The Cleveland Plain Dealer profiles hometown company Forest City Enterprises, underlining its emergence as a big-name player in real estate development nationwide. Highlights include coverage of projects in Boston, Denver, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, New York, and elsewhere; background on the Ratner family, and much more."

From the series:
"Over several months this year, reporter Christopher Montgomery traveled to Denver, Boston and New York, interviewing dozens of Forest City Enterprises Inc. officials, allies and critics. Sabrina Eaton pitched in from our bureau in Wash ington, where the com pany not only has sev eral regional projects but also maintains ties that have paid off in big military-housing projects.

Newspapers seldom put so much effort - or devote so many pages - to profiling a single company. But rarely is one company as enmeshed in the history and fabric of a major city.

Forest City developed suburbs in every corner of the area. It owns Terminal Tower, the skyscraper that symbolizes the high point and end point of the city's early 20th-century prominence.

...Whether you see Forest City as a benevolent family firm, a brilliant enterprise or a business bully, whether you wish it were more involved in Cleveland or less, there's no doubt that what Forest City does or doesn't do will loom over the city's future."