Forest City Ratner and its joint venture partner Greenland Group are shopping around a “very significant” equity stake in a handful of the 15 buildings slated for Pacific Park in Brooklyn, The Real Deal has learned.

Greenland Forest City Partners would use the money raised from the sale of the stake, which includes a 26-story under-construction condominium tower at 615 Dean Street, a planned 277-unit condo next door to the west on Dean Street, and a 750,000-square-foot tower slated for the corner of Sixth and Atlantic avenues, to recapitalize its own investment in the complex. 

The partners have hired CBRE’s Darcy Stacom to market the stake in the three properties. The third building was originally slated to be residential but the partners may opt to develop it as an office tower instead, according to a recent report.

Forest City and Greenland teamed up in 2013 when Greenland, China’s largest developer, acquired a 70 percent stake in the massive Brooklyn project formerly known as Atlantic Yards, though not in the Barclays Center and the project’s first housing tower.

A spokesperson for the partnership declined to comment on the size of the equity stake or the asking price, saying only that the companies “remain fully committed” to developing Pacific Park.

“With 1,800 units of housing under way and thousands more in the pipeline, we’re maintaining significant forward progress in constructing Pacific Park,” a spokesperson said.  “To ensure the most expeditious and effective build out, our joint venture is seeking strategic opportunities to recapitalize our significant equity investment.”

Neither Stacom nor a spokesperson for the New York City Economic Development Corporation, which is overseeing the project, responded to a request for comment.

The move to sell a major stake in some of its Pacific Park developments speaks to a recent trend of Forest City pulling out of higher-risk assets. There’s speculation that the firm, which recently converted to a real estate investment trust, is moving away from its development-driven roots to become more of an operator, thus increasing its liquidity and its appeal to prospective REIT investors.

In November, it sold a development site at 625 Fulton Street in Downtown Brooklyn to Simon Dushinsky’s Rabsky Group for $158 million.

Meanwhile, Greenland’s stock has taken a hit in China in recent months, amid concern that some of the nation’s large cities might introduce greater scrutiny of residential real estate financing.

Source: Forest City, Greenland want to sell big stake in Pacific Park complex