The State Historic Preservation Office and the National Park Service dealt a blow to Rock Gaming’s Cleveland casino pedestrian bridge over Prospect and Ontario because it would mar the historic landmark Higbee Building. Both Ohio and the Feds said a walkway is not consistent with the historic nature of the building, which has received “millions” already in historic tax credits. If Rock Gaming and Higbee owner Forest City want to continue with the walkway, Rock Gaming will have to pay Forest City back in lost tax credits—but how much will they owe? Did the two parties agree to compensation before it drew up plans, which included demolishing the historic Columbia Building? How does Forest City square SHPO’s decision and Rock Gaming's walkway with its enormous investment in historic preservation?

The Plain Dealer published a vague “millions” in answer to the first question – how much does Forest City stand to lose in historic tax credits? As this article by Commonwealth makes plain, the Park Service is very stingy when it comes to public records requests for how much they dole out in tax credits, so it appears no one but Forest City and their consultants know the exact figure that the company would owe back to the Park Service.

The closest to a figure we could find on the Higbee/Dillard’s building renovations was on historic tax credit consultant Steve McQuillan’s web site. The Cleveland-based McQuillan helped Forest City secure the state preservation tax credits for the Higbee Building. McQuillan writes that he’s been a “consultant since 1985 on $20 million renovation to Dillard's Department Store on Cleveland's Public Square.” The Park Service and the state both award up to 20% of the costs of renovation in their historic tax credits, so a conservative first estimate is Rock Gaming owes at least $4 million to Forest City if it goes forward with its walkway. Pocket change for both concerns which chart annual billings in the billions. It seems likely that the fate of the Columbia Building was sealed in the deal, and that the news from SHPO and the Park Service was an anticipated speed bump.

This post from the Cleveland Restoration Society opposing the Rock Gaming design suggests that any one familiar with historic preservation could tell that SHPO and the Park Service would reject the design of the walkway which punches through the second floor of the Higbee Building. So, why move forward? The Jackson Administration and city council essentially handed Gilbert carte blanche to do whatever he wished with this infinitely walkable, up-and-coming district in lower Prospect Avenue. They sold the public on the notion that the casino would integrate with the fabric of the district; that they wouldn’t do anything to damage the core of downtown.

It’s worth noting that Forest City had its application rejected for historic tax credits for its Tower City redevelopment in the 1990s for similar reasons – the mall was viewed as incompatible with the art deco Terminal Tower and Landmark Office Towers. To its credit, the developer moved forward anyway. Has time healed the “wound”? When we picture Cleveland’s skyline in the mind’s eye, doesn’t it accept the glass half-dome of the mall and the two new office towers next to the three historic high rises?

The difference with the bridge, historic preservationists say, is it will block the nicest view of the city for those arriving from the south. More than that, it rejects the notion that cities are places for walking and discovery. Does it maybe stick in the craw more because it’s meant to serve a few hundred high rollers? Is it unacceptable for the way the deal was discussed one way only to have it turned around with a bunch of, at best, awkward designs shoehorning the casino into an important piece of the city’s history?

Forest City deserves credit for its great work in restoring one of the city’s most important landmarks—the Terminal Tower—which burnishes the image of downtown as an attractive place to work. Now, the next chapter of Cleveland’s smaller architectural gems—the big department stores—is being written. How will they fare? Forest City executive Ron Ratner, during a National Preservation conference that the company hosted in Cleveland in 2002, gave some insight.

“As a developer, I am sometimes asked if we would ever be willing to sacrifice profitability to achieve excellence in historic preservation. My answer is that's a false choice. Using technical and financial creativity, and working in public-private partnerships, we can have it all, including economic return.”

Ratner urges historic preservationists to embrace adaptive reuse. This statement sheds light on the sort of vibrancy Ratner envisions in the context of adaptive reuse. "We cannot focus on a single building. There is a much broader context of neighborhood, district, city and region. No matter how skillfully done, a building must be part of a vibrant urban fabric if it is to maintain its value and provide a return on financial and civic investment.”

Does that bode well for restoring common sense to this project, which is at a crossroads? The community needs to know, does Forest City oppose the walkway and the way it impacts the historic (and real estate) value of the Higbee Building?

This may be an opportunity for Forest City and the Jackson Administration to revisit the plan with Rock Gaming, to offer a new deal that strikes the right balance between historic preservation and adaptive reuse. That could take the form of a vastly improved actual intersection at Prospect and Ontario. The city and Forest City can say, “let’s make this the best intersection in the city. Let’s put in heated sidewalks and new, LED historic street lamps and let’s make sure that every storefront on that corner is lit up with a successful business.”