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Forest City and Rock Gaming Reach Agreement in Cleveland Casino

Posted on August 22nd, 2010

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Agreements have been reached between the subsidiaries of Forest City Enterprises, Inc. and Rock Gaming LLC, which entitles Rock Gaming to obtain rights to land and air from Forest City. With these rights, Rock Gaming will be developing a casino complex in Cleveland’s downtown area, along Huron Road, to the side of to the Tower City Center complex. The agreements state that a maximum of 16 acres will be acquired by Rock Gaming from the city, including land next to Tower City, as well as a part of land currently being used as a parking lot by Riverview located between Canal Road and the Cuyahoga River. Other included land properties are the one south of Tower City’s food court, incorporating the parking ramp that was only closed recently. The transaction for air rights between the two entities is expected to be finalized by the fourth quarter of the fiscal year 2010. As for the land sale, closing date is expected to be by Jan. 31, 2011,

Aside from the land and air acquisition agreement, another agreement (in principle) was also approved by the two parties, this time for space in the Higbee Building in Tower City to be leased to Rock Gaming for a possible Phase 1 casino to be constructed and operated. Forest City president and Chief Executive Officer Charles Ratner said that the casino is an important plan not just for the city of Cleveland, but for the whole Northeast region of the state of Ohio as well. Forest City is confident that the partnership formed between Harrah’s entertainment, currently the US’ biggest gambling company, and rock Gaming will result in a facility that will bring an improvement to the entire Northeast Ohio region. He adds that the proposed Rock gaming Casino in Tower City will be the start of a revitalization movement, both economically and entertainment-wise, in downtown Cleveland.

As of the moment, Forest City operates and owns commercial space at Tower City Center measuring a total of over 2 million square feet. It also owns and operates parking spaces that can accommodate a maximum of 3,500 vehicles. The sprawling complex includes a 365,000 square foot retail center named the Avenue at Tower City, the Ritz Carlton Cleveland Hotel with 206 rooms and five office buildings: the Higbee Building, the 250 Huron, the Skylight Office Tower, the Post Office Plaza (formerly known as the MK Ferguson Building) and the Terminal Tower, where the corporate headquarters of Forest City is currently located. For its part, Rock Gaming, the leisure gaming company based in Detroit, projects for the casino to be opened by 2013. The $600 million casino which would have an entrance level located in Huron will have two entrances — one in front of Tower City and the other next to Huron’s intersection with Ontario Street, which is across Quicken Loans Arena. Dan Gilbert, Rock Gaming head, is also the founder and chairman of the US’ biggest online retail mortgage lender, Quicken Loans, Inc. He is also the majority owner of a number of professional sports teams such as the Cleveland Cavaliers of the NBA and the Lake Erie Monsters of the American Hockey League. Both teams consider the Quicken Loans Arena in the Tower City area as their home court, which is of course, owned by Gilbert as well. Other than the casino facility in Cleveland, Gilbert’s Rock Gaming is also involved in the building of another casino complex in another city in Ohio, Cincinnati.

Jennifer Kulczycki, a spokesperson for Rock Gaming, stated that consultations with their partner, Harrah’s Entertainment, will be done first so that the decision whether to go ahead with the construction of the Phase 1 casino in the Higbee Building will be finalized. Various plans were made years ago by Forest City with regard to the area where the permanent casino will be constructed. At one time, Forest City envisioned there are to be filled with skyscrapers. There was also a time when plans to build department stores in the area were divulged. A more recent plan which proved to be unsuccessful was the pitch to Cuyahoga County to make the site a convention center and a retail center for medical merchandise.