Medical conferences could come to Cleveland a year from now

Mark Falanga

CLEVELAND, OHIO — The private company that will build and run Cleveland’s upcoming medical mart and convention center will consider creative construction to hold its first medical conference a year from now, a Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. executive said.

MMPI officials have long said they could quickly use the public auditorium of the city’s old convention center if that was the site selected to build the new facility. The City of Cleveland on Monday agreed to sell the old convention center Cuyahoga County, which will give the property to MMPI to build and operate the new convention center.

Senior Vice President Mark Falanga said the company is analyzing whether it could complete relatively simple renovations on the main floor of the public auditorium and open it while doing more extensive renovations on the upper floors to create meeting rooms and ballroom spaces.

“The building could be up and running while doing construction on it,” he said.

Even if that’s not possible, Falanga said the goal is to hold the first conference in the old convention center’s public hall within 18 months. “It allows us to get into the market much sooner than anywhere else,” he said.

The company does not yet have commitments from anyone to use the facility, Falanga said.

“When we get the remainder of the [land purchased] we can begin marketing efforts in earnest and collect letters of intent,” he said.

County officials on Monday essentially purchased the convention center land for $20 million, a price Falanga called “more than we hoped it would be but an acceptable number.” The county needs to either negotiate a price for three pieces of private property or provide the county headquarters to get enough land to complete the project.

Innovative architecture is what made the city’s convention center the pick for the site of the medical mart, which Northeast Ohio hopes will blossom into a medical showcase and draw health-care conventions from across the country. Engineers said the current convention center foundation can handle a new building.

That revelation allowed more than $100 million in unexpected savings and made the old convention center cost effective that alternate locations.

Chris Seper MedCity News

Chris Seper is the CEO at MedCity Media, which publishes MedCityNews.com. He is also a senior writer at MedCity News. Reach him at chris@medcitynews.com.

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Tags: medical mart

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[...] you nay-sayers out there. Cleveland’s convention center/medical mart just got approved this week: Medical conferences could come to Cleveland a year from now : MedCity News [+] Rate this post [...]

Comment by Cleveland Development Discussions - Ohio (OH) - Page 10 - City-Data Forum — May 6, 2009 @ 8:24 pm

Comment by Cleveland Development Discussions - Ohio (OH) - Page 10 - City-Data Forum — May 6, 2009 @ 11:12 pm

[...] Med Mart: Crain’s Cleveland Business: Marketing of medical merchandise mart concept is under way http://www.medcitynews.com/index.php/2009/05/medical-conferences-could-come-to-cleveland-a-year-from… [+] Rate this post [...]

Comment by Cleveland Development Discussions - Ohio (OH) - Page 11 - City-Data Forum — May 14, 2009 @ 11:18 am

[...] companies also say it’s critical to be the first facility to open. MMPI has said at best they could open a portion of the mart in May 2010, though it could be six months later than that. [...]

Comment by Nashville to compete for medical convention center — or is it just a cut-and-paste job? : MedCity News — May 18, 2009 @ 6:12 pm

[...] YORK — Even though they say it’s only a year away from opening, builders of Cleveland’s medical mart have been coy about announcing tenants for [...]

Comment by New York’s medical mart, four years away, announces 11 tenants : MedCity News — July 2, 2009 @ 1:56 am

[...] convention center in the city thought they had a way to hit the fast forward button on development: refurbish an adjacent public hall ahead of the rest of the project and start hosting small conventions faster than all the [...]

Comment by New construction costs put Medical Mart start date in jeopardy : MedCity News — November 7, 2009 @ 12:35 am

[...] Two crucial stumbling blocks that have come to light in recent weeks could derail Cleveland’s hopes to jump ahead of the other projects. First, renovations to nearly 90-year-old Public Auditorium, which was to house convention meeting rooms, could cost up to $100 million more than originally expected due to problems with its ventilation, plumbing and mechanical systems. The public hall was the key to MMPI’s early start, as executives said its quick refurbishment would allow smaller conventions to be held in May 2010. [...]

Comment by Coming to Cleveland: The world’s second-ever medical convention center : MedCity News — November 16, 2009 @ 1:23 pm

[...] Public Auditorium has been dropped from the medical mart plans, so, too, has the intention of hosting medical conferences as early as the middle of 2010. MMPI had planned to do simple renovations to get Public Auditorium’s main floorÂ in good [...]

Comment by Cleveland’s medical mart draws ’strong interest’ from 20 companies, but no deals immiment : MedCity News — November 17, 2009 @ 7:20 pm

[...] to have first place locked up. It expected to renovate the city’s Public Auditorium and have it ready for conventions by May 2010. But MMPI announced big changes to the projectâ€™s plans, which included abandoning use of the [...]

Comment by Nashville medical mart expected to announce site Monday, turning up the heat on Cleveland : MedCity News — November 27, 2009 @ 8:52 pm

Medical conferences could come to Cleveland a year from now

Chris Seper MedCity News

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