The initial list of tenants for Cleveland’s medical mart includes organizations from a wide variety of industries, with the heaviest concentration in furniture, design, information technology and nonprofits.
Furniture makers lead the way, numbering 11 of the mart’s 58 announced tenants, according to an analysis by MedCity News. The tenants list includes eight designers, whose specialties include graphic design, corporate showrooms and storage cabinets. (Disclosure: MedCity Media is one of the medical mart’s announced tenants.)
The high concentration of furniture makers and designers shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, that’s what Chicago-based property developer MMPI knows best. Many of the 10 or so other properties that MMPI manages are largely dedicated to furnishings and design, such as its flagship Merchandise Mart in Chicago. As far back as March 2009, MMPI was saying that the first phase of tenants was likely to consist of a heavy dose of furniture companies.
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Information technology is another area of strength, with nine IT companies on the initial tenants list. Three of them sell software that’s used by medical professionals.
Shortly after the initial tenants were announced, MMPI caught some flack (from MedCity News, the Plain Dealer and numerous Cleveland.com commenters) for the list’s lack of many big-name medical industry leaders with national stature. Cleveland Magazine poured gas on that fire, reporting that MMPI had signed just five of the 100 national medical manufacturers it named as showroom prospects in a list it shared with sister publication Inside Business in 2009. With just six companies that market medical devices appearing on the initial tenants list, readers can make up their own minds whether those observations have any legitimacy. (MMPI was invited to comment for this article, but declined.)
Following is a breakdown of the major non-furniture and design industries represented by medical mart tenants:
Medical devices: AllTech Medical Systems America, Invacare, OrthoHelix Surgical Designs, Proxy Biomedical, Steris, Thermedx.
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The list is a short one, but at least it has some big names: Northeast Ohio’s Invacare and Steris are two of the five publicly traded U.S. companies on the tenants list. The others in the device category are primarily young, up-and-coming firms: orthopedic implants maker OrthoHelix; imaging devices manufacturer AllTech; fluid management systems company Thermedx; and Proxy Biomedical, which sells biological materials used to promote tissue healing.
All six of the companies on the list have significant operations in Northeast Ohio, but Proxy (Ireland) and AllTech (China) also have overseas bases of operations.
Information technology: Black Diamond Video, BlueStar, Hyland Software, Innovative Medical Systems, MCPc, MedBed Connect, Novicast, SelectCare Connect, Zuga Medical.
A group of Northeast Ohio software makers highlights this list. Hyland, long the darling of Northeast Ohio’s tech community, sells document management software to several different types of end-users, including hospitals. MedBed Connect and SelectCare Connect seem to have the same business model, producing software that helps hospitals and families pick long-term care facilities.
Others in this category focus on hardware: Beachwood, Ohio-based Zuga Medical (which apparently has no website) and Novicast sell digital display monitors, while Kentucky-based BlueStar focuses on mobile, automatic data capture products, such as those that locate assets using radio frequency identification (RFID). Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Innovative Medical Systems sells a variety of hardware and software, and also helps hospitals set up patient security systems.
Nonprofits: ASM International, BioEnterprise, BioOhio, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, Cuyahoga Community College, MetroHealth System, Northeast Ohio Health, Science and Innovation Coalition, Sisters of Charity Health System, Team NEO, University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Practice GreenHealth.
The nonprofits number 12, headlined by four Northeast Ohio hospitals: Cleveland Clinic, MetroHealth, University Hospitals and Sisters of Charity. Another tenant — the (pdf) Northeast Ohio Health, Science and Innovation Coalition — is a group of Cleveland and Akron hospitals including the Clinic, UH and MetroHealth that have banded together in an effort to develop and recruit healthcare workers in the region.
Cleveland-based BioEnterprise and Columbus-based BioOhio are key advocacy groups for the state’s biomedical industry, while Team NEO is the region’s attraction and retention group. Virginia-based Practice GreenHealth is a group for eco-friendly healthcare practitioners.
Construction and manufacturing: Gleeson Construction, Johnson Controls, Norman Noble, Robin Industries.
Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls, with $34 billion in sales last year, looks to be the biggest company on the tenants list. Johnson Controls sells a wide variety of products, including car parts, batteries and electronics and industrial heating and cooling systems. However, it’s the company’s building management systems, which control heating and cooling, lighting, security and fire safety, that could hold appeal for hospitals.
Norman Noble and Robin Industries are Northeast Ohio-based contract manufacturers that specialize in medical devices.
The rest: Clariant (chemicals), Arcadia Health Care (home healthcare), Infuse Medical (education), International Sourcing Group, Brooklands Medical Supplies (infection control), MedCity Media, Vendome Group (media), Al’s Courtyard Cafe.
Chemicals company Clariant is based in Switzerland and traded on that country’s stock exchange. The company’s Masterbatches business unit makes colorants and additives for plastics used in medical devices.
Indianapolis-based Arcadia sells pharmacy services and home healthcare staffing. Its DailyMed service packages dosages of prescription medicines into individual packets labeled with the time of day they are to be taken. Parent company Arcadia Resources (AMEX: KAD) trades on the New York Stock Exchange’s AMEX market. The company’s shares have recently been hovering around 30 cents and have traded only briefly above $1 since early 2008. Last year, the company lost $31 million on revenues of $104 million. Arcadia has lost money for at least three consecutive years.
Brooklands Medical Supplies sells bacteria-killing, disposable curtains to hospitals, as well as disinfectants and face masks. The company’s headquarters is in Ireland and its U.S. base is in Plainfield, Illinois.
Utah-based Infuse Medical develops education and sales training materials for medical device manufacturers, some of which involves creating 3-D animation. Clients include Boston Scientific, Medtronic and several lesser-known device companies.
