Nashville medical mart pushes back opening date

The property developers behind Nashville’s medical mart have finally publicly admitted what’s been obvious for awhile — the project isn’t going to hit its slated opening date of 2013.

The CEO of property developer Market Center Management said construction wouldn’t begin this year on the Nashville Medical Trade Center, as originally projected, meaning the project won’t open in 2013. He wouldn’t provide a revised opening date, the Nashville Business Journal reported.

“It’s really an ever-changing situation,” said Bill Winsor, CEO of Market Center. “I would be remiss if we just threw out another date.”

Unlike rival Cleveland, Nashville doesn’t have public funding for its project — and is largely free of the extra scrutiny that comes with getting public funding. That means Nashville needs to sign leases for roughly 60 percent of the mart’s estimated 750,000 leasable square feet before it can obtain the private financing to begin construction, Nashville Medical Trade Center officials have said.

Ironing out deals with tenants has been a tough slog for the Nashville project, which has thus far named six tenants. The project has scored a couple wins in recent months, announcing as tenants furniture maker Steelcase and clinical services provider SpecialtyCare.

Nashville Medical Trade Center officials say they’ve signed deals they’ve yet to announce and are in late-stage talks with other prospective tenants that would push the square footage commitments closer to the magic 60 percent figure — though we’ve heard similar promises of impending deals before.

Cleveland’s medical mart is still projecting a 2013 opening date, and since construction has been going on for nearly a year, that seems reasonable.

MMPI, the property developer behind Cleveland’s medical mart, hasn’t publicly announced signed leases with any tenants.

Cleveland politicians are currently in damage control mode as they scramble to try to reconcile (or just ignore) seemingly contradictory statements about the Cleveland project’s business model from MMPI’s top local official. With a public MMPI presentation to the County Council scheduled for Nov. 9, we’ll learn soon whether MMPI will have any success in putting that toothpaste back in the tube.