Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center property developer MMPI must hit several minimum performance benchmarks as part of its agreement with Cuyahoga County to continue operating the facility once it opens.
Those benchmarks pertain to the number of events, attendees, hotel room nights and occupancy of the medical mart, which is conceived as a collection of product showrooms for medical technology companies.
And if Chicago-based MMPI doesn’t hit those benchmarks? The county has several “remedies” that it can invoke, including diverting up to $1 million in payments every two years from MMPI to an escrow account that could be tapped to enhance the project’s sales and marketing. The county could first use that option at the end of year three.
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More extreme is the “termination remedy,” which means exactly what it sounds like and would be available to the county five years after the medical mart and convention center opens. If MMPI fails to achieve a certain level of its benchmarks, the county could sever the agreement granting MMPI the right to operate the facility.
It’s important to note that the minimum benchmarks aren’t the same as MMPI’s performance projections. For example, the company has said many times it expects the medical mart and convention center to eventually draw 300,000 annual visitors, but for MMPI to stay on the right side of the agreement with the county, it’s never required to draw more than 214,500 visitors per year.
Following are the benchmarks MMPI must hit in the first few years after the project opens. Benchmarks for subsequent years can be found here.
Years 1-2 combined
Exhibit hall events (trade shows, consumer shows, conventions and other shows that use the convention center’s exhibit hall): 45
Other events (conferences, meetings, banquets and other events that don’t use space in the exhibit hall): 100
Number of attendees at all facility events: 252,500
Convention center occupancy: 20 percent
Hotel room nights: 58,523
Medical mart occupancy: 82.9 percent
Year 3
Exhibit hall events: 26
Other events: 61
Number of attendees at all facility events: 151,250
Convention center occupancy: 25 percent
Hotel room nights: 30,983
Medical mart occupancy: 82.9 percent
Year 4
Exhibit hall events: 30
Other events: 67
Number of attendees at all facility events: 172,000
Convention center occupancy: 28 percent
Hotel room nights: 32,130
Medical mart occupancy: 82.9 percent
