Convention center plans on hold
CFA delays its work as developer examines medical mart sites

By JAY MILLER
6:00 am, February 13, 2006

Planning for a new downtown convention center in Cleveland has been put on hold until a developer can determine whether a medical merchandise mart is feasible in the city.

The three entities that appoint members to the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Convention Facilities Authority on Jan. 23 jointly sent a letter to the authority's board asking it to 'suspend all but the public information and outreach components of its activities until such time' as the company that is exploring whether to create a medical mart in Cleveland has made its decision.

'It is anticipated that we will have a definitive answer by this spring,' the letter stated.

The 11 board members of the Convention Facilities Authority are appointed by the city of Cleveland, the Cuyahoga County commissioners and the Cuyahoga County Mayors and Managers Association. The letter was signed by Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson; Bay Village Mayor Deborah Sutherland, who is president of the mayors and managers group; and the three county commissioners — Jimmy Dimora, Tim Hagan and Peter Lawson Jones.

CFA chairman William Reidy said the authority is honoring the request and has canceled its monthly meetings until further notice.
Mr. Dimora said the commissioners met last month with Mayor Jackson and officials with the medical mart's prospective developer, Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. of Chicago, and agreed to give the company time to investigate its options.

Crain's Cleveland Business reported last September that Merchandise Mart Properties was beginning to explore the possibility of establishing a place where medical product makers could present their products to hospitals and other users of those products. The idea is to pair the medical mart, with as much as 500,000 square feet of exhibition space, with a new Cleveland convention center, either at Tower City or on the Mall site of the current convention center.

Others in mart market, too

The letter to the convention authority states that representatives of Merchandise Mart Properties have visited Cleveland to review plans for convention centers at both locations. It also makes clear that Cleveland has competition in seeking to land the medical mart.

'The firm has requested an allowance of several months to complete its due diligence relative to doing business in our area,' the letter states. 'It should be noted that Cleveland is not the only city in which such discussions are taking place.' The letter did not identify the other cities vying for the medical mart.

Since its inception in June 2004, the CFA has evaluated plans for convention centers at both the Mall and Tower City sites, has investigated financing options and has laid out plans to drum up public support in anticipation of a ballot issue to raise taxes to pay for a new convention center.

The authority never formally set a timetable for picking a site and a financing plan, and the process has dragged on beyond most expectations. Former Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell, for example, had hoped for a resolution early in 2005. The problem has been selecting between two sites that each has its own strong proponents, as well as identifying a financing plan that would be palatable to voters.

Dimora: There's time

Mr. Dimora last week said Merchandise Mart Properties should be able to complete its analysis by April or May.

'Three months isn't going to hurt anything,' he said.

A spokesperson for Merchandise Mart Properties referred a reporter to company vice president Mark Falanga. Mr. Falanga was traveling and was not available for comment by press time last Friday.

The idea for a medical mart in Cleveland first sprang up in the 1980s, when real estate giant Forest City Enterprises Inc. sought to turn the former U.S. Post Office building at Tower City Center into a medical merchandise mart.

The idea was reborn in a conversation last fall between Mr. Hagan and a longtime friend, Christopher Kennedy, president of Merchandise Mart Properties, which runs a well-established and busy marketplace for consumer products retailers in Chicago.

The last CFA meeting on Jan. 10 was brief. Most of it was spent behind closed doors in executive session, when, Mr. Reidy said, the board discussed the possibility of a medical mart and the likelihood that the authority would be asked to suspend its work.