CLEVELAND, Ohio — One Cuyahoga County commissioner believes Mayor Frank Jackson should lower his $20 million asking price for city-owned land coveted for a medical merchandise mart and new convention center.

Peter Lawson Jones said this week that potentially hazardous conditions found at Public Auditorium must be considered as county and city officials renegotiate a deal for the property.

Executives with private developer MMPI, the county’s partner on the $425 million project, said last month that they no longer plan to use the 87-year-old building to house meeting rooms… (go to article)

How quickly we forget.

It was only seven years ago that Jane Campbell, then Cleveland’s mayor, announced plans to turn a 170-space parking lot on Mall C into a park with grass, trees and benches.

Now there’s a serious possibility the park, which commands a terrific view of Lake Erie, could become a casualty of the plan to build the nation’s first medical mart.

MMPI Inc. of Chicago wants to build the medical mart — a year-round showroom for medical devices — at the north end of the Mall… (go to article)

Plans to build a medical mart in Nashville are proceeding apace. The Tennessean reports:

Nashville’s existing convention center could become a 15-story medical trade center buzzing with health-care innovations and brimming with visitors — and steering some business to a new convention hall.

Dallas-based Market Center Management Co. plans to spend $250 million to redesign the 22-year-old facility. The proposal includes adding 12 stories on top of the convention center to create about 2 million square feet of exhibit space, company executives and city and state officials announced Monday… (go to article)

CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cleveland chapter of the American Institute of Architects has asked Cuyahoga County commissioners to reject the latest proposal for a downtown medical mart and convention center.

The architects oppose a 110-foot-tall, glass structure jutting from the edge of Mall C because they say the plan destroys the historic integrity of the park-like mall. They also object to developer MMPI’s decision to exclude Public Auditorium from the $425 million project.

“When the mall area was originally designed, its purpose was to provide a beautiful setting for Cleveland’s civic buildings,” chapter President Robert Bostwick wrote to commissioners. “View of Lake Erie and downtown, together with beautifully designed civic buildings, make this historic Cleveland district unique and memorable. Let us preserve this landmark.” (go to article)

A Cleveland city councilman has set four public meetings for early next year to drive discussion on the newest plan for a medical mart and convention center.

“This project has to move forward,” said Councilman Joe Cimperman on Thursday. “It’s too critical for the region, for the economy. We just gotta put our heads down and get this thing done.”

The meetings, planned for January and February, will each focus on one aspect of developer MMPI’s latest vision for the $425 million complex — to build a modern glass structure cascading from the bluff of Mall C. Subjects will include city planning, economic impact, architecture and the park-like Mall downtown… (go to article)

The price of getting the nation’s firstmedical mart suddenly got a lot steeper for Cleveland.

In a presentation last week, MMPI Inc. of Chicago showed Cleveland City Council how its new desire to put the medical mart atop Mall C at the north end of the city’s convention center would simplify the project and cut costs dramatically.

The problem is that what’s best for MMPI now may not be best for Cleveland. It’s also hard to swallow the company’s explanations for its new thrust, which seem less than candid… (go to article)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Mayor Frank Jackson, upset with what he believes is a lack of communication from developers of a proposed medical merchandise mart and convention center, is demanding specific details and documentation related to the deal.

In a letter (Read it here:  pdf) sent today to Chris Kennedy, president of MMPI, Jackson unleashed a series of questions — some simple, others more nitty-gritty.

“While the city of Cleveland remains committed to working through all of the issues to keep this project on track,” Jackson wrote, “I do expect you to be quick and thorough in your response to all my requests and requirements… (go to article)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Back when Cleveland was the fifth-biggest city in the nation, Public Auditorium was gleaming brand new, the biggest convention hall in the country.

It would welcome the Republican National Convention twice, and host decades of concerts, including the Beatles in 1964. But according to the developers of a downtown medical mart and convention center, the stately edifice hasn’t been upgraded much since then.

Weeks of detailed feasibility studies on the building showed “unexpectedly bad” results for the auditorium, even though the adjoining convention center passed inspection, said MMPI senior vice president Mark Falanga. Among the defects noted were safety issues that include an “unsalvageable” electrical system rife with fire hazards and electrocution dangers. The problem areas are not in public spaces…. (go to article)

Now that everyone has vented — again — and perhaps done a little public negotiating, it is time to focus once more on what’s really important: designing and building a medical mart and convention center complex that can boost Greater Cleveland’s economic future. And doing so in a way that acknowledges the public’s huge investment in the project and its stake in what stands on the city’s waterfront.

That means the partners in what has to be a close collaboration among Cuyahoga County, the city of Cleveland and private developer Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. all need to dial down the rhetoric and stop pointing fingers.

Is the condition of Public Auditorium far more deteriorated than either MMPI assumed likely or top city officials realized? Would upgrading it cost more than the project’s budget can bear? If, as it appears, the answer to all those questions is “yes,” that’s disappointing. It would have been great to reuse the grand, old hall… (go to article)

The deal to bring a Medical Mart to Cleveland continues to get more troubling and confusing after the Chicago-based developer reneged on a plan to incorporate the city’s Public Auditorium into its project.

Officials from Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc. say the company scrapped plans to incorporate Public Auditorium into its grand scheme for a complex at Mall C because the building’s mechanical, electrical, heating and cooling systems are in shambles and too expensive to fix. Those officials reiterated that point during a marathon three-hour session in front of Cleveland City Council Tuesday… (go to article)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The developers of a Cleveland convention center and medical mart could pocket $4 million in tax money even if they abandon the project — a guarantee that is now raising ire.

Critics question why Chicago-based MMPI continues to collect monthly fees of $333,333 with little to show for seven months of planning.

“We’re paying $333,333 a month,” said City Councilman Michael Polensek. “We see nothing happening to speak of. . .Are we getting hosed here?” (go to article)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The $425 million Cleveland medical mart project came under attack from two fronts Wednesday — one from Mayor Frank Jackson and the other from a government watchdog group that is demanding transparency.

Jackson interrupted a trade mission to Bulgaria to criticize developer MMPI for publicly disparaging the city-owned Public Auditorium, which he said the company “beat down.”

“I question their motive,” Jackson said in a telephone interview with The Plain Dealer. “I’m asking do they really want to be here. Because their behavior to me is completely irrational… (go to article)

I talked with MMPI’s Mark Falanga after a three hour Council briefing to ask a simple question. Did MMPI expect to build a private medical mart on public land at no cost?

MMPI’s Falanga told Council that among a number of possibilities examined, MMPI wanted to build its Medical Mart on the Mall area between City Hall and the County Courthouse overlooking Lake Erie. Well, who wouldn’t, especially for nothing.

Falanga kept saying that the County was paying the City of Cleveland $20 million, as if that answered my question. The $20 million was for convention center and public auditorium. The latter Falanga has tossed out as useless or worse… (go to article)

Officials of MMPI Inc., the Chicago firm hired to build the new Cleveland convention center and medical merchandise mart, explained to Cleveland City Council today the problems it has encountered in putting together a site for the new complex.

The company has decided to exclude Public Auditorium from its plans for the facility and reorient it to the north end of Mall… (go to article)

The sentiment on 90.3’s call-in show was a mix of frustration and suspicion.  Frustration that the project had foundered over public hall, which until a few days ago had been pegged as a primary component of the trade show and convention facility.  And suspicion—over both the company’s apparent secrecy and possible duplicity around the deal it struck with the city and county.  Here’s Steven Litt, architecture critic for the Plain Dealer.

Litt:  “The last time the community had a complete presentation from MMPI on the values of this mall location for their project was in March, and we’ve had a complete blackout since then.  No drawings, no images, no plans… nothing… (go to article)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Public Auditorium is a public danger inside and out, a detailed analysis of its structure and systems suggests.

Officials from MMPI Inc. explained the results of their evaluation of the 87-year-old city-owned building on Tuesday as they explained why they have dropped plans to incorporate much of it into the proposed merchandise mart and convention center.

MMPI officials Mark Falanga and Lloyd Davidson described and documented an “unsalvageable” electrical system rife with fire hazards and electrocution dangers. They also warned that heavy limestone facade slabs could snap free at any time and plummet to sidewalks below. The building’s would-be owners also detailed heating, cooling and ventilation systems that violate building codes imposed to ensure public safety… (go to article)

With a price tag over $425 million in public money, some are saying the med mart project is just too big to fail. Revised plans that exclude the city’s Public Auditorium have cast doubts on the developer’s ability to deliver on promises. Meanwhile, county leaders are addressing new criticism of the project and trying to calm the concerns of officials at City Hall. Tuesday morning at 9, join us for a forum on the future of the Cuyahoga County’s Convention Center and Med Mart… (go to article)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The new proposal by MMPI Inc. of Chicago to build a medical mart on Mall C in downtown Cleveland is a bold and audacious idea that could produce outcomes ranging from terrific to awful.

It could give the city an iconic piece of architecture on a spectacular site, along with a fresh global identity as a center of medical innovation.

Or it could leave Cleveland with a rushed, poorly conceived structure that gobbles $425 million in hard costs, not to mention another half-billion dollars in interest on county construction bonds.

What’s critical now is to ask the right questions and to get clear, convincing answers… (go to article)

CLEVELAND, Ohio –Cleveland’s back-to-the-drawing-board medical mart and convention center has frustrated local politicians. But, in a development even more significant to the success of the project, recent construction setbacks suggest one competing medical convention center could open ahead of Cleveland’s.

Executives running the Nashville Medical Trade Center say they’re on track to open by the end of 2012 — and could open temporary convention space for the project by the middle of next year. The group will announce its location in that city in less than a month, said David Osborn, a senior advisor to the Nashville Medical Trade Center. It will start signing tenants soon after, Osborn said… (go to article)

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson will take Public Auditorium back. But he’s not happy about it.

He wants MMPI — the developer Cuyahoga County commissioners are paying $333,333 a month to build a downtown medical mart and convention center — to help pay the millions of dollars required to fix the 87-year-old building.

That’s because the Chicago firm is reneging on its deal to incorporate the historic hall into its $425 million, taxpayer-financed project. Instead, the company wants to build a modern glass building on the edge of Mall C, a change that requires the city’s permission… (go to article)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan is sticking up for MMPI, the developer hired by the county to build and operate a new convention center and medical mart.

After Thursday’s commission meeting, Hagan cautioned Clevelanders that the community — which has raised $75 million in sales taxes to pay for the project — can’t make unreasonable demands on the Chicago firm.

“You can’t force them to do anything,” said Hagan, a longtime friend of the Kennedy family and MMPI President Chris Kennedy. “They can just pick up and go home… (go to article)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The latest rendition of a Cleveland medical mart calls for a modern glass edifice cascading from the bluff between City Hall and the Cuyahoga County Courthouse.

Proposed for the northern edge of downtown’s Mall C, the design is the best alternative for a $425 million convention center complex, said developer MMPI, which last week abandoned plans to incorporate historic Public Auditorium into the project… (go to article)

The sudden proposal by MMPI of Chicago to build the medical mart at the north end of downtown Cleveland’s public Mall is an architectural shocker.

But it need not be an architectural stinker.

If carried out with brilliance — and that’s the big if– a medical mart on the north end of the Mall could give the century-old public space the vitality and completeness it has never had because it was never truly finished.

In 1903, Chicago architect Daniel Burnham and the Group Plan Commission designed the Mall as the centerpiece of a Beaux-Arts civic center framed by neoclassical civic and government buildings… (go to article)

Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones said Thursday that the county must abandon plans to buy Public Auditorium for the medical mart and convention center project.

Jones said the change is need to keep the taxpayer-financed project within its $425 million budget and requires developers to drastically alter their plans. Renovating the historic building would cost tens of millions of dollars more than budgeted.

The unanticipated costs — coupled with stalled negotiations for additional downtown property for the medical mart — have forced the developers, Chicago-based MMPI, to reconfigure much of the project… (go to article)

The Mall in downtown Cleveland is the city’s grandest public space, but that’s not saying much, given that it feels dead most of the time.

This is not what Chicago architect Daniel Burnham had in mind when he conceived the Mall in 1903 as the heart of the Group Plan for Cleveland. He envisioned a great city greensward framed by bustling streets and beautiful, neoclassical civic buildings.

Much of the Group Plan did get built, including the Mall, which stretches three blocks north from Rockwell Avenue to a lakefront overlook north of Lakeside Avenue… (go to article)