Nashville announces plans for rival Medical Mart project

NASHVILLE, TN -- The city of Nashville announced plans Monday for a Medical Mart, one they say will top a similar facility which Cleveland has been planning for years.

The $250 million, 12-story structure will be built on top of Nashville's existing, mostly underground convention center. The announcement was made by Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen at a news conference.

"This is a tremendous opportunity for our city," Nashville Mayor Karl Dean told the gathering. "As I often say, Nashville is a city on the rise. Our best days are yet to come."

Nashville's position as a leading medical center contributes to its attractiveness as the city in which to locate a medical mart according to Bill Winsor, President and CEO of Market Center Management Company of Dallas, the project's developer.

"Cleveland, in our mind, is not a health care destination," Winsor told the news conference. "We see Nashville has all of the components."

He added that he believes the country can support only one medical mart of the type both Nashville and Cleveland are planning.

Winsor says his company and another developer have committed to $250 million in private financing. They were confident the money would be raised in time for a summer, 2010 groundbreaking at the latest.
 
The space at Nashville's existing convention center would become available if the Metro Council in the
coming weeks votes to approve the construction of a new $585
million convention center.

Supporters say that 1.5 million-square-foot facility would open in 2013.

Those involved in Cleveland's Medical Mart project were not overly concerned about Nashville's plans.

"It's a warning, clearly, that we've got to get our act together and make sure we consummate this deal and move forward," Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan told WKYC.

"But I'm not overly concerned. We have a funding stream here, the taxes that are being committed to the project. They do not," Hagan said.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, put off by a sudden change in plans by the MMPI, which is developing Cleveland's facility, said Nashville's announcement ought to hasten his city's efforts.

"Anytime there's competition, you know you're always concerned about it," Jackson tells WKYC, "but I do believe we're much further ahead than other places. Not only do we have a site identified, but there's dollars associated with that site."

However, MMPI of Chicago recently moved Cleveland's site to an area near the lakefront, one that will block traditional views of Lake Erie, and one which many say it not consistent with the original vision of a Medical Mart here.

Hagan expected a "major announcement" about Cleveland plans to be made within 30 days, and again emphasized that local funding is already in place, with a one-quarter percent sales tax that has been levied in Cuyahoga County since 2007.

"I think we've got the basis here of a real strong medical community committed to this," Hagan said, "and a real strong community in the sense of the county, and the tax dollars being committed to this."

Nashville officials were not deterred by plans that have been on Northeast Ohio's books, nor by the public financing that has already raised $75 million for Cleveland's proposed facility.

"The new convention center and this new facility here, when it's completed, play to our strengths and enhance our position as a major tourist destination and a major convention destination," said Nashville's Mayor Dean, "but also as a health care capital of the world."

Each planned Medical Mart, including one proposed for New York City, would create a central place where makers of health care-related products and technology could feature offerings to buyers from the medical industry.