MMPI Reshaping Med Mart Project

Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Topics: Economy, Politics
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Since the revelation last week that the developer of Cleveland's mdical mart and convention center had soured on a key piece of the project, city officials and others have called for an accounting of the change of heart. Several voiced their concerns on 90.3's the Sound of Ideas Tuesday, and the developer - Chicago based MMPI - provided some answers later during a meeting with city council. Ideastream's Bill Rice reports.

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.”

Back in March, MMPI had signaled that all was well with the current convention center, and that ground would probably be broken in early 2010.  Now, MMPI says Public Hall’s electrical, plumbing and other infrastructure are sorely inadequate, and repairing and replacing it would put the project some 60 million dollars over budget. 
In addition, the developer hit roadblocks in purchasing two key properties to complete the original plan.  the solution, mmpi says, is to abandon Public Hall public hall and relocate the med mart to a new site - what is now mall C, the area between City Hall and the County Courthouse.  Litt is perplexed at this latest revelation. 

LITT:  “They come to us and say sorry, we want to sever your public auditorium and cast it adrift.  And we’re not even talking about the west side of the mall anymore, we want to put the medical mart on the north end.  Now, that idea shouldn’t be rejected out of hand, it needs to looked at seriously.  But they’ve got some explaining to do - the many, many complex, physical planning issues, special issues, structural issues.”

Councilman Joe Cimperman is equally upset about the change in plans.  He, and many others in city government, had thought the convention center and Public Hall had been signed off on by MMPI as usable and a good fit for incorporation into the project. 

Cimperman:  “You know, in March they scrubbed the building, plumbing was fine, electrical was fine, we can do this, we won’t need to impact the mall… everything was fine.  And then all of the sudden, days after this last election, the whole project has shifted.”

Later Tuesday, at a specially convened city council meeting, MMPI executives gave a detailed accounting of what they found wrong with Public Hall, and outlined their revised plan to build on what will be called Mall D.  Complain as they might about the changes, Council members, including Council president Martin Sweeney, said...in effect...that they aren’t holding a lot of cards.  Sweeney said to dump the project at this late stage was not on the table. 

Sweeney:  “This council stands committed to the project.  We want to make sure it moves forward because we all believe it’s in the best interest of the city.  We’re open to the newest revelation.” . 

Councilman Cimperman repeated his previous concerns to MMPI Vice President Mark falanga.  . 

Cimperman:  “How will we not have the same situation in March that we have in November and you come back in March and say Mall D2 doesn’t work.”

Falanga:  “A lot of this work has been done now on this site.  We’ve vetted this site through our feasibility study, and from what we know today, we could build this.”

That last phrase - from what we know today - leaves mmpi some wiggle room if they do want to change the plan again later.  Falanga assured the council though that mmpi is - quote - “100 percent committed” to the convention center project and promised to come back to cleveland for public hearings on their progress.