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Mar
13
Cuyahoga County comissioners said Thursday that a deal has been reached to bring a new Medical Mart to Cleveland.
Officials reached an oral agreement, but details won’t be released until the deal is inked next week.
Comissioners said they will make the final decision on the location of the Medical Mart.
Merchandise Mart Properties incorporated will invest $20 million of it’s own money into the project.
It’s estimated the project will generate millions of dollars for the Cleveland economy by bringing in 50 medical trade shows a year.
Update 2: From the Plain Dealer (hattip to Cleveland Equanimous Philosopher aka Roger)
Update 1: Location, location, location from WKYC:
Cuyahoga County Commissioners will choose the site, which will be downtown.
The site of the existing Cleveland Convention Center and the adjacent Mall B, as well as the former Dillard’s/Higbee building on Public Square, are believed to be frontrunners for the site.
…
The county’s cost will be capped. Attorney Fred Nance, the county’s chief negotiator, declined to release that cost figure.
…
Nance made the announcement at today’s county commissioners meeting.
For now, it’s just an oral agreement because it will take about a week to get it down on paper with the “i’s” dotted and “t’s” crossed.
The .25 percent county sales tax hike already in place should raise about $400 million over its life for the project.
The talks got done under deadline pressure.
Commissioners claim their hardball stance got concessions from MMPI.
And who got the commissioners to get their talks done under deadline pressure? Hmm, now, could it be…
SATAN?
By Jill Miller Zimon at 10:21 am March 13th, 2008 in Business, Cleveland+, Economy, Health Care, Ohio, Politics
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18 Responses to “[updatex2] Medical Mart deal reached”
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I await the details.
AND the location arguments.
And?
Joel Libava
I’ll be waiting with you – who should we look to to get on the record about the specifics?
Michael Stanley.
And of course, his band.
Joel Libava
Can’t wait to hear the full details on how we’ll be getting screwed on this one.
Shalom Jill,
After listening to the Jimmy Dimora interview earlier this week, I have to say that my confidence level and that Cleveland comes out ahead in this deal is somewhere around the lowness of whale poop.
But hey, I thought Clinton would bow out before the Ohio primary too. Shows you how much I know.
B’shalom,
Jeff
[...] Medical Mart deal reached digg_url=”http://havecoffeewillwrite.com/?p=6975″; digg_skin = [...]
5 years of work for the unions
the “mart” is kicking in 20 million. How much will this project finally cost the county?
The .25 percent county sales tax hike already in place should raise about $400 million over its life for the project.
Huh? The sales tax increase was expected to generate about $42 million/year and is in place for 20 years (link). Doing the arithmetic: $42 million/year x 20 years = $840 million.
Let’s see: MMPI puts up $20 million; the tax payers put up $840 million. Sounds fair to me.
What this agreement appears to really mean is that the county commissioners imposed this tax on us, without a vote of the people, months before they had an actual project. As the previous commenter said, it will be interesting to see how much taxpayer money is expended to bribe a private company into doing this.
Once the deal is made public, the answers to the following questions may be illuminating.
1) Last summer the county commissioners promised (if memory serves) that tax payer money would not be spent on the medical mart, but only the convention center. Does the deal include any public spending on the medical mart?
2) In addition to the medical mart, MMPI was seeking a management contract for the new convention center. Is MMPI given special consideration in the awarding of such a contract?
3) MMPI’s investment in the med mart is be $20 million, but that could conceivably include funds already expended (e.g., costs of feasibility studies) or in-kind contributions. Is MMPI’s $20 million investment in the form of newly committed cash? (This question is based on a posting by Roldo Bartimole.)
It’s a Crock ‘O Crap!
[...] Brewed Fresh Daily News and opinion from Cleveland, Ohio on a variety of topics « George’s BFD Tweets: 2008-03-12 :: Developing Economically in Northeast Ohio » 3.13.08 0 Med Mart Deal ReachedWritten by: Jill Zimon Or so they tell me. [...]
Greg – seriously – I hope you and others are keeping track. I think we have a great opportunity here for some real cit j’lism to be able to watch this from start to…well, whatever – I hate to say end because I want to be an optimist.
Jeff – okay – now I’m going to have to Google “whale poop” under images. lol Thanks for that.
Dweller – I can bet you that the good bloggers following this are going to be able to keep tabs on that and I have no doubt that we will get a figure – whenever it all gets built.
Anon in #8 – hmm – you seem to be right – have we read anything more about that calculation? I haven’t seen…
Hey Tom – thanks for reading and writing – I’d be happy to add you to the blogroll – let me know what category you like – there’s a catchall for Cleveland but also one I call “eclectic” and you can browse the others – just give a shout.
What your point reminds me of is how it is that so many of us see it, and yet it feels as though we are helpless to stop the project.
I’d love to see a compendium of people-powered stoppages or changes in public government-driven private projects.
Anon in #10 thanks -I know you have a follow-up to that where you review what the answers are and raise new questions.
People who are following this thread should really read this one at Brewed Fresh Daily too. Hard to believe one little pointer post birthed 90 comments.