The idea of opening a medical mart in Cleveland was first proposed in the 1980s but was ultimately curtailed due to concerns that the economic climate couldn't support it. Decades later, the idea bounced around community leaders once again and was soon tied to a new convention center that Cleveland sorely needed. This time, the idea stuck.
By the time the medical mart opened in 2013, it had already been through a name and concept change. Rather than a building of health care business showrooms, the facility would be an innovation center called the Global Center for Health Innovation.
In the early 1980s, a task force considered developing the health care equivalent of the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, according to Cleveland Historical, developed by the Center for Public History + Digital Humanities at Cleveland State University. The project was ultimately halted after market studies showed that a shopping mall for health care products wouldn't be supported by the economic climate at the time.
It would be decades before a subsequent attempt brought Cleveland its medical mart.
On a trip to the Middle East, Cleveland Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove had met a businessman considering a similar medical mart concept. By the mid-2000s, Cosgrove decided it was time to revive the idea in Cleveland.
Cosgrove and Chris Kennedy (then president of MMPI, the company managing Chicago's Merchandise Mart and other industrial showrooms across the country) met with city leadership at the time. The leaders supported the idea.
Cuyahoga County commissioners levied a 0.25% county sales tax to raise funds to construct the medical mart and rebuild the Cleveland Convention Center. With MMPI serving as the developer, construction of the massive complex officially began in early 2011.
By the time the $465 million project officially opened in 2013, the medical mart had shifted from a showroom concept to an innovation center and had been renamed The Global Center for Health Innovation.
Since then, the center has struggled to find an identity. It has been reimagined several times and has attracted and lost many tenants, including its anchor tenant: Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), which last year announced it would wind down operations there.
Leaders had high hopes for the complex. Kennedy of MMPI (which the county parted ways with in 2013) said the project would transform Cleveland into a "Disney World for doctors." In 2013, ahead of the complex's opening, local tourist destinations looked for ways to take advantage of what they expected to be a hefty surge in out-of-town traffic.
But ultimately, the center has had difficulty finding its niche.
The mid-2000s idea of a place for individuals to shop as they outfitted a hospital didn't ultimately resonate in the marketplace. As leasing wasn't living up to expectations in 2013, leaders began rethinking the concept. Rather than a collection of showrooms for sellers of medical and health care equipment, the plan was to offer a space where, collaboratively or independently, health care companies, hospital administrators, physicians and other providers could see products in a working environment.
In 2017, BioEnterprise Corp., the nonprofit health care and bioscience business accelerator, took control of the Global Center for Health Innovation.
In the years since, the Global Center secured new startup tenants and initially extended the lease of HIMSS, but ultimately lost the anchor tenant.
County Executive Armond Budish said in 2017 that the takeover was designed to turn around a building that floundered as it searched for a successful identity that would complement the Huntington Convention Center of Cleveland. But BioEnterprise ended its role as manager of the center last year. Following the departure of HIMSS and BioEnterprise, the development corporation overseeing Global Center operations announced in November it would solicit proposals for the "best and highest use" of the space going forward, cleveland.com reported.
In May, George Hillow, executive director of the Convention Facilities Development Corp., told cleveland.com that a preliminary review by consultants concluded at least some space at the taxpayer-funded Global Center should serve as an extension of the convention center, but the pandemic has changed considerations for its future.
"We're turning the page and starting a new chapter in Cleveland history. This will be a catalyst for economic and community improvement." — Former Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, at the 2013 official opening of the Global Center for Health Innovation
"The convention center is well run and doing well; SMG is doing a very good job. But the Global Center has struggled to meet the public's expectations and my expectations." — Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish, in 2017
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August 16, 2020 at 03:00PM
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Crain's Cleveland Look Back: Global Center for Health Innovation continues its search for an identity - Crain's Cleveland Business
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