Cleveland medical mart signs more prospective tenants — but who?

The property developers behind Cleveland's medical mart have signed letters of intent with 32 prospective showroom tenants and 16 conferences and trade shows. But who are they?

The property developers behind Cleveland’s medical mart have signed letters of intent with 32 prospective showroom tenants and 16 conferences and trade shows.

That’s significant progress since that company, MMPI, last publicly shared numbers in June. At that time, MMPI had secured letters of intent for 24 showrooms and 12 conferences and trade shows, according to a statement from the Chicago-based company.

But MMPI still hasn’t named the potential tenants, conferences or trade shows.

The last few months have brought nary a peep from the company’s Nashville and New York rivals in the medical mart derby. That’s worth noting because many insiders believe the healthcare market can and will support only one medical mart in the nation, so whichever city first achieves a critical mass of tenants — whatever that might be — could get a big boost to its chances of success.

After creating a big splash a year ago by announcing deals with 11 tenants — and publicly naming those prospective tenants — New York’s medical mart developers have largely been silent, leading the informed observer to suspect the project is barely clinging to life.

Nashville’s developers appear to be making greater progress than New York, having announced two tenants so far this year, but they haven’t publicized a new tenant since April. Thus, it’s fair to wonder whether Nashville’s sales team has hit a brick wall in its attempt to lure prospective tenants to sign letters of intent.

Cole Daugherty, a spokesman for the Nashville Medical Trade Center, said it’s important to draw a distinction between leases — which Nashville has inked with both of its announced tenants — and letters of intent — which are far less binding, if binding at all.

“You build a successful trade center with long-term leases from recognized companies, not with the smoke and mirrors of anonymous letters,” Daugherty said. “We are working with a list of top companies on leases for permanent space.”

Daugherty makes a legitimate point about leases versus LOIs, and once again raises the question of why MMPI resists publicly naming its prospective customers when each of its competitors already has publicized some names.

But for now, score another round in the long-running struggle to Cleveland and MMPI, which is slated to break ground on the project in October or November. Maybe then we’ll learn the identities of the companies that intend to call the Cleveland medical mart home.

Shares0
Shares0