NEW YORK — Even though they say it’s only a year away from opening, builders of Cleveland’s medical mart have been coy about announcing tenants for their facility.
One of its competitors isn’t as modest. New York’s World Product Centre, which won’t open until 2013, said Wednesday it’s won 11 commitments from companies including Ohio-based Cardinal Health.
“The development of World Product Centre provides a transparent, neutral location for health-care providers to evaluate products and services from a variety of manufacturers and distributors,” Mark Rosenbaum, chief customer officer for Cardinal Health, stated in a World Product Centre release.
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That’s effectively the business model being offered in New York, Cleveland and, most recently, Nashville, Tennessee. Each wants to be a destination location for health-care commerce — offering showrooms, conferences and exhibitor space to the medical industry. Cleveland and Nashville will be the first two to open — though it’s still unclear whether the latter will open.
New York and Cleveland’s approaches are different. New York needs to sign tenants early so it can use that money to secure a construction loan to build its $1 billion, 60-story 1.5-million square foot tower — a feat not everyone thinks is possible.
Meanwhile, executives from Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. (MMPI), which will build and manage Cleveland’s medical mart, have public funding and part of their structure already in place. MMPI plans to entice many of its first tenants to try the concept.
MMPI executives have long said they think being the first facility to try this untested concept is critical to its success. However, New York’s announcement does beg the question of why MMPI can’t yet announce its first tenants. The World Product Centre doesn’t even break ground until November.
Other tenants in New York include orthopedic manufacturer Zimmer and health-care clothier Encompass Group, as well as investor Roundtable Health Partners and its portfolio companies: ACI Medical, Bioniche Pharma, Aspen Surgical, CorePharma, Avalign Technologies, Excelsior Medical and Vesta.
