Archive: Plain Dealer: Fred the Fixer tapped for Medical Mart

Downloaded on August 9, 2008 at

http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php/topic,1782.630.html

Fred the Fixer tapped for Medical Mart
Posted by [send email to //jmazzolini@plaind.com/ via gmail] Joan Mazzolini July 06, 2007 21:00PM
Categories: Breaking News

Cleveland attorney Fred Nance, known by friends as "Fred the fixer," has been tapped by a business group to broker a deal to bring a Medical Mart downtown.

Nance, regional managing partner of Squire Sanders & Dempsey, is credited with bringing the Browns back to town and keeping the Defense Finance and Accounting Service and its 1,100 jobs in Cleveland.

His new mission is to bring Chicago-based Merchandise Mart Properties Inc. together with Forest City Enterprises or another developer to build a mart with permanent showrooms for health-care equipment.

Cuyahoga County commissioners plan to raise the sales tax one-quarter of a penny to build a convention center for the mart. Mart officials believe Cleveland could land 50 of nearly 600 medical trade shows held nationally each year, bringing $300 million in spending.

"If they're half-right, it's a tremendous shot in the arm for the county," Nance said Friday. "We cannot afford to let this opportunity pass us by."

Merchandise Mart Properties -- which runs marts around the country, including a furniture mart in North Carolina and others for apparel and jewelry in Chicago -- has signed a letter of intent to come to Cleveland.

Mart officials favor putting a Medical Mart into several floors of the old Higbee Building at Public Square and having a convention center built behind Tower City. Both buildings are owned by Forest City Enterprises.

Forest City officials have said they are eager to negotiate.

Enter Nance, brought in by the Greater Cleveland Partnership. Commissioners had tapped former Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro to do some negotiations. But Petro's location in Columbus made it difficult.

"We need someone to marry the Merchandise Mart with Forest City or with another developer to locate here," said Commissioner Jimmy Dimora. "We need someone in our neighborhood to achieve that."

Nance said there's much to do in a short time to ensure the mart comes here and not to someplace such as Pittsburgh, which has a large medical industry and a convention center that's floundering.

"We need to know what the specific needs of a successful Medical Mart are," Nance said.

Nance, chairman of the Greater Cleveland Partnership, said much remains unknown, including how big the convention center should be, its cost and where it will be located.

If the center is not built behind Tower City, other locations should be considered. Possibilities for the mart space include the old May Co. building near Public Square. Parking lots across from Tower City and owned by the Jacobs Group could be used for the convention center.

But building a new convention center is dependent on the city landing the Medical Mart, Commissioner Tim Hagan said.

"We're opposed to building a convention center to stand alone," Hagan said. The commissioners have pledged to rescind the tax if the Merchandise Mart doesn't come to Cleveland.

One-quarter percent, which would cost consumers 25 cents more on a $100 purchase, is expected to bring in about $42 million a year. Officials estimate they need at least $25 million a year to cover a $400 million center, but those numbers depend on the size and location.

Nance and the Greater Cleveland Partnership plan to help the commissioners sell the plan to the community. Nance said he understands that people want to know more financial details.

"Our goal would be to answer those question and to come up with a basic business plan," he said.