MedMart Construction Update: 06232011

PROJECT UPDATES :: JUNE 23, 2011

ON MALL B, THE EIGHTH CAISSON WAS POURED EARLIER THIS WEEK, A DEEP FOUNDATION SUPPORT THAT IS CONSTRUCTED BY PLACING FRESH CONCRETE AND REINFORCING STEEL INTO A DRILLED SHAFT. THESE REINFORCED CONCRETE PILES ARE CAST IN HOLES OF PREDETERMINED DIAMETERS AND DEPTHS DRILLED THROUGH SOIL TO REACH BEDROCK.

Photo taken April 14, 2011 by flickr user SeattleDog1 

FOUNDATION WORK ON THE CONCOURSE LEVEL OF THE FUTURE CONVENTION CENTER CONTINUES WITH FORMWORK FOR PILASTERS SCHEDULED TO BEGIN SHORTLY. A PILASTER IS A RECTANGULAR SUPPORT THAT RESEMBLES A FLAT COLUMN.

NEAR ST. CLAIR AVENUE, 120 OF THE 241 MICROPILES HAVE BEEN COMPLETED. DESIGNED TO CARRY COMPRESSIVE LOADS, MICROPILES ARE FOUNDATIONS MADE UP OF HIGH STRENGTH STEEL CASING AND REBAR AND ARE HIGH-PERFORMANCE, HIGH-CAPACITY DRILLED AND GROUTED PILES WITH SMALL DIAMETERS THAT WILL EXTEND APPROXIMATELY 160 FEET INTO BEDROCK. MICROPILE WORK ALSO CONTINUES IN THE BALLROOM AREA NORTH OF LAKESIDE AVENUE.

DEMOLITION IS SUBSTANTIALLY COMPLETE WITH ONLY SMALL AREAS OF SELECTIVE DEMOLITION AND HAUL OUT OF DEBRIS REMAINING. THE TEMPORARY STEEL SUPPORT OF LAKESIDE AVENUE HAS BEEN COMPLETED. STAIR CONSTRUCTION CONTINUES NORTH OF LAKESIDE AVENUE.

ON THE SITE OF THE FUTURE MEDICAL MART, BACKFILLING OF THE AREA IS MORE THAN 90% COMPLETE WITH MASS EXCAVATION WORK PASSING THE 80% COMPLETION MARK. SOLDIER PILE INSTALLATION HAS BEEN COMPLETED

Read the rest of the update here

MedMart Construction Update: 06162011

CONSTRUCTION UPDATE - 6/16/11

PROJECT UPDATES :: JUNE 16, 2011

Laura Johnston/The Plain Dealer

NORTH OF LAKESIDE AVENUE, THE NORTH BRIDGE DEMOLITION CONTINUED ON MALL C AND IS NOW 95% COMPLETE. DEBRIS REMOVAL WILL CONTINUE. INTERIOR DEMOLITION IS 85% COMPLETE IN EXISTING EXHIBIT HALLS ‘’C’’ AND ‘’D’’ ON THE LOWER LEVEL. UNDERNEATH LAKESIDE AVENUE, TEMPORARY STEEL SUPPORT OF THE ROADWAY CONTINUES WITH TARGETED COLUMN DEMOLITION SCHEDULED FOR NEXT WEEK. MALL C DEMOLITION CONTINUED WITH ADDITIONAL ROOF REMOVAL CONTINUING THIS WEEK. MICRO-PILE WORK CONTINUES IN THE BALLROOM AREA.

ON MALL B, PRE-CORES CAISSONS WORK IS NEARING COMPLETION WITH 63 OF THE 66 COMPLETED. MEANWHILE, FOUR CAISSONS HAVE BEEN COMPLETED ALONG WITH 111 MICRO-PILES COMPLETED ALONG ST. CLAIR AVENUE.

FOUNDATION WORK CONTINUES ON THE FUTURE CONVENTION CENTER CONCOURSE LEVEL AND STAIR WALLS ARE BEING FORMED FOR CONCRETE.

ON THE MEDICAL MART SITE, BACKFILLING IS 90% COMPLETE AND WORK HAS COMMENCED IN THE AREA WHERE THE FORMER CONVENTION CENTER RAMP OFF ONTARIO AVENUE WAS LOCATED. MASS EXCAVATION WORK IS 70% COMPLETED ON THE MEDICAL MART SITE. SOLDIER PILE INSTALLATION IS COMPLETE IN THIS AREA.

PUBLIC AUDITORIUM SEPARATION WORK CONTINUES WITH HVAC DEMOLITION WORK 95% COMPLETED.

Medical Mart Architects Chosen - LMN Architects of Seattle: Cleveland.com

I feel this is a great choice, and its great to see continuing progress.

Repost from Cleveland.com:

LMN Architects of Seattle chosen by Cuyahoga County and MMPI Inc. to design medical mart and convention center in Cleveland

By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer

LMN ArchitectsA 2003 rendering shows a proposal made that year by LMN Architects for a renovation of the Cleveland Convention Center.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Patience has paid off for LMN Architects. Today, the Seattle-based architecture firm will be named conceptual designer of what Cleveland hopes will be the nation's first medical mart, plus a rebuilt Cleveland convention center. The firm has sought on and off for 11 years to design a new convention center in Cleveland. 

Jeffrey Appelbaum, an attorney hired by Cuyahoga County to assist the project, said he will announce at a meeting of the Cuyahoga County Commissioners that the county and MMPI Inc. of Chicago made the choice to go with LMN over two other finalists for the project.

MMPI is the county's private partner in the project to build the medical mart, a year-round showroom for medical devices, and to rebuild the outmoded, substandard convention center.

The decision marks a major milestone for the long-delayed project. The medical mart has been under discussion in Cleveland since 2005.

The project will be funded with help from $425 million in revenue from a 20-year, quarter cent increase in the county sales tax, imposed by the commissioners in 2007.

The Cleveland facility, scheduled to open in 2013, is in a race with facilities proposed in New York and Nashville, scheduled to open in 2013 and in about 18 months, respectively.

According to an agreement between the county and MMPI, negotiated by Appelbaum and approved by both parties in January, design work on the medical mart and convention center will begin swiftly once the site for the project is under control.

County Adminstrator Jim McCafferty said earlier this week that the county is in the final stages of negotiating the acquisition of several privately owned properties west of Mall B, where the medical mart will be located. The facility will connect underground to the rebuilt convention center, under Malls B and C.

LMN has been involved in discussions over the future of Cleveland's convention center for 11 years and has worked on at least two other major efforts to envision how the city's convention center, located below Malls B and C downtown, could be rebuilt in place.

The decision to hire LMN means that Valerio Dewalt Train, the Chicago architecture firm originally hired by MMPI to conduct due diligence in earlier stages of the project, will not get the big job, Appelbaum said.

LMN ArchitectsA model built in 2000 shows a proposal made by LMN Architects for the renovation of the Cleveland Convention Center. The center's roof, which doubles as the surface of the downtown Mall, would have been supported by catenary cables strung from towers on either side of the Mall.The decision also means that LMN will be in a position to realize millions of dollars of fees from one of the biggest design jobs in recent Cleveland history.

Appelbaum said he wouldn't name a specific figure until details had been negotiated with the firm, but offered to give an order of magnitude later today.

LMN is an award-winning firm known primarily in the Pacific Northwest and California for designing new or renovated convention centers and public assembly spaces such as Benaroya Hall, home of the Seattle Symphony.

The firm designed the recently completed eastern section of the Vancouver Convention Center, which is adjacent to the more widely recognized Canada Place convention center featured in broadcast coverage of the winter Olympics. That building, which features a white, tent-like roof, was designed by the leading Canadian architect Eberhard Zeidler.

As conceptual architect, LMN will handle the first two phases of a three-step design process.

First come schematic and design development drawings, which will bring the design to roughly two thirds completion.

At that point, Appelbaum said, a design-build contractor will hire a separate "architect of record" to bring the design to 100 percent completion.

Under this arrangement, LMN will be responsible to MMPI and the county, ensuring greater control over the quality of the final product, Appelbaum said.

The architect of record will be responsible for completing the highly detailed final blueprints from which the project will be built and will answer directly to the design-build contractor.

Appelbaum said the county and MMPI have issued a request-for-qualifications notification for the design-builder, and have received at least eight applications.

MMPI and the county will soon choose the contractor, Appelbaum said.

Yet more Medical Mart News - This Time Cleveland vs. New York

As Cleveland settles medical mart questions, rival New York project raises new ones | Cuyahoga County Insider - cleveland.com


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As Cleveland settles medical mart questions, rival New York project raises new ones

By Henry J. Gomez, The Plain Dealer

January 07, 2010, 7:21PM

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Marvin Fong, The Plain Dealer

Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan, shown above with MMPI President Chris Kennedy at a City Club forum in June, believes Cleveland remains the frontrunner in the medical mart sweepstakes despite a revised plan in New York.

With Plain Dealer reporter Laura Johnston

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Though plans for a Cleveland medical martcrystallized Thursday, backers of a similar concept in New York City believe revisions to their proposal should allow them to open well ahead of the competing project here.

Instead of anchoring a new 60-story tower in Manhattan as first envisioned, the World Product Centre will start out small and expand in phases to make a speedier debut, a company official said.

The first phase will use up to 350,000 square feet of existing space somewhere in New York, said John Strong, president of World Product Centre Marketing. He believes the showplace for medical equipment can open in about 18 months -- more than two years before Cleveland's.

"Many of the people that we've talked to are highly interested but want something more quickly," Strong said in a phone interview. "We want to accommodate that."

Cleveland and New York are two of the three cities locked in a derby to boast the nation's first medical mart. A complex three times as large as Cleveland's is planned in Nashville, Tenn.

In the past, executives with MMPI, the private developer behind the Cleveland project, have said that being the first to introduce the untested medical mart concept is considered critical to their project's success. Officials with the Chicago company did not respond to a request for comment Thursday regarding the latest version of the World Product Centre plans.

Local backers believe that Northeast Ohio remains the frontrunner. They cite public financing in place since 2007 -- courtesy of an increase to the Cuyahoga County sales tax -- and other factors, such as a renowned, built-in medical industry that can drive business.

"The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and MetroHealth in one city -- we are the health care capital of the world," said Councilman Joe Cimperman, whose ward includes downtown. "New York might have great Broadway shows, but they don't have the public funding, and they don't have the ability to bring in the vendors that these guys do."

The Cleveland mart will be built at the northeast corner of St. Clair Avenue and Ontario Street, in tandem with a new convention center. On Thursday, MMPI and county commissioners agreed to a new pact that makes it likely ground will break on the complex by October.

Construction is expected to take 36 months, so Cleveland's mart would be on pace to open sometime in 2013. Officials in Tennessee have targeted that year, as well.

A spokeswoman with Market Center Management Co., which is pursuing the downtown Nashville medical mart, did not return a phone call seeking comment Thursday.

Cuyahoga Commissioner Tim Hagan downplayed the idea of a three-city race.

"The bottom line is that we're not competing with anybody," Hagan said. "We've got a unique setting here. What we have is 70,000 or so people working in the health care industry in the community ... the dominance of the Cleveland Clinic nationally and internationally.

"It's comparing apples and oranges here."

© 2010 cleveland.com. All rights reserved.

An additional Med Mart article

Cleveland convention center, medical mart project could get in gear by fall - Crain's Cleveland Business

Big news on Cleveland's Medical Mart

It appears talks have resumed with property owners around the previous preferred location for the Medical Mart. This means the Mall C location that had come up last year as the new choice is likely off the table. Further more, the PeeDee is reported:

"Developer MMPI could break ground by October on a much-anticipated medical mart for downtown Cleveland, according to a construction agreement introduced to Cuyahoga County commissioners this morning."

As a person who was involved with the original Cleveland-Cuyahoga County Convention Facilities Authority (now defunct), all I can say is "FINALLY."

Cleveland: Medical Mart getting back on track

 Tom Beres     Updated: 1/7/2010 12:23:49 PM  Posted: 1/6/2010 5:42:10 PM

CLEVELAND -- The long-delayed Medical Mart project seems to be moving in a more postive direction.

Late last year, it seemed the project was relocating to a site on Mall C, overlooking the lakefront.

That was because property owners at the original site at the corner of Ontario Street and St. Clair Avenue were making what the county considered exorbitant demands for their property.

But those talks have restarted and seem to be close to resolution, according to Cuyahoga County Commissioner Tim Hagan.

"In all probability, it's going back to the original site. We were negotiating deals with people who were trying to get what they could," he said.

That will avoid an emotional debate about using the valuable and cherished Mall property for this project.

On Thursday, the county commissioners will also hear details of a construction agreement that addresses critics' issues and concerns about the county's preliminary agreement with project developer MMPI.

Lawyer Jeff Appelbaum helped broker terms and conditions surrounding the Gateway projects. He's been involved with dozens of significant projects nationwide.

He will tell commissioners he's arranged a deal that is easier for the public to understand, provides more chances for local companies to be part of the bidding process, and addresses diversity concerns.

"It's going to be more transparent, an iron-clad agreement that will give opportunites for local companies to be engaged," Hagan claimed.

Hagan understands public impatience and skepticism with a project that many perceive as slow-moving.

"Everybody is a critic. But they don't have our responsibility. This methodical approach is the only way to do big projects like this," he said.

Appelbaum is in talks with the City of Cleveland to address concerns about Public Hall.

MMPI revealed problems with electrical, plumbing and other systems in the building.

Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson must decide how much of the revenue the city gets in the final deal to spend on making improvements to keep the building usable  and how much to demand from the county and MMPI.

"I envision a deal. I believe anything beyond 2010 will create a big problem with us being competitive, " Jackson said, in apparent reference to similar projects being pursued in other cities.

Hagan's predicts, "Work will begin this year for sure. It's going to get done. MMPI, the county and the city are going to make this happen."

Hagan said he would not be opposed to extending the 20-year sales tax for the project to help with possible cost issue.

He says the switch to a new form of county government next year will not delay progress this year.

City Councilman Joe Cimperman is organizing a series of four public meetings in February to discuss different aspects of the Medical Mart/Convention Center project.

© 2009 WKYC-TV

MMPI could break ground on a Cleveland medical mart by October

By Laura Johnston, The Plain Dealer

January 07, 2010, 11:29AM

Plain Dealer

The proposed medical mart will likely be built on the northeast corner of St. Clair Avenue and Ontario Street, rather than on the north edge of the Mall.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Developer MMPI could break ground by October on a much-anticipated medical mart for downtown Cleveland, according to a construction agreement introduced to Cuyahoga County commissioners this morning.

The county's contract attorney also said MMPI will abandon controversial plans to build the mart -- part of a taxpayer-financed $425 million convention center complex -- on the north end of the downtown Mall, between City Hall and the Lakeside Avenue courthouse.

Instead, as reported last month by the Plain Dealer, the Chicago firm will build the showplace for medical technology on the northeast corner of St. Clair Avenue and Ontario Street.

The 67-page agreement also spells out how what taxpayers will get for their money. A $333,333 monthly fee paid by the county to MMPI will cover all salaries and benefits for company officials and affiliates involved with the project.

MMPI also will receive no more than $3.2 million as reimbursement for rent, travel and office expenses and must pick up the tab for all cost overruns. And the company is forbidden from paying kickbacks to contractors vying for a piece of the project.

Other highlights of the contract include:

• Once MMPI and the county agree on a guaranteed maximum price for the project, MMPI cannot walk away. That agreement should come about nine months after a deal to buy the St. Clair property. Construction will start soon after.

• The county must approve MMPI's choice of an architect.

• MMPI must seek competitive proposals from companies hoping to design and build the project.

• The builder must seek at least three competitive bids for subcontracts of more than $100,000, including excavation, concrete and electrical work.

• MMPI must parcel out a quarter of the work to small businesses certified by the county and hire Cuyahoga County residents to make up 40 percent of the construction workforce.

• The county plans to sign an option to buy an office building on St. Clair from L& R Investment Co., said the attorney, Jeff Appelbaum. And eminent domain could be used to transform other property into a public park.

Appelbaum did not say which property, but the Sportsman's Restaurant is sandwiched between L&R's office building at 113 St. Clair and its parking garage.

The county also is renegotiating a deal to buy the city's existing convention center.

MMPI's original proposal called for renovating the underground convention center, creating high-tech meeting rooms in the adjoining Public Auditorium and building the mart on St. Clair.

But in November, the company abandoned those plans after estimates to repair the 88-year-old auditorium came in tens of millions of dollars over budget. MMPI cut out Public Auditorium and instead imagined the mart as a modern glass edifice, rising at the north end of Mall C and connecting to the convention center below.

MMPI's public dismissal of Public Auditorium infuriated Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson and City Council, which last spring signed off on a $20 million deal to sell the existing convention center. And the change worried architects and preservationists, who urged against destroying the mall.

The furor drove county officials to reopen talks with St. Clair property owners.

© 2010 cleveland.com. All rights reserved.