[image-1]The Global Center for Health and Innovation, the $465-million, four-year-old, publicly financed complex is a) 20-percent vacant, b) unable to draw new tenants and c) without a leader, as it has been since June of 2016, thirteen months ago, when Fred DeGrandis departed the managing director position.
If you think that the frustratingly dumb misuse of Cuyahoga County taxpayer money is a failure, you’d be right. The Cuyahoga County Convention Facilities Development Corporation, the nonprofit that technically manages the Global Center and the Convention Center, might argue differently, but they’d be wrong.
You’d have to look no further than today’s updates on the stagnant past and dismal future of the operation provided by CCCFDC executive director George Hillow to Cleveland.com today. Among the highlights and developments he points to, according to the story, are the arrival of a Starbucks and the expansion of Au Bon Pain (which was highlighted as a highpoint six months ago, which is another way of saying nothing good has happened since then):
About 20 percent of the Cuyahoga County-owned, four-story glass building — formerly called the medical mart — remains empty.
Officials are excited about an Au Bon Pain expansion and a new Starbucks and UPS store, instead.
The new plan is to lure customers of those businesses into the soaring atrium for coffee or lunch. Vacant space on the second floor will be transformed into overflow conference rooms for the attached convention center or adjoining Hilton Hotel.
Officials also plan to alter a large space for healthcare startups into leased spaces for entrepreneurs.
Colliers was contracted as a consultant to help recruit new tenants (and they only get paid when they secure contracts), but in the year since they were enlisted the 20-percent vacancy hasn’t changed. Hillow, who makes $120,000 a year, a salary picked up by the county, told Cleveland.com that some of the vacant space on the second floor will be turned into conference rooms.
As for the other 80 percent, many of the leases are up in 2018 (and, as we reported last year, many of those leases were discounted and signed at below-market rates, including two freebies). So if it looks bad now, just imagine a year or two from now when it’s almost completely empty and convention officials pivot to a full-blown mall food court.
This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2017.
Thanks for this report. The original Med Mart was hyped and pushed by Tim Hagan, a friend of the original operators, a member of the Kennedy family. It’s hyped promises were used to construct a new convention center and eventually a county-owned hotel. All this was financed by a vote of the then County Commission with no public vote. That tax of a quarter percent is now costing us some $50 million. In 2016, the County reported this tax produced $54,755,708, and this year so far outpaces that amount. Please watch the costs and losses of the “Global Center,” the convention center and the county-owed hotel. We cannot depend upon the daily newspaper to do this job.
Roldo Bartimole
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This article might have been convincing if it hadn’t been written by someone with the journalistic prowess of a junior high school newspaper reporter. Before you get to the “I told ya so” patting yourself on the back part (roughly, the second paragraph), you might want to offer insight as to what current tenants might actually be planning and offer a vacancy comparison. If you did a little research, you would know that 20% is not exactly worrisome for new construction and that, across the country, demand for office space has softened.
This is all you need to know about armond budish…and frank jacksons police force wont take a report about these crimes by the rich of monies intended for the poor.
Anyone can do the same research as i did all public internet accesable. Please report and demand investigation..
A really good story is about the WECO FUND charity thefts. WECO(an acronym for WEALTH EDUCATION COMMUNITY ORGANIZING) reported a total income on it 2012 990 federal report(these are public and available online… I encourage everyone to examine the 990 of any charity they have an interest in).of 112,000$…what makes this figure suspect is that in the same 2012 calendar year united way gave weco two grants for 157,000$….all additional grants and income only add to the thefts of at least 45,000$.
Bill Kitson of united way told me that it is unlikely we ever find out where the money went….which is surely true as no one has yet looked!!…plain dealer reporters not allowed to look ….will you and and your newsroom colleagues please examine the discrepancy.
Elisabeth Plax the board President has not denied stealing the monies to me…and I have asked .
More disturbing are the huge ammt of loans this group made….to insiders never expected to repay.
Elisabeth Plax a PhD investment counselor has hundreds of millions of other peoples monies according to her website…. She is on Armand Budish TV show too…Armand who is aware and obstructing justice. Obstruction of justice is a crime…surely armond would publicly answer anything that had the appearance of impropriety…Elisabeth Plax is also armonds personal investment advisor according to the New York Times.In addition i also fear for elderly victims in a Madoff like scam…why are thefts from charities no big deal?
Please look into this huge theft of charitable monies !!
This is the most asinine article on this blog this week. 80% occupancy sounds like the greatest real-estate success in this city in a decade. What is Tower City at? The Galleria? The Arcade? Not to mention all of the available office space downtown.
Hopefully that food court will contain a Sakkio Japan after the devastating closings in the the Galleria and recently Tower City. Not getting my chicken teriyaki lunch fix and greatly lowered my workplace productivity
To be clear, this entire project is a disaster. Any fool saw it coming.
the way this article reads it looks like the Global Center alone cost $465 million— No , entire convention center and mall + hotel + global center cost that much. Hey , whatever it takes to get the place occupied .