Cleveland medical mart on track to break ground next year

With roughly $475 million of financing in hand — including from a bond sale last week — Cuyahoga County, OH, and a private partner hope to break ground early next year on a rival medical trade mart to compete with a larger one planned for downtown Nashville. The Ohio project's financing puts it ahead of the Nashville Medical Trade Center concept that's supposed to go into the guts of an expanded convention center site downtown once the larger Music City Center project nears completion south of Broadway. The Nashville developers continue to pursue big-name tenants for 1.5 million square feet of permanent showroom space planned for the old convention center site, where companies would showcase medical gadgets and new technology among other products.