Cleveland's new Health-Tech Corridor, stretching from University Circle to Cleveland State University, will be designated a "Hub of Opportunity and Innovation" today by Gov. Ted Strickland.
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View full sizeCleveland's health-tech hub status "puts us in line for preference when the state invests and develops the research capacity we already have," says CWRU President Barbara Snyder.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cleveland's health care cluster is about to burn brighter.
Gov. Ted Strickland will announce today that the newly formed Cleveland Health-Tech Corridor, stretching from University Circle to Cleveland State University, will be designated a "Hub of Opportunity and Innovation" by the state.
The hub status brings with it a $250,000 matching grant and priority status for millions of dollars in grants and loans that the Ohio Department of Development and other state agencies dole out yearly, officials said.
"It's fair to say the assets here are stellar and make for the perfect hub," said Mark Lundine, manager of the hubs program for the Department of Development.
Cleveland's hub is the second one in the state. Last fall, Dayton was named a hub for aerospace development.
The hubs "are a central part of our plan to create economic opportunity in Ohio," Strickland said in an e-mailed statement. "And the state of Ohio stands squarely beside the burgeoning local commitment to the bioscience industry."
All of Ohio's biggest cities will eventually have hubs, which are designed to boost promising industry clusters and the urban neighborhoods around them.
The hub will overlay the Health-Tech Corridor, launched in April by a public-private collaboration that wants to draw biomedical and technology companies to the area. BioEnterprise and MidTown Cleveland lead that effort.
"This whole group will use the hub opportunity to further leverage and brand biomedical and health care assets," said James Haviland, executive director of MidTown Cleveland, an economic development corporation that will manage hub activities and real estate needs in the corridor.
The corridor, aligned largely along Euclid Avenue, is already a jobs and business engine.
Some 50,000 health care workers are employed by the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals Case Medical Center and St. Vincent Charity Medical Center.
Academic brainpower is prevalent too, led by Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University and Cuyahoga Community College.
The hub status "is a good thing both symbolically and practically," said CWRU President Barbara Snyder. "It puts us in line for preference when the state invests and develops the research capacity we already have."
The health-tech corridor features more than 75 biomedical companies, 45 technology companies and seven business incubators.
Hub status should boost those numbers, said Baiju Shah, president of BioEnterprise, a nonprofit group fostering the growth of bioscience companies in the region.
More development along a gap-toothed Euclid Avenue spawns more jobs, Shah said. His group will head up business development in the corridor.
"Density helps further innovation," Shah said. "You have companies interacting with other companies, with researchers and clinicians. You're more likely to come up with new ideas."
Real estate projects and new business efforts along the corridor have already drawn some $25 million in grants and loans from the city, said Tracey Nichols, economic development director for Cleveland.
"We view this as a very important economic development initiative for the city," Nichols said. "The mayor is fully behind it. . . . The hub designation sends a true message to businesses here and those we want to attract that this is the place you want to be."
MidTown's Haviland anticipates that the new hub status will help with a $3.5 million jobs-ready-site grant he will be asking the state to provide later this month.
The money would be used for a proposed technology center at East 69th Street and Euclid Avenue.
The $250,000 that comes with the new hub status will be used to pull together various plans in the corridor into a master document for growth, Haviland said.
State officials said Dayton's hub status has already proven fruitful, with some $950,000 invested in streets and sidewalks.