| Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic announced Wednesday that the city plans to demolish part of the Innerbelt to help create a biomedical-friendly business district encompassing the city's three main hospitals.Akron General Medical Center and Akron Children's Hospital would anchor the southwest end of a crescent of land that stretches north about a block past Perkins Street. Akron City Hospital would mark the east end.About a mile of the Innerbelt between Cedar and Howard streets would be replaced with a six-lane boulevard that would provide improved access to downtown, said Deputy Mayor Dave Lieberth.
Although early in the planning process, Akron could become the first city in the state to establish a bioscience-specific business corridor, said Merle Madrid, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Development.
The city would provide tax and land incentives to encourage biomedical firms to locate in the district, which already includes physicians' offices, two dialysis centers and the headquarters for SummaCare Health Plan.
More companies could be joining them.
Plusquellic led a trade mission in early January that included representatives of 21 public and private Akron-area institutions, including the major hospitals.
The trip resulted in a deal with Targetech Innovation Center, an Israeli technology incubator, to locate its fledgling companies in Akron in exchange for direct investment from a local public-private partnership. Some of those start-ups are biotech firms.
The trade mission also laid the groundwork for business collaboration, a pipeline of projects between Israeli biotech companies and Akron hospitals and possible academic exchanges in polymers and health care.
Akron's three major hospital systems sent their board chairs and high-ranking executives to Wednesday's press conference to show support for the project.
Access is perk
The mayor hopes collaborative relationships among the hospitals and the University of Akron will help the city entice businesses.
Firms in the proposed district would have convenient access to a wider pool of doctors and patients, which can assist in research, development and test-marketing of pharmaceutical products, medical devices and equipment.
The hospitals already are big economic drivers in the area, with Summa Health System surpassing Goodyear in recent years to become the largest employer in Summit County. Akron General Medical Center and Akron Children's Hospital also are among the biggest employers.
The district also would enable the city to continue helping the hospitals with their growth plans, Plusquellic said. The city already has assisted each hospital in acquiring land in recent years to aid expansion projects.
`We're all businesses'
Hospital leaders declined to give specific examples of how their institutions might work together in the future, aside from saying they're looking for ways to join together when it makes financial sense.
All three hospitals are non-profit facilities, meaning that excess revenues are poured back into the hospitals for such things as technology upgrades, maintenance, and support of money-sapping services.
Though the hospitals are looking for ways to work together, don't expect them to stop competing aggressively for patients, particularly in money-making areas such as heart and maternity services.
``We're all businesses,'' Akron General board chair Richard C. Fedorovich said.
Medical services probably won't be combined as part of the project, said Thomas G. Knoll, Summa's board chair.
The plans are preliminary, but Plusquellic said he is announcing the project now because the city is applying to the state for a $5 million grant through the Ohio Job Ready Sites Program. The project isn't contingent upon getting the grant, however.
Demolishing about a mile of the Innerbelt between Cedar and Howard streets has long been discussed, but it's several years from becoming a reality.
It would eliminate the need in a few years to replace up to eight bridges, saving millions of dollars. Taking out Rand Street and Dart Avenue, which run parallel to the Innerbelt, also would free-up acreage for new development, including high-end rentals or homes on the western hills.
Lieberth said plans should be completed within the next five years.
Ohio competition fierce
Akron could face some stiff competition. Other areas also are aggressively trying to capture a piece of the potentially lucrative biotech market.
Cleveland's Case Western Reserve University, for example, is getting state money to help build its ``West Quad Initiative,'' a 2 million-square-foot area on the campus that's developing life science-specific projects, said Madrid from the state Department of Development. City and state tax incentives are available to businesses that locate there.
The city of Columbus also is working with the state to create a bioscience corridor along state Route 315, which runs through downtown Columbus, past the Ohio State University Medical Center and into suburban areas, Madrid said.
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