ClevelandDesignCity

Cuyahoga County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones said Thursday that the county must abandon plans to buy Public Auditorium for the medical mart and convention center project.

Jones said the change is need to keep the taxpayer-financed project within its $425 million budget and requires developers to drastically alter their plans. Renovating the historic building would cost tens of millions of dollars more than budgeted.

The unanticipated costs — coupled with stalled negotiations for additional downtown property for the medical mart — have forced the developers, Chicago-based MMPI, to reconfigure much of the project… (go to article)