FROM THE PLAIN DEALER: Cuyahoga County on Thursday closed a series of deals for the $465 million medical mart and convention center, clearing the way for construction of a project that backers predict will help revitalize the local economy. Nearly five years after the tax-financed project was proposed, county commissioners approved key land purchases and a business agreement with the county's private partner, Chicago-based MMPI. The mart will showcase medical products and technology in a four-story building attached to an underground convention center near the lakefront.

FROM MED CITY NEWS: City and county officials are expected to sign several key documents related to Cleveland’s medical mart project Thursday — another milestone and a sign of progress as the $465 million project marches on.

FROM THE PLAIN DEALER: Break out the construction fences. Get ready for earth movers and cranes. And say goodbye to the downtown Cleveland Mall as we know it. On Thursday, the medical mart and new convention center proposed for downtown Cleveland switched from imagination to reality. It's a big deal for Cleveland. After a decade of relative stagnation, downtown seems to be moving again.

FROM THE PLAIN DEALER: After years of talking, planning and negotiating about a medical mart and convention center in downtown Cleveland, work on the complex may begin within weeks. Last Thursday, the outgoing county commissioners -- their jobs abolished by the charter that goes into effect Jan. 1 -- approved the final steps necessary to put the project on track to open in 2013.

FROM THE PLAIN DEALER: An out-of-state investor group plans to open a hotel on Euclid Avenue, in a $55 million project that could eliminate a dead zone in downtown Cleveland. JHB Hotel LLC, an entity tied to investors in New York, California and Colorado, expects to buy the John Hartness Brown Building at 1001-1021 Euclid Ave. and the neighboring building at 1101 Euclid Ave. before the end of the year. The vacant properties could be plucked from the early stages of foreclosure, thanks to a surge of interest in hotels to complement Cleveland's planned medical mart, new convention center and casino.

Tyrone Williams was named project manager for Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center, it was announced earlier today by MMPI. A Cleveland native, Williams began his job duties on November 1 and will be responsible for managing construction schedules and...

The International Medical Meeting Professional Association [IMMPA] announced today that it will bring its Conference to Chicago, June 7-8, 2011 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers. The theme of the conference, “Engage, Enlighten, and Educate,” is geared to the...

The Rubber Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS) is developing an extensive technical symposia for the 180th Technical Meeting at the 2011 Rubber Expo and Advanced Materials in Health Care show to be held on October 11-13, 2011, at...