FROM MEETINGS AND CONVENTIONS: Last month, the Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center broke ground on what is expected to be the new cornerstone of the city's convention and medical communities.

FROM THE PLAIN DEALER: In the lamplight, the site looks like modern art. Twisted metal gleams. Rods drip with icicles, frozen with water construction crews sprayed to keep down the dust. Concrete that once housed Cuyahoga County offices is piled into mountains. More than 95 percent of the rubble will be recycled or reused, as the Ontario Street lot becomes a four-story showplace of medical technology. As part of the county's taxpayer-financed project, the medical mart will connect to an L-shaped convention center beneath Malls B and C.

FROM BIOSPACE NEWS: ASM International will join 57 Medical Mart tenants and 31 conferences, conventions, and trade shows as part of a first-of-its-kind facility in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. This space is in addition to the newly renovated ASM Headquarters location.

FROM THE PLAIN DEALER: A 170-foot-tall crane took a 6,000-pound wrecking ball to the bland Cuyahoga County annex building this week, clearing the way for a modern medical mart of glass and pre-cast concrete.

FROM WORLD CONSTRUCTION NETWORK: Work on the Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center (Cleveland MMCC) has commenced with the crews started demolition work on convention centre in Cleveland, Ohio.

FROM TODAY’S MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS: The Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center showrooms will represent a broad spectrum of the healthcare market including device development and design, information technology, facility design and infrastructure, medical products, education and communication sectors as well as some of the nation’s most prestigious healthcare providers.

FROM THE STRONGSVILLE POST: The Medical Mart may be located in downtown Cleveland, but make no mistake about it, residents of the outlying suburbs have a stake in the project. That's how Dennis Madden, executive director of the $465 million publicly funded project opened his presentation to the Rotary Club of Strongsville at its weekly meeting on Friday, Feb. 11.

FROM TRADESHOW EXECUTIVE: Ground was broken January 14 on the new Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center complex, which will begin hosting trade shows in 2013. More than 600 guests attended the ceremony where Chris Kennedy, president of Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc., and other dignitaries formally kicked off the four-story, 235,000 square foot Medical Mart project. Kennedy also announced a list of 57 companies that had signed on as charter tenants of the venue. The adjacent lakefront convention center will offer 230,000 square feet of Class-A exhibit space and 90,000 square feet of meeting rooms.