In Cleveland’s MidTown neighborhood, the emerging HealthTech corridor provides a holistic campus-style social service hub for area residents conveniently located along a world-class Bus-Rapid Transit line and a major thoroughfare. Two key organizations in the corridor – University Hospitals and Dave’s MidTown Market and Eatery – recently used NMTC financing to expand and improve their services.

University Hospitals had outgrown the space for their Rainbow Ambulatory Facility and MacDonald Women’s Health Clinic. Meanwhile, nearby Dave’s Supermarket’s dilapidated flagship store lacked the space to accommodate 21st-century shopper expectations.

To meet additional demand, the University Hospitals constructed the new Rainbow Center for Women and Children (UH), a LEED Platinum Certified, 40,000 sq. ft., multi-generational, team-based, quality clinical care model that addresses social, behavioral, and environmental health detriments and leverages opportunities for upstream intervention. Dave’s MidTown Market and Eatery (Dave’s) built a combined 50,000 sq. ft. of retail grocery and prepared foods with a 5,000 sq. ft. community kitchen and meeting room.

Combined, the projects serve as a hub of health and wellness activity and reduce the number of required trips saving residents time and money. Cleveland New Markets Investment Fund II partnered with Northeast Ohio Development Fund on both projects and brought in PNC as both a CDE partner and NMTC Investor on UH and Capital One as both a CDE partner and NMTC Investor on Dave’s.

A key factor for both UH and Dave’s was the ability to combine client services in one location while partnering to promote health and wellness. Dave’s works with chefs and nutritionists from UH to provide healthy cooking classes in the community room, which also serves as a meeting space for residents, nonprofits, and other community groups. The modern store provides a full-service supermarket in a federally designated food desert complete with prepared foods, including a selection of local restaurateurs, and fills healthy food prescriptions for UH patients. Finally, the site features a full pharmacy as well as a bank branch.

At UH, the facility goes beyond serving the basic functions of pediatric primary care, women’s health, and OB/GYN services and provides patient navigation services to help meet health-related social needs such as housing and utilities, legal services, group care, and integrated mental and behavioral health, preventative dental care, nutrition education, and a WIC office all under one roof.