A lengthy article from European Hospital posted on the buliings website...
http://www.worldproductcentre.com/as...l_03192009.pdf
Some quotes:
http://www.worldproductcentre.com/article.php?id=11
A New High-Rise On New York's Horizon
Mar 19, 2009
Ten years ago, New York real estate entrepreneur Israel Green began a worldwide search for a cure for his wife's lung cancer. A year later, the couple returned to New York empty handed. Just days before a risky surgery, they were happily stunned to be given a very different diagnosis: acid reflux. The implications of her documented history of a hiatus hernia, outlined in her novel-sized paper record, had gone unrecognised by the dozens of clinicians and specialists who reviewed her case and offered their expert opinions.
During their long and harrowing experience, an idea emerged: Healthcare providers and suppliers could benefit from a single destination offering access to the latest in healthcare education and products.
Recognising an opportunity to improve information sharing and create connectivity and across healthcare, Israel Green set off to build a permanent global centre dedicated to healthcare. He believed that a single resource to unite healthcare could help bridge the many gaps he experienced. To that end he began looking for a development site near the Twin Tower to house this idea. Days away from closing on a development deal on site XXX, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 forced the project to be put on hold.
Two years ago, when he met Lee H Perlman, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of the Greater New York Hospital Association (GNYHA), and President of GNYHA Ventures, Inc, he found they harboured a similar dream and, last July, they created a partnership to again pursue the idea.
Architectural plans are complete and the centre's 60-story 1.5 million square foot glass construction, by the Extell Development Corporation, should begin in 2010, on the already cleared former site of the CopaCobana club at Manhattan's Eleventh and W 34th Street. In 2013, all being well, the doors of the World Product Centre will open to the world.
During the RSNA meeting in Chicago, Daniela Zimmermann met with Lee Perlman, as well as the President of World Product Centre John Strong, and Executive Vice President Michael Resnick, to find out more about this recession defying project.
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Initially, Lee Perlman explained the need for a new way of buying and selling medical equipment, caused by the changing policies and practices in business. 'People used to visit companies at their headquarters, and see demo sites at different installations in different hospitals. Now that is verboten. So, we need a new way of buying and selling that allows for neutrality and transparency - so people can shop in a safe haven. Our idea is to have a year-round destination that people will go to either to be educated, as a yearly sojourn, or to see what's the latest and greatest. But, more importantly, for people to make specific visits to outfit a wing, or a hospital, and be able to do it so that great companies can sell great technology in an environment where nobody's going to question it.
'Every company with any sort of magnitude in the US sells internationally and any European company that has any substance sells in the US. Since these companies are international, let them align their view of the world on an international basis. In 1964, when the World's Fair was held in New York, people came from all around the world. This is a World's Fair for healthcare, where people can celebrate the internationalisation of healthcare, and not be embarrassed about selling their stuff. I expect that a significant number of the companies who end up at the Centre will be either international, or companies with real European footprints that don't have a presence in the US and want to get in.'
Who Will Be The Licensees?
The Centre could not accommodate all the medical manufacturers, Lee Perlman pointed out: a 'critical mass' is needed. 'I'd be disappointed if this whole building didn't have representatives from food, radiology, pharma and so on. But I don't need every radiology company; I want a cross-section.'
'We aren't only talking to the big medical equipment suppliers, but also to companies and healthcare providers who provide medical training; medical insurers, and to finance firms who lease equipment or facilities to hospitals,' said John Strong. 'I was talking to an equipment planner for a US hospital who said: This is great -- we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars flying around to evaluate the latest technology, all over the world. This will bring it all into one building.
'Seven people are calling on potential licensees right now,' John Strong continued. 'They include the former general manager of Swiss Ray, Hans Behrendt, who is doing our sales and marketing in Western and Central Europe.' Consultants in the Pacific Rim are also meeting firms based there. 'So far, we have talked to about 100 companies around the world, mostly at CEO level. The reception has been very strong. People are interested in the concept because it brings an opportunity to have very rigorous and serious educational conferences with the idea of displaying your latest technology, and the technology infrastructure in the building allows companies to bring in, from virtually anywhere in the world, operating procedures that are going on live, or other clinical procedures being conducted in hospitals. So, if you are in your show space and you want to talk to a group of American physicians and they can see the equipment that you are talking about, they can actually see a procedure being done, let's say in London. The building is very high tech in that regard.
'This is really a new way of looking at selling medical equipment and medical devices, but as companies come in, we've already had others say, well, if my competitor is going to be there, I need to be there. We've only been marketing this publicly for about 60 days, and are already close to some formal commitments.'
Education At The World Product Centre
World Product Centre has plans to offer a year round calendar of healthcare events and continuing medical and professional education. To support these activities, the Centre will contain a 500-seat auditorium and an educational centre that can accommodate up to several thousand attendees. The Centre also is reviewing plans for a surgical training centre as well as a state-of-the-art simulation centre for training medical personnel. Hewlett Packard has also begun preliminary plans to build a healthcare technology showcase and training centre with a network backbone supporting device and technology connectivity and interoperability.
A $50 million non-profit World Product Centre Foundation is to be formed for educational programmes. 'This will not be US-centric,' said Michael Resnick. 'We are currently looking in Europe and in Asia for members of our medical advisory board, to have an international presence and international perspective. We are also soliciting advice from physicians in the medical community on matters of commerce. At the same time, we plan to focus a good deal of the education and training in the first few years around attracting attendees from the north-eastern United States. The local market of providers and healthcare facilities is one of the most concentrated in the world. 40% of all academic hospital beds in the United States are within a half days drive.'
Douglas Maynard MD, Chair of the World Product Centre Medical Advisory Board, said meetings would fall into four brackets - those put on by the licensed vendors, to train employees or clients; joint meetings for example held by manufacturers of CTs or MRIs, to draw in an audience particularly interested in that technology; unique international programmes put on by the Centre's own education staff, and finally meetings held by individual medical societies. 'The building can accommodate meetings for between 2,500 and 3,000 people. Lots of medical society meetings are that size, or smaller, so their annual meetings could be held there. Finally, we would get associations like the RSNA, Roentgen Ray, ACR, Merton College of Cardiology, or departments of orthopaedics or surgery and so on, to put on specialised meetings. So radiology might have four meetings a year but, every quarter, it could be surgery, neurosurgery, oncology, cardiology, neurology, intensive care, emergency medicine - all the other major disciplines that would like to come to a place where they could also go around and meet the various vendors selling what they're interested in.'
Walking To Wall Street
At the Centre, international healthcare companies would have their own offices, close to Wall Street. 'Many companies are interested in being public, going public, trading on international markets - New York is the centrepiece of the financial markets. So, we'll give them a way to talk to Wall Street,' said Lee Perlman. 'Additionally, each financial firm's market analysts will also be able to directly view and analyse new technology, product announcements and earnings reports.'
Other exhibition organisers, such as for the RSNA or MEDICA, may also welcome involvement, if they want activities not only during their four-day events, but also during the rest of the year, he conjectured. 'We're looking for strategic partners, and want to do this with some infrastructure that exists, but at the same time, we want people to recognise that the model for selling is changing, and if they aren't open to changing a little, they're going to miss an opportunity, because public policy around the world is dictating a new way of selling.'
At the Centre, no two days will be the same, Perlman added. 'We'll have designated areas to enable frequent rotation. Nothing will be stagnant. We'll do everything to keep new companies and new blood in there and make it a place of innovation. So, we are also absolutely dedicated to having a vehicle for incubator companies, otherwise the centre would die, because we'd only rely upon our existing companies for new innovation. We're going to talk to venture capitalists that develop start-up companies.'
'This Centre is no small task. Healthcare is so expansive that, to make it work, the building has to be big; the aspiration has to be big; the number of companies has to be big. Then, when it becomes a successful model for commerce, it probably should be duplicated around the world.'
Financing
Up to 2010, the project will be privately financed by Israel Green and the Extell Development Corporation. However, to commence construction, Michael Resnick explained that bank finance will be needed; the collateral for this will be multi-year financial commitments by participating companies. There are a lot of factors, such as private equity interest, and the liquidity of the financial markets.' However, he said, Extell and the developers have a good deal of experience in securing capital.
The financial crisis, said John Strong, has made companies 'a bit more cautious in terms of their expenditures'. However, he has found enough interest in the building to suggest they are planning ahead - the centre will open in five years.
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