Chris Kennedy's troubled Cleveland deal: Taxes raised, company collected millions

As Chris Kennedy campaigns for governor, he’s talked about his business successes. He’s pointed to his management of the Merchandise Mart, “one of the great economic engines of Illinois,” and to his role developing skyscrapers on Wolf Point along the Chicago River.

Kennedy, however, has not highlighted one of his biggest projects to date — a nearly half-billion dollar public-private partnership to build a convention center and Medical Mart in Cleveland.

Local politicians, led by a longtime family friend, gave Kennedy’s company a no-bid contract and pushed through a controversial sales tax hike to pay for it.

As the project got off the ground, Kennedy told Cleveland residents the one-stop medical superstore would remake the Rust Belt city’s image into a “Disney World for doctors” and draw coveted medical conventions to town.

Read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/politics/ct-met-chris-kennedy-cleveland-20171115-story.html