NEOMED NEW Center opens

By Denise Dick | September 29, 2014 at 12:00a.m.

ROOTSTOWN

The latest addition to the campus of Northeast Ohio Medical University houses a fitness facility that’s open to the public, a public high school, eateries and an event and conference center available for public events.

The $84 million, 177,000-square-foot NEOMED Education and Wellness, or NEW, Center, will be dedicated today.

It was constructed without taxpayer money, funded through a public-private partnership with Signet Development and Integrated Wellness Partners, both of Akron.

Signet developed the project and lease payments from tenants provide funding sources for project financing.

NEOMED President Dr. Jay Gershen said the university is working to build relationships with the community and urging the community to take advantage of the services offered.

Early indications point to success, he said.

Sequoia Wellness operates the fitness center, which opened in August.

“They had 1,500 members in the first three weeks,” Dr. Gershen said. “About half of those were from the university and half from the community.”

The conference and event center already has a few high school proms booked, said Mat Miller, the center’s executive director.

Construction of the new center also provided new quarters for the Bio-Med Science Academy, a public science, technology, engineering and mathematics high school with a medical emphasis in its third year.

The school includes 270 students in grades nine through 11 this year and next year it will grow to 400 students with the addition of a new freshman class. The academy started in fall 2012 with a 70-member freshman class. There’s now a waiting list for new students.

The Ohio Department of Education report card released earlier this month rated the academy the state’s top achieving STEM high school based on performance index.

Performance index is the measure of students’ proficiency levels as demonstrated on the Ohio Graduation Test.

The university plans to expand even more.

A retail complex and athletic fields on university grounds are the next phase.