Memphis Medical District seeks small businesses
Collaborative aims to keep health care local
Memphis medical giants are spending more time looking outside their own walls, piecing together a medical district more welcoming to local business by combining their considerable powers.
The Memphis Medical District Collaborative, an organization aiming to improve its namesake district, partners with the district’s eight anchor institutions. The district stretches from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to Methodist University Hospital.
Since launching in 2016, the collaborative’s push for these institutions to buy from local companies — along with encouraging district employees to live locally and for hospitals to hire locally — has brought noticeable returns, according to those involved.
Non-medical spending by the hospitals captured locally (dollars going to Memphis institutions) has grown from $33.04 million in 2014 to $55.51 million in 2018, a 68 percent increase, MMDC President Tommy Pacello said. Spend captured by local minority or womenowned businesses jumped by 180 percent in that same time frame.
The collaborative launched in 2016 but began to take shape the year before, as pieces of Memphis like Overton Square and Broad Avenue were heating up economically. Medical District players wanted the same for their area.
“We can do a lot more together than we could independently, and (the collaborative) allows you to deal with priority things rather than little one-offs,” Regional One Chief Financial Officer Rick Wagers said.
Pacello and others worked on the collaborative’s formation, anchor institutions embraced the idea, and local philanthropy, including the Hyde Family Foundation, chipped in, Pacello said.
“The vision became, ‘How do we
At a glance
The Memphis Medical District Collaborative’s eight anchor institutions are Baptist College of Health Sciences, Memphis Bioworks Foundation, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, Regional One Health, Southern College of Optometry, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Southwest Tennessee Community College and UT Health Science Center. For more information about the collaborative, visit www.mdcollaborative.org.
strengthen communities in and around major anchor institutions in the Memphis Medical District?’ ” he said.
‘That’s tremendous for a small business’
Alandas Dobbins, owner of Whitehaven cabling company Oteka Technologies, said the collaborative has been important to the nearly 3-year-old company to raise awareness of its business to valuable clients.
The eight institutions are clients with major economic power. They are the employers of more than 16,000, have 8,000 students on hand and are the users of more than $2.7 billion combined in operating budget, according to the MMDC.
“To be able to work with the anchor institutions, and whenever there is work to be done, they are able to call you, that’s tremendous for a small business,” Dobbins said.
Through the “buy local” push, institutions are sharing information about the types of suppliers they are using and what areas they can address a need locally, said Cynthia Bardwell, director of accounts payable and purchasing at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare.
The MMDC sets up matchmaking sessions, where local vendors can present their products and services to the institutions and schedule visits to their facilities. Bardwell said the matchmaking led to new, local suppliers for Methodist.
“We’ve looked at some specific categories (to buy local),” Bardwell said. “We’ve looked at janitorial services, catering, waste management, marketing, and we form those particular categories and identify if there is a local supplier that we could utilize in those particular fields.”
ER2, which recycles electronics waste, established the Medical District as the home of its Eastern hub in 2016. CEO and co-founder Chris Ko said the large health care providers that dot the Medical District are natural clients for ER2, which refurbishes old electronics from big companies.
“We consider ourselves kind of the expert in IT asset disposals for the health care industry,” Ko said.
ER2 wasn’t aware of the collaborative when it first moved in, but soon realized as area hospitals flocked to its services that they were pushing to use local vendors rather than big companies based beyond Memphis.
“As we serviced the hospitals, we felt it was a natural fit to be involved in that and continue the work they’re already doing,” Ko said of the collaborative. “From Regional One to UT Health Science Center to St. Jude, all of those are clients we’ve been able to service.”
More livable district a priority
The collaborative feels it can go further to lift local businesses. For anchor spending, 2014 estimates indicate $150 million in non-medical spend could be captured locally, Pacello said.
“There’s still room to grow on,” he said.
The MMDC’S “buy local” progress comes as the City of Memphis is embracing the idea of building up within Downtown rather than spreading farther out from the city’s center, a push the MMDC is familiar with.
The Medical District saw a heavy outmigration like the rest of Downtown Memphis: In 1970, the district had nearly 30,000 people living in it, Pacello said. Today, there are about 10,000 residents.
“While there were amazing things happening on their (medical) campuses, there were decades of disinvestment between the campuses going on that we’re beginning to reverse,” he said.
“It’s going to take time, but it’s those incremental steps and incremental feedback where we’re starting to see progress.”
The MMDC and anchor institutions recognize this involves more than just buying from local businesses. Better transportation and mobility options are needed, and there’s also a gap of 1,372 to 1,957 residential units that could be supported in the district, according to Pacello.
Anchor institutions would welcome more housing, if the collaborative’s live local program is any indication. It provides incentives for employees and students to live near their workplace.
Incentives depend on the institution, but some district workers “may be eligible for up to $2,000 toward a new apartment lease or up to $15,000 for a new home purchase,” per the MMDC’S website.
Other initiatives involving the collaborative include reducing area parking demand and making the district more appealing to the eye by removing graffiti and adding public lighting.
“We may compete in providing health care or which doctors come, but the reality is we all live in the same space, and we all drive down the same roads and we eat in the same restaurants and things,” Wagers said.
Max Garland covers Fedex, logistics and health care for The Commercial Appeal. Reach him at max.garland@ commercialappeal.com or 901-529-2651 and on Twitter @Maxgarlandtypes.