Road in University Circle. This view, looking northwest from a perch in Little Italy, shows an apartment building in the foreground, with a parking garage on the right and an office building and student apartments in the background.

(Photo by Bialosky + Partners Architects)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Developers on the edge of University Circle hope to attract professionals, researchers and tech businesses with broadband service that is hundreds of time faster than typical.

OneCommunity, a Cleveland-based nonprofit broadband provider, hopes to create an ultra-high-speed network for a new development called Intesa being planned for University Circle by 2014.

The company hopes to offer 100 gigabit broadband speeds for new residents and tenants. A typical broadband speed for a residential customer is 1 megabit.

Coral Co. of Cleveland and Panzica Construction Co. of Mayfield hope to start building the $100-million-plus project by next year at the edge of University Circle and the Little Italy neighborhood. The mixed-use project hopes to be a hub for tech companies as well as a home for residents like doctors and researchers.

"This groundbreaking development will be the first real estate project in our region, supporting technological innovation and transformation to Cleveland's new tech economy," Peter Rubin, president of The Coral Company, said in a written statement.

"Being able to say that you've got the highest amount of available capacity in the region is definitely a benefit to them in attracting tenants," said Brett Lindsey, chief operating officer at OneCommunity.

In the last three years, the nonprofit organization has invested nearly $100 million to get fiber network access to 24 Northeastern Ohio counties. Funded primarily by the federal government, the organization owns and operates a fiber-optic broadband network that runs 1,735 miles through the region.

OneCommunity has connected more than 2,300 public institutions such as hospitals, schools, libraries and government offices and has also trained more than 30,000 households how to use the Internet. So far none of 11-year-old organization's subscribers have ever requested more than 10 gigabits connections.

"We know that the market is moving toward customers asking us for 40 gigabit connections with future plans requiring 100 gigabit connections," Lindsey, said.

Last month MetroHealth awarded a five-year contract to OneCommunity to install fiber-optic connections linking 18 of its affiliated clinics and three Life Flight bases to the flagship MetroHealth Medical Center campus. Major institutions like that want to enable all of their facilities to access electronic medical records and have the most robust Internet connections.

That level of broadband positions the hospital to offer "telemedicine" services, enabling physicians to virtually "examine" a patient remotely using high-definition video links connected to other hospitals.

During the summer, OneCommunity was selected to coordinate regional efforts for a federal push to improve broadband service in the United States, and tap into state level investments that extend the 100 gig networks in the state of Ohio.

"This is a great way for people to explore new ideas for what they can do without having limitations on the bandwith available," Lindsey said. "It's really to give them the freedom to innovate."