Ohio-based Cleveland Clinic, one of the nation’s top medical providers and research institutions, plans to open a hospital in West Palm Beach on the downtown’s western edge along Clear Lake.
The move will create the first not-for-profit research hospital in the city and the first new hospital downtown in more than 100 years.
Cleveland Clinic also plans to quadruple its outpatient medical offices at CityPlace by leasing 120,000 square feet of space in a new planned office tower called 15 CityPlace. The company currently leases 30,000 square feet at the CityPlace Tower office building.
Cleveland Clinic has four hospitals in the Treasure Coast north of Palm Beach County, plus a hospital at its Florida headquarters in Broward County’s Weston.
But Cleveland Clinic does not have a Palm Beach County hospital to accommodate patients who want inpatient care close to their homes.
That’s about to change, said Dr. Conor P. Delaney, president of Cleveland Clinic’s Florida market.
“There’s been so much demand for Cleveland Clinic care (in Palm Beach County) that we feel this is the right step,” Delaney said in an exclusive interview on Wednesday, Dec. 18.
Delaney did not disclose the location of the new hospital, saying only that Cleveland Clinic has identified a site and is in process of buying it.
But real estate sources said Cleveland Clinic is buying the Reflections office properties at 400 and 450 S. Australian Ave. The combined 2.7-acre site faces Clear Lake, the large body of water that also serves as the city’s drinking water supply.
Both the Cleveland Clinic hospital and its expanded medical offices will catapult the esteemed Ohio-based healthcare company into a dominant player in Palm Beach County.
Cleveland Clinic is recognized in the U.S. and throughout the world for its expertise and care. It has pioneered many medical breakthroughs, including coronary artery bypass surgery.
The expanded facilities will turn West Palm Beach “into a Cleveland Clinic hub,” said Kelly Smallridge, president of the Business Development Board, the county’s chief business recruiter.
She said the renowned healthcare company “is another transformative milestone” in the county’s growth.
Cleveland Clinic’s announcement comes on the heels of Vanderbilt University’s decision to open a graduate business school campus in West Palm Beach, as well as the influx of financial companies to the county during the COVID pandemic, earning the county the nickname, Wall Street South.
Cleveland Clinic’s dramatic expansion plans also come as other out-of-area healthcare providers are opening or expanding their medical offices.
Many of them are nonprofit hospitals.
Residents who moved to Palm Beach County from the Northeast, Midwest and even California are used to top-notch teaching hospitals with an academic focus and a heavy emphasis on research, hospital executives say.
Downtown West Palm Beach’s other hospital, Good Samaritan Medical Center, is a for-profit hospital owned by Tenet Healthcare of Dallas.
Good Samaritan previously was “Emergency Hospital,” created in 1914.
Details of the planned Cleveland Clinic hospital: Many years in the making
A Cleveland Clinic hospital in Palm Beach County is the culmination of years of planning.
