Cleveland Clinic leaders shared with a Palm Beach Civic Association audience on Wednesday the organization’s plans for a sweeping expansion of health care services in West Palm Beach.
Dr. Tomislav Mihaljevic, CEO and president of Cleveland Clinic, and Dr. Conor Delaney, president of the Cleveland Clinic Florida Market, addressed the audience of nearly 100 people at the Civic Association’s Signature Series program at Club Colette.
Cleveland Clinic announced in December 2024 plans to build a 150-bed hospital in downtown West Palm Beach and a much larger outpatient clinic than its existing clinic at CityPlace.
The new clinic is expected to open in November 2027 in a building under construction at 15 CityPlace at the site of the former AMC movie theater. It will occupy four floors with 120,000 square feet, which is quadruple the size of the existing clinic.
The hospital, which will include an emergency department and ambulatory surgery center, will be constructed on a 5.2-acre site at 400 and 450 S. Australian Avenue along the western edge of Clear Lake. It could open as early as late 2029, Cleveland Clinic has said.
Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit academic medical center based in Cleveland, Ohio, and founded in 1921 by four physicians. It is consistently ranked as one of the best hospitals in the United States.
Mihaljevic said Cleveland Clinic has one of the largest research infrastructures in the world and the second largest medical education program in the United States.
The 6,026-bed health system includes a 165-acre main campus near downtown Cleveland, 18 hospitals, more than 220 outpatient facilities, and locations in southeast Florida; Las Vegas, Nevada; Toronto, Canada; Abu Dhabi, UAE; and London, England.
Cleveland Clinic has operated in southeast Florida since 1988 and has a hospital in Weston in Broward County.
“Here in Florida, we have a very strong presence,” Mihaljevic said. “We grew sevenfold over the last eight years. And we continue to grow, particularly here in Palm Beach County.”
He added, “What you can expect from us … is certainly a commitment to provide you here in Palm Beach with the best care available.”
Mihaljevic said Cleveland Clinic has developed an integrated system of team-based care. “People are just exceptionally motivated to work together.”
Mihaljevic joined Cleveland Clinic in 2004 as a surgeon in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. He has led the organization since January 2018. Under his guidance, Cleveland Clinic is growing 10 to 12 percent annually and experienced nearly 15 million patient encounters in 2025. The organization employees 83,000 people, including 12,000 in Florida.
Delaney is a colorectal surgeon who joined Cleveland Clinic in 1999. He has led Cleveland Clinic’s Florida market since 2020, overseeing five hospitals with three million patient encounters annually.
Delaney said Cleveland Clinic’s Weston hospital is the number one hospital in the southeast Florida market. Cleveland Clinic has heart, liver and kidney transplant programs in Weston.
“Just recently, the liver transplant program was recognized as having the best survival rate of any liver program in the country,” Delaney said. “That’s the quality of care that we have.”
The new 120,000-square-foot clinic will offer chemotherapy, a concierge program, expanded radiology, infusion therapy, outpatient surgery, imaging and endoscopy.
“This alone is going to be a huge transformation,” Delaney said. “We will be expanding the services that we offer. But the particular change is that we are going to be able to do outpatient surgery.”
The hospital’s emergency department will be a tremendous asset for the community, he said.
“Stroke, heart attack … think of any emergency,” Delaney said. “We will have that level of care here … with the same teams that are running the same stroke protocols that we run” at other Cleveland Clinic hospitals, including the main campus in Cleveland.
Cleveland Clinic has launched a $500 million fundraising drive to cover costs of the new clinic and hospital in West Palm Beach. As of October 2025, it said it had received donor commitments of $150 million, including a $50 million gift from real estate developer Stephen Ross, a Palm Beach Civic Association director since 2012, through his company Related Ross.
Civic Association CEO Mary Robosson thanked Leo and Kathryn Vecellio for helping to arrange Wednesday’s program.
Leo Vecellio is a member of the Civic Association’s Executive Committee, co-chairman of its Water Committee, and a director since 2013. Kathryn Vecellio has been a director since 2020.
Wednesday’s program was sponsored by Related Ross.
Cleveland Clinic is a corporate sponsor of the Palm Beach Civic Association.
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