Cleveland Clinic broke ground on July 30 on a $322 million expansion of its Avon campus, a project that will nearly double the size of the 107-acre site in Lorain County and is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2029.
The multi-phase work covers both Avon Hospital and the adjoining Richard E. Jacobs Health Center, adding roughly 250,000 square feet of clinical space. According to the health system's announcement, the project will increase capacity across emergency, inpatient and outpatient services.
"This marks an important milestone for the future of healthcare in Lorain County," said Rebecca Starck, vice president and chief medical officer of Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital. "As the community continues to grow, this investment ensures we can provide greater access to the high-quality care our patients deserve."
The Components and the Timeline
The listed elements include an expanded emergency department intended to increase capacity and improve patient flow, additional inpatient medical-surgical beds, expanded intensive care capacity, more operating rooms, expanded imaging including advanced MRI and CT, an enlarged Richard E. Jacobs Health Center, and a parking garage.
The cancer center portion adds treatment and infusion space and two new external beam radiation oncology machines, according to Spectrum News 1.
HKS is leading the design in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic's in-house design team, and Gilbane Building is the construction manager. The scope was first announced in 2025 at a higher figure, and the $322 million cited at the groundbreaking represents a reduction from the amount originally publicized.
The campus has a short history by hospital standards. The Jacobs Health Center opened in 2011 as an outpatient facility, and Avon Hospital followed in 2016. WKYC reported that hospital leaders first announced the 250,000-square-foot expansion last year.
Lorain County sits at the western edge of the Cleveland metropolitan area and has added population steadily as suburban development has pushed west. The Avon campus falls within Cleveland Clinic's west submarket, led by Neil P. Smith, president of Fairview Hospital.
The Travel Problem the Project Targets
The rationale Starck offered is specific and measurable, which distinguishes it from generic expansion language.
"We know that the acuity of services will need to expand, along with the volume of care that we provide, so these patients can stay closer to home when they are sick," she told Cleveland 19. She said patients currently travel long distances to reach Cleveland Clinic services.
For cancer patients, the distance question is not a convenience issue. Radiation therapy for many solid tumors runs five days a week for several weeks. Chemotherapy infusion schedules can require visits every two or three weeks for months. A 40-minute drive each way, repeated 25 times, becomes a transportation problem, a work-absence problem, and a caregiver-availability problem, and travel burden has been associated in health services research with treatment delays and incomplete courses of therapy.
Adding two external beam radiation machines and infusion capacity in Avon is aimed squarely at that pattern for western suburban and Lorain County residents, where the alternative has often been a daily round trip east into Cleveland.
The Services That Will Still Require a Referral
A suburban cancer center handles a defined scope, and setting expectations honestly matters more than the ribbon-cutting.
What a facility with infusion space and external beam radiation typically delivers: medical oncology consultations, standard chemotherapy and immunotherapy infusion, conventional external beam radiation, hormone therapy, supportive care including symptom management and nutrition support, survivorship follow-up, and routine surveillance imaging.
What generally remains at a main academic campus: bone marrow and stem cell transplant, CAR T-cell therapy and other cellular therapies, complex oncologic surgery such as major hepatobiliary, pancreatic and esophageal resections, proton therapy where offered, most early-phase clinical trials, rare tumor programs, and specialized pediatric oncology.
The same division applies outside cancer care. Expanded ICU beds and more operating rooms at a community hospital raise the acuity a campus can handle, but the highest-complexity cardiac, neurosurgical and transplant services stay concentrated where volume supports expertise.
Patients should ask their oncologist directly which components of a treatment plan can be delivered in Avon and which require travel, because a hybrid plan is common and knowing the split in advance is what makes scheduling and transportation manageable.
The Practical Picture Between Now and 2029
Nothing about care in Lorain County changes today. The project opens in the second quarter of 2029, and multi-phase hospital construction schedules move.
In the interim, patients should expect construction-related disruption to parking and access at a campus that will be building a garage while continuing to operate an emergency department. Anyone with a scheduled appointment during construction phases should confirm parking and entrance routing in advance, and allow extra time.
There is also a broader context worth stating plainly. Capital investment in suburban hospital capacity is happening at the same time that coverage changes are expected to increase the number of uninsured Americans. A newly built infusion suite does not help a patient who has lost coverage. Cleveland Clinic, like other nonprofit systems, is required to maintain a financial assistance policy, and patients facing affordability problems should request it by name from patient financial services rather than waiting to be offered it.
For families in Avon, Elyria, North Ridgeville, Sheffield and surrounding communities, the concrete question to track is which specific services relocate closer to home when the doors open, because that list, not the dollar figure, is what determines who spends less time in a car during treatment.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is being built? A $322 million multi-phase expansion of Cleveland Clinic Avon Hospital and the Richard E. Jacobs Health Center, adding about 250,000 square feet and including an expanded emergency department, more inpatient and ICU beds, additional operating rooms, expanded imaging, an enlarged cancer center and a parking garage.
When will it open? The second quarter of 2029. Ground was broken on July 30, 2026.
What cancer services will be added? Additional treatment and infusion space and two new external beam radiation oncology machines.
Which treatments will still require travel to the main campus? Typically, stem cell transplant, CAR T-cell and other cellular therapies, complex oncologic surgery, proton therapy where offered, most early-phase clinical trials, and rare tumor programs.
Why does distance matter for cancer patients? Radiation courses often run daily for weeks and infusion schedules can span months. Long repeated trips create transportation, work, and caregiving burdens that research has linked to treatment delays.
Who is designing and building it? HKS is leading the design with Cleveland Clinic's internal design team, and Gilbane Building is serving as construction manager.
What should patients do during construction? Confirm parking and entrance routing before appointments and allow extra time, since the campus will remain operational throughout the build.
