One of the oldest buildings still standing on the Cleveland Clinic’s Main Campus is the brick, Euclid Avenue-facing portion of the Mellen Center, dating from 1935. It is the home of the Cleveland Clinic Police Department which like the multiple sclerosis treatment facilities in the rest of the structure, is moving to newer buildings on the Main Campus next year (Google). CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE THEM.
Parking interim, utility plant future use
In a week filled with news of demolitions, this one was not unexpected. And it’s not just because the Cleveland Clinic Foundation has demolished lots of structures around its Main Campus that covers Cleveland’s Fairfax, Hough and University Circle neighborhoods.
This latest demolition, requested earlier this week but not due to occur until early 2027, is aimed at one of its own — a Clinic-owned and operated structure at 1950 E. 89th St. in Hough.
Under the Clinic’s letter-based identification system, it’s called the U Building. By name, it’s The Edward J. and Louise E. Mellen Center for Multiple Sclerosis Treatment and Research.
This demolition is not a surprise as NEOtrans has reported on this before, noting its pending demolition in July after plans for relocating the Cleveland Clinic Police Department (CCPD) from the Mellen Center were filed with the city. But what is a surprise will be its interim use.
At 96,556 square feet, the Mellen Center is actually comprised of four distinct building components, each with “different aesthetic expressions,” according to the demolition application submitted by Hans Walter, a principal at the Cleveland-based architectural firm DLR Group.
The Mellen Center, also called by the Cleveland Clinic as the U Building, is at the center of this satellite view. The Mellen Center is moving to the Neurological Institute, at bottom-right, and at extreme bottom-right, the Clinic’s aging Central Utility Plant is due to relocate to the vacated site of the Mellen Center (NEOtrans/Google).
“The four conjoined buildings will be difficult to repurpose for clinical uses due to their limited ceiling heights and planning arrangements,” Walter wrote in the permit application.
“The near-term use of the site area will be for contractor parking, which is in high demand as building projects shift with the completion of the Neurological Institute,” he added. A cost estimate for the demolition work was not provided.
Construction contractor parking is needed for two nearby Clinic projects about to get underway. One is the $230 million expansion of the Emergency Department on Cedar Avenue and the other is for the construction of one of two huge parking garages costing $175 million.
The closest new garage to this site will rise on the former Cleveland Playhouse site, north of Carnegie Avenue and west of East 86th Street. The Clinic is no stranger to demolitions. It is razing six structures for its expanding emergency department on Cedar at East 90th Street.
Mellen Center’s largest use is the multiple sclerosis treatment and research facilities. Those are due to relocate in early 2027 to the Clinic’s largest-ever building, the $1.1 billion, 1-million-square-foot Neurological Institute, the construction of which is nearing completion one block south on Carnegie.
Before it was called the Mellen Center, an 81-year-old, 13,000-square-foot structure fronting Euclid Avenue was built. It is one of the oldest structures still standing on the Clinic’s Main Campus.
For now, it houses the CCPD headquarters. Additional components were added to the north of that structure over the decades. But the CPPD won’t be there for much longer either.
The CCPD will relocate next year to the 11,870-square-foot former Rite Aid drug store, 10090 Chester Ave., built in 2007 on Clinic-owned land but closed in September 2024.
Originally estimated in July at $3.5 million, redevelopment of the drug store as a police station will actually cost $4,526,100, according to a construction permit application issued Nov. 9 to Mid-Continent Construction Co. of Bedford Heights.
The main entrance to the Mellen Center and its parking lot are off East 89th Street. The whole range of structures comprising the Mellen Center is visible here in this September 2026 streetview (Google).
On the same day that construction permit was paid for and issued to build out the CPPD HQ, DLR Group submitted the demolition permit to take down the Mellen Center.
After the Emergency Department is expanded and the East 86th parking garage is built, the Clinic anticipates relocating its aging, cramped Central Utility Plant from East 90th Street, just south of Euclid Avenue. The utility plant is marked by two tall smokestacks.
The current site of the Mellen Center is reportedly where Clinic officials are considering building a modern Central Utility Plant in the longer term. The current plant is designed to provide emergency power to 3 million square feet of inpatient facilities but the Clinic’s Main Campus is growing beyond that.
In a recent news release, the Clinic noted that a new utility plant was in the works but didn’t say where it would be built. NEOtrans has reported that, after a new Central Utility Plant is built, the old one will be demolished to make way for in-patient care facilities at least eight stories tall.
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