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  • The new owner of Crozer-Chester Medical Center wants to restore hospital and emergency services

    The new owner of Crozer-Chester Medical Center wants to restore hospital and emergency services

    The new owner of the defunct Crozer-Chester Medical Center wants to restore hospital and emergency services to the 64-acre campus that straddles Chester and Upland Township in Delaware County.

    Newly formed Chariot Equities completed the $10 million purchase Wednesday. The for-profit entity said it expected within six months to have an agreement with a health system that would operate a “right-sized” hospital and emergency department at the facility that had been the county’s largest provider of those services before closing last year.

    The idea is then to open the first phase within two years, Chariot said in a statement.

    Chariot did not say how much it would spend on refurbishing Crozer-Chester, which had suffered from years of neglect under its two previous owners.

    Chariot’s partner at Crozer-Chester is Allaire Health Services, a Jackson, N.J.-based for-profit operator of nursing homes.

    The partners said they are in talks with regional and national nonprofit health systems regarding an operating partnership, but provided no details. The amount of money needed for the project would likely depend on what prospective tenants would want to do at the property.

    “Our belief in Delaware County’s future, and the community’s need for sustainable healthcare access, made this an effort worth committing to well before the finish line,” said Yoel Polack, Chariot’s founder and principal.

    Little is known about the new owners. Polack worked in healthcare real estate in the New York City area before setting his sights on redeveloping Crozer-Chester.

    Federal records list Allaire’s CEO Benjamin Kurland as an owner of 20 nursing homes, including three in the Philadelphia area. Chariot’s statement said Allaire owns a total of 29 facilities in five states.

    Philadelphia-area facilities associated with Kurland are the Center For Rehab & Nursing Washington Township, which was acquired from Jefferson Health; Riverview Estates Rehab & Senior Living Center in Riverton; and West Park Rehabilitation & Nursing Center in West Philadelphia.

    Local interest?

    Main Line Health has been involved in discussions about reopening emergency services at three former Crozer hospitals — Crozer-Chester Medical Center, Springfield Hospital, and Taylor Hospital — at the request of state lawmakers and the property owners, Ed Jimenez, CEO of Main Line Health, said Wednesday at a Riddle Hospital event.

    Jimenez said he would “entertain the concept” of restoring emergency services at one of the hospitals as part of a partnership with other health systems, but only if it can be done on a break-even basis.

    All three of the former hospital buildings visited by Main Line officials are in poor condition and were stripped of medical equipment after the closures. Main Line’s experts estimated it would cost between $15 million and $20 million just to make the emergency department at Taylor functional, Jimenez said.

    Riddle Hospital celebrates $4M in state funding to expand healthcare access in Delaware County

    ChristianaCare, Delaware’s largest health system, considered acquiring Crozer in 2022. Instead, it took a different path to expansion in Southeastern Pennsylvania. It is planning to open two micro-hospitals in Delaware County. The nonprofit system also took over five former Crozer outpatient locations. Its credit rating was recently downgraded by one notch because of lower profitability.

    The importance of Crozer-Chester

    Crozer-Chester closed in early May during the bankruptcy of owner Prospect Medical Holdings Inc., a for-profit company based in California, and after the failure of government-supported efforts to form a new nonprofit owner for Crozer-Chester and other Crozer Health facilities.

    Crozer-Chester was particularly important as a safety-net provider for a low-income area of Delaware County that has few other nearby options. The Crozer system, which had four hospitals, was the county’s largest health system and largest employer for many years.

    Two local Democratic officials, State Rep. Leanne Krueger and Delaware County Council member Monica Taylor, said they were encouraged by the approach being taken by Chariot and Allaire.

    At Taylor Hospital, the other Crozer hospital that closed last year, new owners are also looking for healthcare tenants. Local investors bought the Ridley Park facility for $1 million. It is less than four miles from Crozer-Chester.

    The same group agreed last week to pay $1 million for Springfield Hospital, another facility that had previously shut down under Prospect ownership.

  • Pa.’s new budget has financial help for Delco’s Riddle and Mercy Fitzgerald Hospitals

    Pa.’s new budget has financial help for Delco’s Riddle and Mercy Fitzgerald Hospitals

    Pennsylvania’s new budget has $5 million in supplemental payments for the two Delaware County Hospitals that have seen significant increases in patient volumes since Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Taylor Hospital closed in the spring.

    Main Line Health’s Riddle Hospital, near Media, is getting $3 million. The amount for Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic’s Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, in Darby, is $2 million, according to budget documents.

    The $5 million will be doubled by a federal match, said Democratic State Sen. Tim Kearney, who represents part of Delaware County. The $5 million is from a fund used to help hospitals the serve a large number of patients with Medicaid and used to go to Crozer Health, Kearney said Friday.

    Main Line said in a statement Thursday that the money will help it maintain services in the county.

    Pa. lawmakers and Gov. Josh Shapiro have approved a $50.1 billion state budget, officially ending monthslong impasse

    “Since Crozer’s shutdown in April, Riddle’s Emergency Department has experienced an unprecedented surge — 46% more patients than the same period last year, an increase of nearly 4,000 overall,“ the nonprofit said.

    Main Line, which also owns Lankenau Medical Center, Bryn Mawr Hospital, and Paoli Hospital, said it has seen 55,000 patients from the Crozer market — a 15% increase over the same time period last year. That figure includes 8,000 patients who went to a Main Line facility for the first time, the health system said.

    Trinity Health did not respond to a request for comment.

    Shuttered hospitals in limbo

    While Riddle and Mercy Fitzgerald have scrambled to accommodate patients who used to rely on Crozer Health, efforts are underway to bring healthcare services back to at least Taylor Hospital in Ridley.

    Local investors bought that facility in September for $1 million and are trying to entice one of the region’s nonprofit health systems to bring it back as a hospital.

    A group from New Jersey called Chariot Allaire Partners LLC has agreed to pay $10 million for the former Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland but has not disclosed its plans. That facility served as a key safety provider for a low-income area of Delaware County.

    A partnership of Restorative Health Foundation and Syan Investments won an auction for Springfield Hospital for $3 million, but it does not have support from township officials.

    Delaware County legislators also obtained $1 million from the state to buy emergency department equipment if one of the closed hospitals, such as Taylor, reopens, Kearney said.

    Editor’s note: This story has been updated with additional detail on the funding.

    This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.

  • ‘We’ve moved on’: Chester mayor and environmentalists object to LNG terminal proposal

    ‘We’ve moved on’: Chester mayor and environmentalists object to LNG terminal proposal

    Chester Mayor Stefan Roots came up with an idea as he waited to testify Wednesday during a Pennsylvania legislative committee hearing on a proposed gas export terminal.

    “I’m introducing a new initiative,” he said, “WMO — we’ve moved on .… This dangerous facility does not belong in a densely populated urban area like Chester. I’m calling on this committee to do the right thing: Protect some of the most vulnerable people in this commonwealth and say no to an LNG terminal in this region.”

    Roots spoke in response to a yearslong plan by Penn LNG to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal in Chester or nearby in southeastern Pennsylvania along the Delaware River. The terminal would tap in to an existing pipeline to carry gas from the Marcellus and Utica formations to a site on the river. There, it would be compressed into liquid gas for export and capitalize on soaring global demand for LNG after Russian’s invasion of Ukraine.

    The hearing, held by the Pennsylvania House Environmental & Natural Resource Protection Committee, was stacked with opponents of the plan, saying it would create pollution and be highly dangerous to surrounding communities. Democratic State Rep. Greg Vitale, the committee chair from Delaware County, said proponents, including Franc James, CEO of Penn LNG, and union leaders were invited but declined.

    Penn LNG has not specified a location but has said it plans to develop a new plant to export 1 billion cubic feet per day of gas from the Marcellus Shale to Europe.

    At previous hearings held by Republican State Rep. Martina White, chair of the Philadelphia LNG Export Task Force, proponents spoke of the economic change the facility would bring, including jobs.

    Vitale said he convened Wednesday’s hearing because he feared the project would “proceed under the radar without sufficient public scrutiny.”

    Indeed, the mood Wednesday was strikingly different from past hearings as opponents told legislators an LNG facility would pose serious health, safety, and environmental justice issues.

    ‘We suffer for everybody else’s comfort’: LNG facility proposed in Chester draws pushback

    What are the plans for the LNG facility?

    In 2024, former President Joe Biden put a pause on LNG export approvals in 2024 to further study the issue. This year President Donald Trump has made reviving fossil fuel energy projects a priority.

    Reuters reported in June that James, the Penn LNG CEO, had met with officials at the White House over the project.

    Penn LNG wants to export 7.2 million tons a year of LNG from a site near Philadelphia to markets in Europe and Asia and is considering several locations other than Chester, such as in Trainer, Marcus Hook, and Eddystone, the news service reported.

    What are the issues regarding an LNG facility?

    Opponents believe such a facility would pose a major threat if there is an explosion or fire in an area already densely populated with people and polluting industrial sites. They noted that Delaware County’s Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Springfield Hospital were closed this year amid a bankruptcy auction.

    If there is a catastrophic explosion, they said, the nearest hospital would be 30 minutes away.

    Tracy Carluccio, an advocate with the nonprofit Delaware Riverkeeper Network, said the area is too densely populated for the facility, emphasizing that a major concern is the lack of a sufficient safety buffer, which the federal government advises for LNG terminals.

    She noted that similar facilities in the South are situated in areas with thousands of acres of buffer. She said a new site in the area would likely be around 100 acres.

    “There is no location within the Delaware River watershed, including the bay all the way down to the ocean, for any LNG facility to be located,” Carluccio said.

    Lauren Minsky, a visiting professor of health studies at Haverford College, said an LNG facility would exacerbate existing public health issues in the region.

    She said southeastern Delaware County has already been given a grade of “F” for particle pollution and a grade of “D” for ozone levels by the American Lung Association.

    She cited 2025 research by Johns Hopkins University showing that high levels of volatile organic compounds have been measured in communities near the fence lines of LNG facilities. She also said there are elevated cancer rates in adults living in the area’s riverfront communities, citing the People’s Cancer Incidence Screening Tool, which calculates average annual cancer incidence rates in Pennsylvania.

    “If we value the health of our families, our friends and neighbors, and throughout the commonwealth, we need to build a different future, one in which we can all thrive,” she said.

    Already industrialized

    Zulene Mayfield, an activist with Chester Residents Concerned for Quality Living, said older residents she knows have suffered heart conditions and cancers that she links to living in an already heavily industrialized area.

    Mayfield is a longtime opponent of the Delaware Valley Resource Recovery Facility owned by Reworld, formerly Covanta. The facility burns trash and converts it to energy.

    She said Chester, rimmed by heavy industry, lacks many things other communities take for granted, such as primary-care physicians or entertainment for children.

    “We are being told that we have to accept other industries” that no other communities want, Mayfield said.

    “I’m sitting here right now trying to contain my rage,” she said. “The jobs are temporary, but death is forever.”

  • The fates of Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Springfield Hospital remain uncertain three weeks after bankruptcy auction

    The fates of Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Springfield Hospital remain uncertain three weeks after bankruptcy auction

    Friday marks three weeks since the bankruptcy auction for Delaware County’s Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Springfield Hospital, and it’s not clear how much progress has been made.

    Closing the sales depends in part on local authorities agreeing to tax deals that set the assessments at the transaction prices of $10 million and $3 million, respectively, for a limited period of time.

    Upland Borough, which is home to much of Crozer-Chester, is working on a property tax agreement that will be filed in court, borough council president Christine Peterson said Thursday. “We anticipate that Upland Borough Council will take action in favor of that stipulation once it is complete,” she said.

    A representative for Chester Upland School District did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

    If the school district also agrees to a tax resolution, a company called Chariot Allaire Partners LLC is clear to acquire the shuttered safety net hospital for $10 million.

    Yoel Polack, who is principal of Chariot Equities and has been talking with local officials and prospective healthcare providers about plans for the hospital, said last Tuesday that he expected to issue what he called a “comprehensive memo” on the property this week.

    Polack said in an email Thursday that there was still no update, but he is hoping to have something in the next few weeks.

    The backup bidder for Crozer-Chester is the same group that won the auction for Springfield. The auction led to Chariot increasing its offer by $3 million.

    Both facilities are owned by Prospect Medical Holdings, whose next bankruptcy hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. Items to be considered include Springfield Township’s lawsuit aiming to force Prospect to improve safety on the hospital campus that it closed in 2022.

    Bankruptcy Judge Stacey Jernigan granted a temporary injunction blocking Springfield from taking any action against California-based Prospect.

    Another topic is a proposed $1.5 million settlement of a lawsuit filed on behalf of Crozer employees who did not receive 60 days notice before losing their jobs in April and May when Prospect closed Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Taylor Hospital, which has since been sold. Federal law requires employers to provide two months notice of layoffs.

    A stalemate in Springfield

    Lawyers for Prospect identified Restorative Health Foundation and Syan Investments as the auction winner with a $3 million bid. But it appears a tax agreement that would assess the Springfield property at the purchase price is nowhere near completion.

    “The township has no interest in agreeing to a tax deal without having a better understanding of the buyer’s intended use of the site and whether it aligns with the township’s comprehensive plan,” spokesperson Pete Peterson said in an email.

    A representative for the winning bidders, Aminah Shabazz Perez, told the Delaware County Times recently that the buyer was in talks with two health systems about moving into the hospital, but one of them told township officials that was not true, Peterson said.

    “In addition, the township already did its due diligence prior to the bankruptcy auction and engaged in discussions with representatives of different health systems,” he said. ”There was no interest in the property due to the cost of improvements the facility would need.“

    Attempts by The Inquirer to reach Shabazz Perez have not been successful. Prospect did not respond to request for comment on the property tax situation.

    The Springfield School Board would also have to agree to a tax settlement, but has not voted “on any proposed resolution of the outstanding tax appeals or the tax assessments relating to the Springfield Hospital and parking garage properties,” the school board’s solicitor Mark Sereni said Wednesday.

    The face value of the Springfield School District’s latest claim in bankruptcy court is $1.43 million. Under an abandonment order signed on Oct. 14 by Jernigan, the district would receive a general unsecured claim, which is not likely to be worth much.

    If Prospect abandons Springfield and Crozer-Chester, the municipalities would have to foreclose on the properties to collect any of the money Prospect owes them.

  • The water wars are escalating in the City of Chester’s historic bankruptcy

    The water wars are escalating in the City of Chester’s historic bankruptcy

    As it approaches its third anniversary, the City of Chester’s historic and contentious bankruptcy also may be approaching a watershed.

    In a filing Tuesday afternoon, the state-appointed bankruptcy receiver asked Commonwealth Court to rule on an issue pivotal to the city’s ability to sell water assets that are keys to Chester’s emergence from bankruptcy.

    Receiver Vijay Kapoor argued that a narrowly tailored state law passed in 2012 that wrested control of the Chester Water Authority from city government was unconstitutional.

    If the judge finds in the receiver’s favor, “It would likely resolve a lot of the legal questions,” Kapoor said.

    The water authority, which serves 46 towns in Chester and Delaware Counties and reported $51.7 million in revenues last year, is the centerpiece of the receiver’s plans of creating a regional water authority. Aqua Pennsylvania offered over $400 million for the authority four years ago. The city’s annual budget is around $65 million.

    The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that, conservatively, U.S. residents collectively spend $100 billion a year on water.

    The receiver’s office has insisted that an owner operate the water assets as a “public entity,” not beholden to stockholders.

    Kapoor said that the state law transferring control of the authority was amended at the last minute and passed without debate.

    Frank Catania, the water authority’s attorney, countered that the receiver’s office is attempting a hijacking and that the receiver and city officials are asking customers, 80% of whom are outside Chester, for a bailout.

    “It’s not like they’re losing something they had,” he said. “They never had it “

    Kapoor also asked the judge to force the authority to turn over financial documents to explain its 14% rate increase earlier this month, adding about $70 to the average annual residential bill.

    He said the authority had undertaken a costly ad campaign, presumably at ratepayers’ expense, that he said appeared to include racial overtones.

    The authority blamed the rate hikes on bankruptcy-related legal fees and lowered credit ratings.

    “We’re a water utility,” Catania said, “and we’re also fighting a war.”

    The law the receiver is challenging

    In his filing, technically a bankruptcy “plan modification,” Kapoor said the 2012 legislation was crafted specifically to refer to the Chester Water Authority and was afoul of state law.

    Rather than the five-member board appointed by the city council, it resulted in the creation of a nine-member board with only two representatives from the city and others appointed by Chester and Delaware County commissioners.

    The law applied only to an authority that serves “parts of at least two counties” and services an area ”five times larger than the incorporating municipality.”

    The authority also had to have “projects in more than two counties.” Part of the Octoraro Reservoir, from which the authority draws water, is in Lancaster County.

    When will the bankruptcy end?

    It was uncertain when the judge might rule, or when the bankruptcy — which as of the end of 2024 had cost the state $11.5 million in legal fees — might end.

    The city, which is 80% Black, has been in the state’s “distressed” status since 1995 and entered receivership in 2020.

    Kapoor’s predecessor, Michael Doweary, took it into bankruptcy in November 2022. Chester had accumulated a $48 million pension deficit and missed several years of payments.

    Kapoor has said that sale of the water assets would be critical to avoiding dramatic cuts in retirement benefits.

    Chester’s tax base has declined precipitously in the decades since the city’s wartime industrial heydays, and a casino and an incinerator are key contributors to its annual budget.

    Other cities have suffered similar economic trauma, but Chester is a rarity. Of the more than 35,000 towns in the country, only about 30 have filed for bankruptcy.

  • Bankrupt Prospect Medical received bids of $10 million for Crozer-Chester Medical Center and $3 million for Springfield Hospital

    Bankrupt Prospect Medical received bids of $10 million for Crozer-Chester Medical Center and $3 million for Springfield Hospital

    The winning bids at a bankruptcy auction were $10 million for Crozer-Chester Medical Center and $3 million for Springfield Hospital, owner Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. said in a court filing late Monday.

    The California for-profit, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, identified the top bidders from Friday’s auction as Chariot Allaire Partners LLC for Crozer-Chester in Upland and Restorative Health Foundation and Syan Investments LLC for Springfield.

    Prospect did not say in its filing when it expected the sales to be finalized. Both hospitals are currently closed.

    Yoel Polack, who is in the group that wants to buy Crozer-Chester, initially declined to comment about plans for the property. “We are still working through final administrative details of the sale and will wait until next week to make any statements to the press,” he said in an email over the weekend.

    Polack is identified on LinkedIn as principal at Chariot Equities, which describes itself on its website as a real estate investment and development company. Previously, Polack worked in healthcare real estate, such as medical office buildings, at Simone Development Cos. in New York.

    Polack had an out-of-office reply on his email Tuesday, saying he would have no internet or phone access until Thursday.

    The president of Upland Borough Council, Christine Peterson, did not respond to a request for comment Monday about the winning bidder.

    No definitive information was available on Restorative Health Foundation and Syan Investments.

    A phone number registered under the name Restorative Health Foundation in Philadelphia led to a home care agency called Restorative Home Care. The person who answered the phone Tuesday said she knew of no connection to a bid for Springfield Hospital. Another number for Restorative Health Foundation had a voicemail box that was full.

    Restorative Health and Syan also participated in the Crozer-Chester auction, driving the winning bid up to $10 million from Chariot Allaire’s original $7 million offer. They were identified as the backup bidder for Crozer-Chester, in case Chariot Allaire doesn’t complete the purchase.

    At Springfield, KQT Aikens Partners 2 LLC is the backup buyer. That involves the same group of local investors that bought Taylor Hospital for $1 million last month.

    Prospect shuttered Crozer-Chester this spring, following the failure of government-led efforts to find a new, nonprofit owner. It had closed Springfield in 2022.

  • Prospect gets OK to ‘abandon’ Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Springfield Hospital if sales don’t go through

    Prospect gets OK to ‘abandon’ Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Springfield Hospital if sales don’t go through

    Prospect Medical Holdings Inc. had a $7 million bid for Crozer-Chester Medical Center and a $3 million bid for Springfield Hospital ahead of an auction held in the afternoon, an attorney for the bankrupt company said at a hearing Friday.

    Neither the winning bidders nor the top bids were identified publicly after the auction. Prospect did not respond to a request for information about the prospective buyers. Community members have been pushing for the restoration of hospital services to Crozer-Chester in particular.

    At the same hearing, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Stacey Jernigan approved Prospect’s plan to “abandon” the two shuttered Delaware County hospitals if the sales fail to close promptly because the properties have become a financial burden to the bankruptcy estate.

    Prospect used a similar tactic last summer in the case of Crozer Health’s two other closed hospitals, Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill and Taylor Hospital in Ridley. Both of those hospitals have since been sold.

    In a court filing Friday morning, Prospect said it had reached agreements with local tax authorities to set the assessments on Crozer-Chester and Springfield at the sale price for this year and next year.

    The properties had elevated assessments because of Prospect’s financial maneuvers since the California for-profit acquired the county’s largest health system in 2016. The current assessment on Crozer-Chester is $114.6 million, according to public records. That figure is $10.9 million for Springfield

    The filing also said school districts and others would accept general unsecured claims in the bankruptcy. Those claims are unlikely to have much value.

    Much of Friday’s hearing on the abandonment motion was taken up with discussion of complications at Springfield. An attorney for Springfield Township said his client had not agreed to the tax deal outlined in the abandonment motion and was not part of the discussions.

    That’s because Springfield Township has not filed a bankruptcy claim for back taxes, according to Prospect’s attorney, Maegan Quajada, of Sidley Austin. A hurdle in any sale is a deed restriction on the Springfield property that requires the operation of an emergency department that is open all the time.

    However, Prospect closed the Springfield Hospital emergency department in early 2022, so it’s not clear how much weight the deed restriction has.

    When Prospect announced late last month that it would hold an auction for Springfield and Crozer-Chester, it said any bids had to have no conditions on them, such as the resolution of tax matters or the Springfield deed restriction.

    But then Prospect changed its mind and accepted conditional bids and rejected one that was unconditional, an attorney said in court Friday.

    Quajada said the unidentified contingencies are being taken care of. “We already know we can meet them,” she said.