Crozer-Chester's New Owner Plans to Rightsize the Hospital

Crozer-Chester Medical Center got a new owner in January, and that owner now has a plan. Sort of.

Chariot Allaire Partners, the company that acquired the 64-acre Upland campus, told a crowd at Widener University’s Lathem Hall on April 14 that it wants to shrink the inpatient hospital to roughly a tenth of its current size, find an established operator to run it, and reopen the facility in phases. Founder and principal of Chariot Equities, Yoel Polack, put a timeline on the “aspirational” goal: two to three years.

Then he acknowledged that wasn’t good enough.

“However, we also acknowledge that two to three years away is two to three years too long,” Polack said. “There is an urgent need now.”

That urgency is real. Crozer Health, the four-hospital system that once anchored health care in Delaware County, shut down in May 2025. The closure gutted access for communities in the southern end of the county, including the city of Chester and Upland Borough, which had already faced long-standing health equity challenges before losing their closest emergency services. What followed was a scramble. Prospect Medical Holdings, Crozer Health’s previous owner, moved to unload real estate through bankruptcy proceedings last summer. The Upper Darby School District picked up Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill. KQT Aikens Partners grabbed Springfield Hospital and Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park. Chariot Equities and its partner, Allaire Health Services, closed on Crozer-Chester in January, but the campus has sat vacant since.

Chester Mayor Stefan Root didn’t sugarcoat the situation Tuesday. “They aren’t left with much to work with,” Root said.

Polack said Chariot Allaire is now in talks with regional academic medical centers to find a long-term hospital operator. He told the crowd at Widener that he expects to be in a formal study process with “two and hopefully three of the major academic medical centers of the region” for 60 to 90 days. The goal is a partnership outline at the end of that window.

The concrete near-term news involves primary care, not emergency services. Polack announced that the Independence Blue Cross Foundation has committed to financially support a primary care practice at the site, with a target of getting that up and running within nine months. The model centers on advanced practice nurses as primary care clinicians.

Heather Falck, executive director of the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, said the organization is committed to the community the initiative is designed to serve. “We’re proud to support the initiatives, the people and the organizations driving it forward and more importantly, the community that’s designed to serve,” Falck said.

For context on what’s at stake, Chester sits in one of the most medically underserved corridors in the Philadelphia region, with poverty rates well above state and national averages and a population that has long depended on the Crozer system for everything from routine care to trauma services. The Delaware County communities surrounding the old campus don’t have easy alternatives. The nearest major trauma centers are in Philadelphia, and PATCO doesn’t run there.

WHYY’s full coverage of the Widener town hall captures how Polack fielded pointed questions from residents who’ve gone more than a year without a nearby hospital. Ninety days of academic negotiations and nine months to a primary care clinic won’t satisfy everyone in that room. But for a campus that’s been dark since May 2025, a concrete funding commitment is at least a start.