Crozer-Chester’s new owner wants to ‘rightsize.’ What does that mean — and how long will it take?

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Chariot Allaire Partners, the new owner of the Crozer-Chester Medical Center property, said it wants to “rightsize” the inpatient hospital to a tenth of its current size, find an established operator and reopen the 64-acre campus in Upland in a phased approach.

“We’re entering into a study process with two and hopefully three of the major academic medical centers of the region, which will be about 60 to 90 days, and hopefully at the end of that period, we’re going to be having some outline of a partnership with the system,” said Yoel Polack, founder and principal of Chariot Equities, at a townhall at Widener University’s Lathem Hall.

The “aspirational” endeavor to restore health care could take up to three years, Polack said.

“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.”

Polack also announced a new partnership to help establish the primary care practice that will eventually operate at Crozer-Chester Medical Center.

“The concrete news that I can share with you and the driving force behind this effort is the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, who have committed to financially support this effort to hopefully be realized within the next nine months,” Polack said as the room erupted in applause.

Heather Falck, executive director of the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, said the initiative leverages the role of advanced practice nurses as primary care clinicians.

“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.

How did Crozer-Chester Medical Center go from open for business to vacant?

The hospital and its adjacent campus were once the nucleus of Crozer Health, a four-hospital health system in Delaware County that shuttered in May 2025, leaving behind an emergency health care desert.

Without Crozer-Chester Medical Center, the surrounding communities in the southern end of Delaware County, such as the city of Chester and Upland Borough, have struggled to access vital care.

Prospect Medical Holdings, Crozer Health’s previous owner, began unloading its real estate during bankruptcy proceedings last summer.

The Upper Darby School District acquired Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill. KQT Aikens Partners purchased Springfield Hospital in Springfield and Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park.

Chariot Equities and its partner, Allaire Health Services, completed its purchase of Crozer-Chester Medical Center in January.

“They aren’t left with much to work with,” Chester Mayor Stefan Root said Tuesday during his opening remarks. “Many of us have not gone through the property that they’ve purchased, but it is empty. There’s not a bed or a bed sheet. There’s not an oven. There’s not a computer. There’s not an X-ray machine. The place is empty.”

Since then, company officials have been meeting with local, county and state officials to provide updates and receive feedback.

“We have a standing recurring call with the governor’s office,” Polack said. “They’re well aware of what we’re up to.”

Who is behind Chariot Allaire Partners?

Tuesday marked the first time Chariot Allaire Partners engaged with the general public since acquiring the Crozer-Chester Medical Center property.

“My professional background is health care real estate development,” Pollack said. “I built facilities for the largest hospital systems in New York City, including Montefiore Medical Center, on Mount Sinai Health Network, and others. Most recently, I started this Chariot business focusing on health care real estate in Philadelphia.”

Crozer-Chester Medical Center is Chariot’s first business venture.

Pollack was flanked to his left by local officials. Seated to his right was Dr. Arthur Klein, the chief health care advisor to Chariot Allaire Partners. Klein previously served as president of the Mount Sinai Health Network in New York.

“By training, I’m a pediatric cardiologist and most of the second half of my career was as a senior healthcare executive and that’s given me the following perspective: I don’t think that anything is more important to a community than the way it treats its children and the way it treats the people in the community who need health care services,” Klein said.

He said what was here before at Crozer-Chester Medical Center did not work.

“What we have planned is something that looks to the future of how healthcare should be delivered, looks to the commitment of the community in shaping those health care services, and looks to a partnership with not for profit health care which I would argue to you, is the most important part of health care delivery in this country and what makes health care in this country unique,” Klein said.

What’s the plan for Crozer-Chester Medical Center?

Polack said “size, size and size” played a role in Crozer-Chester Medical Center’s demise.

“You have about a 750,000-to-a-million square-foot inpatient hospital. And today, you could meet the same emergency services demand, giving you all the hospital-based services you need in a tenth of the size,” Polack said.

He argued that contemporary medical care is centered around outpatient treatment rather than overnight stays. This tug of war between inpatient and outpatient care dominated much of the conversation Tuesday night.

Polack said phase one of the company’s vision is to restore services on the main campus where the hospital is located. Phase two involves adding complementary services on the west campus.

While Klein said an emergency room is “absolutely part of the plan,” he underscored his belief that the campus has a robust urgent care setup to strike a balance.

“And the other thing that this community needs, and I feel it in my bones, is good preventive care,” Klein said. “So, if diabetes is taken care of early, the heart disease is taken care of early, and you don’t need to have that many people going to an emergency room because they get good continuous care.”

Klein clarified that the plan is not to shrink the number of beds by 90%. However, he declined to settle on a concrete number. Polack said they may resurrect some semblance of a behavioral health facility on the campus.

“This is not going to be a micro hospital,” he said. “Let me be very clear. That’s not what I’m involved in this for.”

Klein contextualized their plans in what he categorized as a “bad federal environment” for bringing back a dead hospital. He said he doesn’t want perfection “to be the enemy of the good.”

“We are in a health care crisis in this country that’s been unprecedented,” Klein said. “We have a federal government cutting funding to health care, looking to remove $900 billion over the next decade from federal support for health care. The National Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that by the turn of the next decade, we will be short about 125,000 physicians in this country and almost 300,000 nurses across all nursing specialties.”

There were some tense moments during the town hall. Most of those instances focused on Chariot Allaire Partners’ profit motives. Given the region’s recent history with Prospect, some in attendance accused the new ownership group of being a private equity firm. Following the meeting, Polack denied those claims.

“We are happy to own the real estate,” Polack said. “We’re happy to sell the real estate. We’re happy to partner with that not-for-profit operating system. Whatever will meet the needs of the community is a structure that we are willing to engage in and explore.”

Polack declined to name the suitors interested in running the resuscitated campus. However, he said the operator-to-be will have a final say on which services will be at the facility.

Is Delaware County on board with the vision?

Some attendees said they felt a sense of guarded hopefulness following the presentation.

“This sounds very promising,” Annette Holloway, 66, said. “At least we’re hearing something. This has been going on long enough.”

Holloway, a Chester resident who was employed by Crozer for more than three decades, said she feels bad witnessing ambulances zip past the vacant Crozer-Chester Medical Center to a hospital much farther away.

“We can hopefully bring them back to that facility so they can get their patient care,” Holloway said.

A few community members said they are still in shock that Crozer is gone for good.

“Been a resident of Chester all my life — never would have thought that I’d see Crozer go out. Never would have thought that in a million years,” Blendenna Taylor, 67, said.

Taylor said she had to go to Riddle Hospital in Media since Crozer shut down. She waited nine hours to be seen, but she still expressed gratitude.

“They’re overworked,” Taylor said. “It’s sad that this is where we are today.”

Peggy Malone, a former Crozer-Chester nurse, said Polack has been engaged in dialogue with former employees in recent months. Although she’s not a fan of the timeline to restore services, she’s “very cautiously optimistic.”

“I do believe he has a commitment to restoring health services to this community,” Malone said. “I believe he is committed to making sure that the people who worked at Crozer have jobs again. I think that’s going to be very dependent on the nonprofit operator that comes in and so I don’t think he can promise that.”

Dr. Max Cooper, a former emergency room physician at Crozer-Chester, said the rehabilitated facility should offer psychiatric care and trauma care. Regarding the presentation, Cooper said his opinions are still “in flux.”

“I think they’ll really be heavily influenced by who the clinical partner they bring in is,” he said.

Taylor Hospital could reopen before Crozer-Chester Medical Center — if the right operator comes along

State Sen. Tim Kearney, D-Delaware County, said there has to be a balance between being “as supportive as possible” of the new ownership group and keeping an eye on the minutiae of how the project is financed.

“The fact that this company is a for-profit company, that doesn’t really bother me so much,” Kearney said. “I just want to know how they’re going to raise the money — because it’s not going to be coming from the state. There’ll be some money coming from the state, but it’s certainly not, you know. What their plans are, they’re talking about a $250 million price tag.”

That’s where his concern lies, he said. However, Kearney praised the presentation for its thoroughness, particularly Klein’s answers. Kearney, like Malone, said he’s “cautiously optimistic.” He said legislators have already met with leaders from Chariot Allaire Partners, including Polack.

“He knows that we’re watching him,” Kearney said. “He knows what we went through with Crozer.”

Although Crozer-Chester Medical Center is at least a few years away from receiving new life, Kearney believes that Delaware County might catch a much-needed break a little earlier.

“We’re hopeful that Taylor [Hospital] will be open sooner than any of [the other hospitals], because it’s in pretty good shape and the size and scale are correct already and if they can convince one of the systems to come in and make it work, then that could be the quickest way to get something done,” Kearney said.