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rospect Medical Holdings Inc., the owner of Crozer Health, has announced a bankruptcy auction for the real‑estate assets of Crozer‑Chester Medical Center and Springfield Hospital. Bids must be submitted by Oct. 7, and the auction will take place on Oct. 10 if a sufficient number of qualified offers are received, per a court filing from Prospect. The for‑profit firm, headquartered in California, shut down Crozer‑Chester earlier this spring after government‑led attempts to secure a nonprofit buyer failed. Springfield was closed by Prospect in 2022.
Winning bids must be unconditional; no contingencies are allowed, meaning the buyer will inherit any uncertainties related to property taxes. No information has yet emerged about who is interested, but industry observers expect the buyers to be real‑estate investors looking to lease the sites to medical tenants rather than health‑system operators who would reopen the hospitals.
The Springfield property has a complex ownership history. Ventas, a large REIT, owns three buildings on the site—including two medical‑office towers and a sports club leased to the YMCA of Eastern Delaware County—purchased in 2009, before Prospect acquired Crozer. The hospital and its parking garage were part of a 2019 sale to Medical Properties Trust (MPT). Prospect leased the facilities back from MPT, but after its financial decline, MPT returned ownership to Prospect in 2023 in exchange for a mortgage. During the bankruptcy, MPT agreed to relinquish its interests in the Crozer real‑estate portfolio.
Springfield Township filed a lawsuit in mid‑September alleging that Prospect had failed to maintain the hospital and parking garage, citing potential structural failures in stairwells and other safety concerns, and seeking court‑ordered repairs.
Other Crozer hospitals have already changed hands. Delaware County Memorial Hospital was sold to the Upper Darby School District for $600,000 in August, and Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park was purchased by a local investor group for $1 million this month. In May, ChristianaCare, a nonprofit system based in Delaware, won an auction to take over leases at five Crozer outpatient sites in Broomall, Glen Mills, Media, and Havertown.
