DELAWARE COUNTY, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — A Texas judge ruled Monday afternoon that Prospect Medical Holdings, the now-bankrupt company that once owned four Delaware County hospitals, is approved to legally abandon two of them, after struggles to sell the properties.
Prospect Medical Holdings will retain ownership of Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Upper Darby and Taylor Hospital in Ridley Park, but the millions in unpaid taxes won’t be its responsibility.
Originally, Delaware County, Ridley Park, and Upper Darby townships filed objections to the abandonment, but after Prospect said it could provide fire systems and security, all but Upper Darby were satisfied.
Crandall Jones, the chief administrative officer of Upper Darby Township, says they wanted to be sure the building did not become a safety hazard.
“If they sell the property — and I think that's really mostly what the abandonment is about — they wanna sell the property on the open market and the property not be subject to bankruptcy. For the township, we're just looking to make sure that as much of the $6 million in revenue that's due to the township … the taxpayers of the township, that we can do that, and we're gonna look at every available option to do that.”
Attorneys for Upper Darby did not budge, but ultimately Judge Stacey Jernigan of the Northern District of Texas agreed that Prospect could move forward with abandonment.
The millions in taxes owed to those Delaware County townships will be abandoned and attached to the receipt of future buyers.
Prospect owned Springfield, Delaware County Memorial, Ridley’s Taylor hospitals, as well as Crozer-Chester Medical Center.