Rehab center, denied in Montchanin, buys Fort DuPont site | Exclusive

• Delaware NeuroRehab will open a brain injury center at the historic Fort DuPont campus in Delaware City.
• The group’s initial plan to convert the Inn at Montchanin Village was denied by New Castle County’s Board of Adjustment.
• The new 28-bed facility will be located in the former Tilton Building and is scheduled to open in 2027.
• This will be Delaware’s first comprehensive post-acute inpatient brain injury rehabilitation center.

A medical group that wanted to create a brain injury rehabilitation center at the Inn at Montchanin Village & Spa but was denied by New Castle County’s Board of Adjustment has found a new location in Delaware City.

Delaware NeuroRehab has purchased the two-story Tilton Building at Fort DuPont, a facility that had been part of the Governor Bacon Health Center. The building has been listed for $3.15 million.

A subdivision was approved by the Delaware City Council in April.

The site at 2546 Colter Road will become the state’s first comprehensive post-acute inpatient brain injury rehabilitation center, according to the medical group. It will serve individuals recovering from traumatic brain injuries, strokes, neurological disorders, and other acquired brain injuries.

Construction and renovation for the 57,000-square-foot facility will begin soon, the group’s spokeswoman said. The 28-bed rehabilitation center is scheduled to open in 2027.

The historic Fort DuPont campus is along the Delaware River and the C&D Canal. The land had been a military installation dating back to the Civil War and is named for Rear Admiral Samuel Francis Du Pont, a Civil War Naval hero.  It became a training facility until the end of World War II.

Fort DuPont was acquired by the state in 1947 and hosted the Governor Bacon Health Center. In 1992, it became part of the state park system.

Plans for the 219-acre site include new homes, shops, and gathering spaces while preserving and adapting many of the former military buildings dating back to the 19th century.

The Tilton Building was originally constructed in 1909 and reconstructed in 1936 following a fire, according to a brochure from Emory Hill, a commercial real estate and property management group. It served as the barracks for the First Regiment of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stationed at Fort DuPont. The building housed up to 628 enlisted men and supported the regiment’s engineering operations at the fort.

Later, it was a hospital for children and elderly patients. It was named for Dr. James Tilton, a Delaware physician and the first surgeon general of the U.S. after the Revolutionary War in 1948. The medical facility closed in the 1990s.

Last summer, Delaware NeuroRehab, which has outpatient locations in Dover, Newark, and Lewes, revealed plans to purchase the historic Inn at Montchanin Village & Spa from LeDee Lickle Wakefield, an owner and trustee. The upscale hotel, owned by descendants of the du Pont family, is on a triangle-shaped plot bounded by Route 100 and Kirk and Rockland roads.

In July 2025, an attorney representing Haresh Sampathkumar of Delaware NeuroRehab Inpatient LLC contacted New Castle County’s Board of Adjustment and said the doctor planned to buy the historic Inn, which, in the mid-19th century, was home to laborers who worked at the nearby DuPont Co. powder mills and at Winterthur estate. Wakefield’s parents turned the site into a hotel in the early 1990s.

Sampathkumar wanted to repurpose the historic Inn at Montchanin, located about 10 miles northwest of Wilmington, as a 34-bed short-term recovery facility that would have provided brain-injured patients with physical, occupational, speech, and other rehabilitation services.

Sampathkumar said the rehabilitation center was needed and filled a gap in care for patients who often must leave the state to receive specialized post-acute rehabilitation services.

The doctor said he had no plans to change the exterior of the buildings on the site, other than installing ramps that would have made them compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. He said the 76-seat Krazy Kat’s restaurant, open since 1996 in a former blacksmith shop, and the Inn’s spa, located in a stone barn on the property, would continue to operate.

Delaware NeuroRehab needed a variance from the county Board of Adjustment because the more than 4-acre site is slightly smaller than the 5 acres required for an institutional residential building.

Residents of the affluent Montchanin area, which has million-dollar homes, opposed the plan, while the county’s Land Use Department had recommended its approval. The Board of Adjustment voted against the plan, with one member citing the property was too small for its planned use. The variance was denied in December 2025.

The Inn at Montchanin Village & Spa and the Krazy Kat’s restaurant went back on the market for $7 million this past February. According to a July 9 listing, it is still for sale. The listing said to contact the broker for the current sale price.

The Delaware City location for the Delaware NeuroRehab has the same goals as what were proposed for the Inn at the Montchanin site. Delaware NeuroRehab said the new rehabilitation center will provide an intensive program designed to help patients gain independence and transition back into their homes, communities, and workplaces.

“Too many Delaware families are forced to travel out of state during one of the most difficult times in their lives,” said Sampathkumar, founder and medical director of Delaware NeuroRehab, in a prepared statement. “Our vision is to provide nationally recognized brain injury rehabilitation close to home, allowing patients to recover while remaining connected to their families, caregivers, and support systems, and ultimately return to meaningful daily activities including work.”

The project is expected to create more than 60 healthcare and support positions.

Not in my backyard: Neighbors oppose plan to convert Inn at Montchanin to neuro rehab

Plans rejected: Board denies Inn at Montchanin’s plan to become brain injury center

Patricia Talorico writes about food, restaurants and Delaware history. You can find her on Instagram, X and Facebook. Email ptalorico@delawareonline.com. Sign up for her Delaware Eats newsletter.