Deerfield Mayor Pledges to Halt Baxter Office Campus Conversion

After Deerfield Mayor Daniel Shapiro said he didn’t want Bridge Industrial to come into town with its sights set on building warehouses, he’s pledging to put up resistance to the developer’s workaround that would keep its project just outside the northern suburb’s boundaries.

Shapiro promised Wednesday to prevent approval for the Chicago-based developer’s proposal to transform Baxter International’s sprawling, 10-building office campus into a logistics hub as the company seeks permission from Lake County instead of the town, CoStar News reported.

When Bridge first proposed buying and redeveloping the site once occupied by Baxter, a Fortune 500 medical products firm, the builder intended to annex the property into Deerfield and rezone it for a logistics campus. That plan met strong opposition from residents of the nearby Thorngate community in the neighboring town of Riverwoods, who were nervous about truck traffic and business operations disrupting the area. The developer has since tried to work through the Lake County government to move the plan forward.

Bridge Industrial’s struggle for construction permits is a symptom of a broader trend of office-to-industrial conversions across the United States, driven by reduced demand for office space and increased need for distribution centers to support e-commerce. In nearby Glenview, Dermody Properties is similarly converting a former Allstate corporate campus into a massive logistics hub, reflecting the ongoing shift in real estate development trends. Brennan Investment Group has a similar plan for a financially distressed Rolling Meadows office campus.

Shapiro issued a statement citing unresolved issues in Bridge Industrial’s application and that he would encourage the village board to adopt a formal objection to the rezoning request being overseen by the county.

Pushback against Bridge’s plan led the developer to withdraw its application for annexation and rezoning in Deerfield, before the firm met with the Lake County Planning, Building, and Development Department in July to explore the possibility of resuscitating its vision under a different jurisdiction. The revised proposal involves smaller buildings, of 645,700 and 180,000 square feet, down from 1.3 million square feet total in the original proposal, the outlet reported.

To move forward in Lake County, Bridge would require a majority vote from the county board, with a higher threshold if adjacent property owners or zoned municipalities within 1.5 miles of the property come out against the project.

Deerfield and Riverwoods are eligible zoned municipalities, and their officials’ opinions are likely to influence Lake County as it considers Bridge’s plan. Riverwoods Mayor Kristine Ford wrote a letter to Lake County’s board last month in opposition of the proposal, calling it “large, speculative, high-volume warehouses,” the outlet reported.