About a month after withdrawing plans to redevelop Baxter International’s 101-acre headquarters campus north of Chicago into a logistics complex amid loud opposition from neighbors, Bridge Industrial has set a meeting with Lake County officials to potentially revive the proposal through a different government agency.
Bridge Industrial plans to discuss the project in a July 18 meeting with the Lake County Planning, Building and Development Department, according to a county web page created to provide updates on the proposal.
That move comes after Chicago-based Bridge Industrial last month notified officials in Deerfield, Illinois, that it had withdrawn its petition to have the site at 1 Baxter Parkway annexed from unincorporated Lake County into the village.
Bridge’s pullback from talks with Deerfield was a dramatic moment in a high-profile example of tensions rising nationally as last-mile distribution facilities — and the delivery trucks they bring with them — move closer to the homes where consumers make an ever-increasing number of online shopping orders.
Resurfacing plans could bring another round of vocal opposition to the project.
Conversions
Rising demand for logistics space has created a national trend of big suburban office campuses being converted to industrial use. In the Chicago area, that includes Dermody Properties’ ongoing conversion of Allstate’s former 232-acre headquarters campus in Glenview, Illinois.
Bridge had sought annexation as part of an effort to have the village also approve a change in use to industrial and sign off on the developer’s plan to demolish Baxter's office buildings and replace them with two warehouses comprising more than 1.1 million square feet of logistics space.
The developer faced strong public opposition from the onset, particularly from members of the Thorngate residential community in neighboring Riverwoods, Illinois. Residents cited truck traffic, noise, pollution and other worries in vowing to halt the development.
Opponents collected thousands of signatures for an online petition against the project and had recently created a GoFundMe page to raise money to help defeat Bridge’s proposal at the time the village announced the developer’s withdrawn zoning petition.
One earlier meeting scheduled by Deerfield’s planning department was postponed because of an overflowing crowd at the village hall. Later meetings, including one called off when Bridge withdrew its plans with the village, were scheduled for Deerfield High School’s gymnasium.
Bridge officials haven’t commented on reasons for pulling back plans through Deerfield zoning officials, and the firm didn’t respond to a request for comment from CoStar News on Wednesday regarding the pending Lake County meeting. Bridge’s plans to engage with Lake County officials previously were reported by the Lake County News-Sun.
Meeting Scheduled
Lake County's website for the project says the developer has scheduled an “early assistance” meeting July 18, during which members of the planning department and other county agencies can learn details about Bridge’s plans and ask questions.
The county planning department will create a report from the initial meeting that will be given to the developer and will be available to the public online, according to the website. Such reports typically take 10 to 20 business days to produce, according to the county.
After a report is created, the developer can decide whether to move forward with a formal project development application.
Bridge previously had said it wanted to raze office buildings on the site and build warehouses of 896,700 and 228,450 square feet on speculation, or without leases signed.
The developer has a deal to buy the Fortune 500 medical products company’s campus, contingent on receiving zoning approvals. Baxter has not said where it plans to move if the sale to Bridge is completed.
The 101-acre campus is along Lake Cook Road and interstates 94 and 294. It is about 25 miles north of Chicago’s Loop business district.