After months of vocal opposition from neighbors, an industrial developer has called off plans to redevelop Baxter International’s 101-acre headquarters campus in suburban Chicago into a logistics complex.
Bridge Industrial has notified officials in Deerfield, Illinois, that it has withdrawn its petition to have the site in unincorporated Lake County annexed into the northern suburb and redevelop the campus, the village announced Wednesday.
It is a dramatic twist for a project that has served as a high-profile example of opposition to industrial projects throughout the country as warehouses move closer to residential areas to meet ever-increasing demand from logistics companies and retailers such as Amazon that want to get closer to e-commerce customers.
Deerfield’s announcement came ahead of a meeting scheduled for Thursday night for Bridge to make a second presentation about the plan to Deerfield’s plan commission and citizens, including residents of a neighboring community that have vowed to stop the project because of truck traffic and other concerns.
That public hearing was canceled, according to the announcement, apparently ending Chicago-based Bridge’s plans to buy the site from Bridge, raze the office buildings and build more than 1.1 million square feet of warehouses.
The village’s statement didn’t say why the plan was withdrawn, and Bridge did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CoStar News, but the developer has faced loud opposition from almost the onset of its involvement in the project.
Bridge’s plans to buy and redevelop the campus at 1 Baxter Parkway emerged early this year, with the firm later saying it planned to build two warehouses and a third indoor sports building.
Property Plans Outlined
The recreational building was removed from the plan by the time Bridge made its first public presentation in May, with the developer saying it would instead fund an outdoor sports complex within the site.
Bridge said it planned to build warehouses of 896,700 and 228,450 square feet on speculation, or without leases signed.
That May presentation came after an April meeting by the plan commission was postponed by village officials because an overflow crowd was unable to fit into the usual village hall venue. Subsequent meetings, including the one scheduled for this week, had been moved to Deerfield High School’s gym.
The second meeting had been scheduled so that residents of the nearby, more than 300-home Thorngate residential community in Riverwoods, Illinois, could question Bridge’s experts on topics such as traffic, noise and environmental impacts.
Thorngate residents and other neighbors have collected more than 5,000 signatures on an online petition against the project, and they recently created a GoFundMe page to raise money to help defeat the proposal.
The Fortune 500 medical products company’s campus is along Lake Cook Road and interstates 94 and 294. It is about 25 miles north of Chicago’s Loop business district.
Some office-to-industrial projects have encountered less opposition, including Dermody Properties’ ongoing redevelopment of the 232-acre former Allstate campus in Glenview, Illinois.
Others have encountered growing opposition, including in New Jersey where zoning fights have been escalating over what opponents describe as industrial sprawl.