Walgreens Boots Alliance plans to sell a large portion of its headquarters campus in Deerfield, Illinois, becoming the latest corporate giant to put a huge site in Chicago’s northern suburbs on the redevelopment market.
Nationally, it’s one of many examples of companies shedding large chunks of office space as remote work persists nearly three years into COVID-19.
Walgreens plans to sell office buildings at 200 and 300 Wilmot Road, consolidating workers into a cluster of smaller buildings in the 100 block of Wilmot, a spokesman said in an email to CoStar News.
The downsized campus will remain the company’s headquarters, and Walgreens’ footprint at Chicago’s Old Post Office, where Walgreens leases 212,000 square feet, will not change, the spokesman said.
“We recognize the way we work has changed and with our hybrid model valued by our team members, we have underutilized space on our Deerfield campus,” the company said in a statement. “To reimagine the space to fit our current needs and create efficiencies that allow us to invest in the business, we have made the decision to sell several buildings that are part of our support office. We remain committed to a presence in Deerfield and we’re confident this provides enough space to help facilitate more opportunities for meaningful in-person interactions.”
Walgreens’ campus is along interstates 94 and 294, north of Chicago’s Loop business district.
The decades-old buildings potentially could be the latest in that pocket of Chicago's suburbs to be demolished and replaced with a new use such as apartments or warehouses.
The drugstore giant’s plans to downsize its campus comes as Nevada-based industrial developer Dermody Properties is in the process of demolishing insurer Allstate’s 232-acre former headquarters campus in Glenview, Illinois, and converting it into a last-mile distribution hub.
Just across the expressway from the Walgreens campus, Chicago-based developer Bridge Industrial is working on a deal to buy medical products company Baxter International’s 101-acre campus and replace it with warehouses.
Just east of Walgreens’ campus, Phoenix-based Orion Office REIT last year put up for sale several office buildings on 38 acres that Walgreens used to occupy and will stop paying rent on this summer.
Walgreens’ statement did not say how many total acres the campus is or how many square feet of office space it includes.
The sale is expected to include about two-thirds of the 40-plus-acre campus, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. It reported earlier on Walgreens’ plans to sell the buildings, citing a memo from CEO Roz Brewer to employees.
Walgreens has more than 3,500 office workers in the Chicago area.