Bridge Industrial Withdraws Petition To Redevelop Baxter Property

DEERFIELD, IL — Bridge Industrial, a commercial real estate agency, has withdrawn its petition to annex and redevelop the Baxter Healthcare Corporation campus. According to an email from the Village of Deerfield, a plan commission meeting and public hearing scheduled for Thursday regarding the matter has been canceled.

As of last month, Baxter International was nearing the sale of the 101-acre campus to Bridge Industrial. The Chicago-based developer was proposing to annex the property to Deerfield and rezone the site for industrial and recreational use. Their intent was to then demolish all existing structures and redevelop the property as a state-of-the-art business park.

RELATED: Preservation Organization Calls Deerfield's Baxter Site 'Endangered'

As reported by Patch on April 21, a petition opposing Bridge's plans was started at Change.org. The key issue with this proposal is the potential of "an estimated 600 semi-trucks per day congesting the streets of Saunders, Lake Cook and Deerfield roads."

Bridge's three-building plan for the property included:

• a 896,700-square-foot, speculative, industrial building
• a 228,450-square-foot, speculative, multi-tenant, industrial building
• a 156,600-square-foot recreational facility with a full size indoor soccer field, an indoor youth baseball field and six outdoor pickleball courts

A public hearing about the property was held last month at Deerfield High School. The original meeting had been postponed two weeks prior due to an overflowing crowd and relocated. The crowd included a number of protestors and citizens concerned about the future of the site.

RELATED:

• Baxter Site Meeting Moved To Deerfield High School On May 11
• Baxter Site Meeting Postponed Due To Large Crowd In Deerfield
• Petition Against Baxter Site Plan Nears 2,000 Signatures In Deerfield