Baxter could be nearing the sale of its HQ
After eight months on the market, medical products and services firm Baxter International appears poised to sell its Deerfield headquarters.
In an email, a Baxter representative confirmed it has identified a prospective buyer for the property, which includes 645,688 square feet of office space on more than 101 acres.
The representative said Baxter "will work with them on due diligence activities while we conduct a search for a new headquarters."
Any new space would be located in the same general area to remain accessible to current Deerfield-based employees, the representative said.
"We're glad to see that Baxter intends to stay in the area," said Kevin Considine, president and CEO of Lake County Partners, a nonprofit economic development corporation for the county.
"They've been a longtime foundation of the Lake County economy and business community, so I'm happy that they're going to stick around," he said.
A story in Crain's Chicago Business Monday said Bridge Industrial, a Chicago-based real estate operating company and investment manager, is in contract to purchase the property at 1 Baxter Parkway.
Bridge did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.
A Bridge development, Bridge Point North in Waukegan, in November was announced as 2022 Industrial Speculative Development of the Year by the NAIOP Chicago, the Chicago chapter of the Commercial Real Estate Development Association.
Bridge Point North is a 919,279-square-foot industrial, warehouse-style facility whose tenants include Amazon, Visual Pak and Paul Davis Restoration, according to Bridge Industrial.
Bridge has more than 21.5 million square feet of development properties in the Chicago area to date, the company said, including properties in Downers Grove, Itasca, Burr Ridge and Franklin Park that also earned the NAIOP Chicago honor.
Crain's reported that sources indicated Bridge would pay $90 million to $100 million for the Baxter property.
Baxter hired Jones Lang LaSalle to list the property.
Baxter moved into its current headquarters, just west of Interstate 94 between Deerfield and Lake-Cook roads, in 1975. Deerfield Management Analyst David Fitzgerald-Sullivan said the corporate complex is not within village limits and is under Lake County's jurisdiction.
Baxter was founded by a pair of doctors in 1931 as the Don Baxter Intravenous Products Corp. As Baxter Laboratories Inc., it moved to a renovated automobile showroom in Glenview in the late 1930s, according to Baxter's website.
In 2021, Baxter International reported $12.8 billion in global sales. Sales reached $3.8 billion in the third quarter of 2022.
Last May, Baxter told the Daily Herald the company was offering and employees accepting a hybrid model of working remotely and in an office. This was reinforced Monday.
"Baxter's current campus was designed and built in the 1970s, and we are looking for a new headquarters environment that better meets our modern way of work," the spokesperson said.
"Our decision to identify another location is motivated by how our employees are using our office space and providing the best possible environment for employee collaboration, accessibility, communication, culture and innovation."