Chicago firm drops controversial plan to redevelop Baxter campus near Deerfield

A Chicago-based real estate operating company has dropped its plans to acquire the former Baxter Healthcare campus near Deerfield and redevelop it as an industrial and recreational complex, village officials announced Wednesday.

Bridge Industrial formally withdrew its petition to annex 101-acre site into Deerfield on Wednesday, a day before a scheduled plan commission meeting where the proposal was almost certain to face heated opposition from residents living nearby.

As of Wednesday, nearly 5,400 people had signed an online petition opposing the Bridge proposal, and several protested outside a plan commission meeting last month.

According to village documents, Bridge planned to demolish all existing structures on the campus at 1 Baxter Parkway and build what the company termed a state-of-the-art business park. The proposal called for an 896,700-square-foot industrial building, a 228,450-square-foot industrial building and a 156,600-square-foot recreational facility.

The recreational building would feature a full-size indoor soccer field, an indoor youth baseball field and six outdoor pickleball courts, village documents state. The Deerfield Park District had expressed interest in leasing the recreational facility, according to the village.