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LG’s exact plans for the property are unclear; the site includes five empty office building Total area on the south side of Lake Cook Road is 575,000 square feet. But the Deerfield board recently hinted at what might be in the works. On July 5, the board approved the creation of a new “entertainment and limited retail commercial district” in the area that includes the Lake Cook Road property. The new zoning plan sets out a range of retail, dining and recreational uses that could be permitted there, subject to village planning board and council approval.
Includes: sports-themed entertainment such as “entertainment golf driving ranges,” miniature golf courses, ice rinks, bowling alleys; restaurants without drive-thru service; restaurants with live entertainment, microbreweries, comedy clubs, and virtual reality facilities . Multifamily developments can also be part of mixed-use projects.
An LG spokesman declined to comment, but a source familiar with the group’s plans said its vision was in line with the new division.
Deerfield assistant village manager Andrew Lichterman said the village hadn’t received any formal proposals for the site, but the new zoning was established to show developers what type of development they would like to see if the property wasn’t reverted to an office park. use.
“It’s a proactive approach to redeveloping the site,” Lichtman said, stressing that any proposal to redevelop the property with new recreational or retail uses would need to go through a public hearing process and win the government’s approval. support. Village Planning Committee and Board of Directors.
LG’s contract to buy the former Walgreens building is a high-profile example of developers eyeing new uses for vacant, outdated office parks in the wake of the remote-working movement sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. Work cuts by companies have pushed office vacancies to record highs and depressed office property values, prompting some proposals to convert office buildings into something else. Warehouse developers are among the most common suitors, including Deerfield, Chicago-based Bridge Industrial want to redevelop Transform Baxter International Headquarters Park into an industrial park.
LG will take a different approach to retail and entertainment uses, betting it can create a new destination on a property that has largely been dormant for years.
Walgreens leases the buildings through August, but no longer occupies them. In 2013, the drugstore giant sold the buildings to San Diego-based Realty Income in an $85 million sale-and-leaseback transaction. The buildings are currently owned by Phoenix-based Orion Office REIT, a real estate investment trust spun out of Realty Income in 2021.
Orion disclosed in May that it had reached an agreement to sell the Walgreens building and two other unrelated properties for a combined $41 million. The pending purchase price for LG was not immediately clear, and an Orion spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
LG is not the first local developer to transform an outdated office building into an entertainment complex.A firm led by Chicago-based UrbanStreet Group has undertaken an extensive redevelopment of the former Motorola Solutions Campus A 225-acre mixed-use campus in Schaumburg that includes luxury condominiums and a state-of-the-art golf driving range.
The building that LG is contracted to purchase is separate from Walgreens’ existing headquarters, which is on the west side of the property on Wilmot Road. The future of Walgreens, which has been based on the 40-plus-acre headquarters property since 1975, is also in doubt.As the rise of remote work reshaped its workspace needs, Walgreens revealed earlier this year that it plan to sell about two-thirds of the headquarters campus and concentrate employees to the rest. The company also has a large office in the redeveloped old post office downtown.
The Lake Cook Road building was built in stages between 1976 and 1984, according to a CBRE flyer, which began marketing the property last year. The site is one of the few Deerfield properties in Cook County.
LG is known for its residential projects and has been especially active in the past few years.The company broke ground last year on a 363-unit apartment building at 210 N. Aberdeen St. in the Fulton Market area, a large house plan It makes proposals for trendy neighbourhoods. Among other projects, LG is developing a 227-unit apartment complex in River North and recently began construction on a $300 million, 747-unit residential tower that will be the largest in downtown Phoenix one.
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