Pharma giant wants to quickly unload 1.3M sf suburban campus. But who wants it?

One of the Chicago suburbs’ biggest commercial sites is up for grabs, but the real question is whether a buyer will emerge by self-imposed deadline day.

Pharmaceutical manufacturer Takeda wants to sell its 70-acre Deerfield headquarters by April, the end of the fiscal year, according to the Chicago Tribune. The site comes with 660,000 square feet of existing buildings, plus the potential for a few additional structures totaling 735,000 square feet.

Savills broker Eric Feinberg, who won the assignment, told the Tribune that if Takeda’s campus were developed today, it would cost over $400 a foot — $264 million. The pharma company would prefer to sell the whole campus to one buyer — either a developer with a prospective tenant, or a corporation.

There are reasons to believe it could appeal to a corporation with ready-made plans. Pharmaceutical firm AbbVie set the standard with the $154 million buy of its 560,000-square-foot Mettawa campus in August 2018.

Still, Takeda’s plan to sell the campus comes amid a backdrop of tough economics. Other large firms are moving jobs out of the northern suburbs into the Downtown Chicago area, and Lake County has one of the highest office vacancy rates in the suburbs, according to the Tribune. [Chicago Tribune] — James Kleimann