Buyer of Allstate campus seeks to build warehouses on site

The Nevada industrial developer that agreed to pay $232 million for Allstate’s suburban Chicago campus aims to transform the site into 3.2 million square feet of warehouses — assuming it gets the approval of local governments.

Dermody Properties plans to build 11 industrial buildings after it demolishes Allstate’s campus at 2775 Sanders Road in Northbrook, Crain’s reported, citing Dermody President Doug Kiersey. Dermody hopes to build at least one warehouse by the end of 2023.

The deal reflects a pandemic-era shift for Chicago’s commercial real estate, as companies like Allstate reduce office space and retailers seek more warehouses to meet surging e-commerce demand. Allstate said in October that it would sell the headquarters, its home for more than 50 years, as about 95 percent of employees in Northbrook choose to work from home.

Dermody needs the green light from Glenview, Northbrook and Prospect Heights neighborhoods to move forward. Residents in other parts of Chicago have opposed warehouse developments, saying a slew of delivery trucks would add pollution and traffic congestion.

Kiersey said his company will work with communities and that it plans to maintain a landscape buffer by planting trees and stormwater management ponds along Sanders Road and Interstate 294. He noted that infrastructure around the campus is already designed to handle thousands of employees and vendors each day at peak times.

Dermody may contact Glenview or another suburb about its plans before it pushes forward with its development, the outlet reported.

“We want to go where we’re wanted,” Kiersey told Crain’s.

[Crain’s] — Connie Kim