Takeda Adds 80K sf at Former Motorola Campus in Libertyville

Takeda Pharmaceuticals is doubling down on the far north suburbs, expanding into the revamped former Motorola Mobility campus in Libertyville. It’s handing an early leasing win to the Chicago developer that bought the property just over a year ago.

The drugmaker added nearly 80,000 square feet at Innovation Park Lake County, a 1 million-square-foot office and research complex at 1910 Innovation Way, according to owner R2 Companies. Crain’s reported that the expansion brings Takeda’s total presence at the property to 105,673 square feet, expanding the office space it first leased there in late 2024.

The deal fills space previously occupied by Bristol Myers Squibb, which shut down a gene-therapy manufacturing facility at the campus last year. A Takeda spokesperson confirmed the lease and said the new space is an expansion for the company in the northern suburbs, not a relocation from another local site.

The move provides an example of Innovation Park’s appeal as a life sciences hub in Lake County, an area long anchored by biotech and pharmaceutical users. Takeda, which moved its U.S. headquarters from Deerfield to Boston in 2019 after acquiring Irish drugmaker Shire, still maintains a significant operational presence in the region, according to the outlet. The company operates a plasma therapy unit in Round Lake at a property owned by Baxter International, tied to the former Baxalta business that ultimately folded into Takeda.

A joint venture of R2 and Chicago-based JDI Realty paid $35 million for the 83-acre Innovation Park property in late 2024, acquiring it from Maryland-based developer Beco Management that spent nearly $40 million converting the former Motorola cell phone plant into a multi-tenant research and office park. Beco Management acquired the site for $9.5 million in 2013.

With Takeda’s expansion, Innovation Park is about 68 percent leased, roughly unchanged from when the joint venture bought it. Medline Industries, one of the property’s largest tenants, plans to vacate about 138,000 square feet later this year as it consolidates employees into new offices in Northbrook, according to the publication.

Other major tenants include Sumitomo Biorational Company, formed last year through the combination of Valent BioSciences, Valent North America and MGK.

Originally developed in the early 1990s for Motorola Mobility, the campus began winding down after Google acquired the handset maker in 2012.

— Eric Weilbacher