Shorewood Buys Former Walgreens Deerfield Campus

Louis Schriber III’s Shorewood Development Group is taking on another massive suburban Chicago redevelopment, having scooped up the former Walgreens office campus in Deerfield for a future mixed-use development.

Buffalo Grove-based Shorewood paid Phoenix-based real estate investment trust Orion Properties $13.1 million for the recently razed 37.5-acre site at 1411-1435 Lake Cook Road, CoStar reported.

Shorewood is no stranger to ambitious suburban transformations. The firm recently snagged an $11 million tax increment financing deal from Buffalo Grove to build Bison Crossing, a $100 million mixed-use project that’s replacing a vacant auto dealership with 224 apartments, retail space and a 50,000-square-foot Tesla sales and service center.

Now, Shorewood plans to breathe new life into the Deerfield parcel with a proposed mix of retail, medical and multifamily space, according to state documents cited by the publication.

The developer takes over a blank slate; Orion brought in the wrecking ball late last year to demolish the campus’s six outdated office buildings. The demolition was a strategic move aimed at shedding carrying costs and enticing buyers after a previous attempted sale to Chicago-based LG Development Group — which envisioned an entertainment district — failed to close in 2023.

CBRE’s Tom Svoboda, Matt Ishikawa and Tony Gange represented Orion in the sale to Shorewood.

The site’s office buildings were leveled after Walgreens stopped paying rent in August 2023 amid an aggressive corporate real estate diet. The drugstore giant has been drastically shrinking its office presence across the Chicago area. Walgreens also started shedding two-thirds of its main Deerfield headquarters campus on nearby Wilmot Road in 2023. That consolidation paved the way for homebuilder Pulte Group to snap up 18 acres of the Wilmot property last year for a residential community.

Walgreens hasn’t spared Chicago’s downtown office market from its downsizing either, recently pulling the plug on its massive office at the Old Post Office.

The $13.1 million sale continues Orion’s broader pivot away from traditional suburban office parks. The REIT is focusing instead on “dedicated use” properties, such as the Barilla R&D facility in nearby Northbrook that Orion bought in February for $15 million.

— Sam Lounsberry