Former Sears CEO Edward Lampert has bested the bankrupt retailer's estate in a tug-of-war over an unlikely prize—120 acres of undeveloped land at the company's Hoffman Estates headquarters site.

Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain on July 12 ordered Sears' estate to transfer the property to Transform Holdco, the company Lampert formed to acquire 425 stores and other assets during Chapter 11 proceedings. The estate's trustee had previously agreed to let Transform take the headquarters building, but argued Lampert's company shouldn't get the empty parcels because they aren't necessary to operate the business acquired from Sears.

Lampert's victory raises the question of what will happen to a huge swath of suburban land that has resisted development since 1992, when Sears left its namesake downtown office tower for the sprawling property alongside the Jane Addams Tollway. Back then, Sears executives envisioned a thriving corporate campus populated by multiple companies doing business with the retailing giant. That vision never materialized.

Lampert's likely aim is to raise cash for his stores by selling the land to a developer with a hearty appetite for risk. Based on selling prices of undeveloped land in the area, Sears' acreage theoretically could fetch around $45 million.

But prospects for development have only darkened over the past quarter century. Sears' 1992 move came at the high-water mark of corporate suburbanization. Migration has since reversed, with many companies abandoning remote suburban campuses for downtown headquarters. Suburban office vacancy rates stand at 22.8 percent, compared with 11.3 percent downtown, according to Chicago-based real estate services company Jones Lang LaSalle.

"I don't think there is a market for (new commercial developments) right now," Eric Kunkel, executive vice president at Jones Lang LaSalle, says. "Perhaps it could be a residential development."