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Chicago & Midwest  + Industrial  | 

Big Box Leasing Volume Reaches 2-Year High

New leases totaled 4.1 million square feet among 19 new leases signed in Chicago-area big box industrial properties during the second quarter of 2018, Colliers International’s Craig Hurvitz reported. That’s the greatest quarterly new leasing volume since 2016.

This activity pushed the big box vacancy rate down for the second consecutive quarter to 9.04%. This rate is 60 basis points below the level seen at the end of 2017, but well above the 7.71% recorded a year ago, as well as the market’s overall current rate of 6.44%.

Eleven big box developments, totaling 4.8 million square feet, were started between April and June, while only seven projects totaling 3.3 million square feet were delivered. The total under construction has increased to 19 projects, totaling 7.3 million square feet, the most in three quarters. More than half are infill projects, the current cycle’s high-water mark for infill big box development.


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About Paul Bubny

Paul Bubny serves as Senior Content Director for Connect Commercial Real Estate, a role to which he brings 13-plus years’ experience covering the commercial real estate industry and 30-plus years in business-to-business journalism. In this capacity, he oversees daily operations while also reporting on both local/regional markets and national trends, covering individual transactions across all property types, as well as delving into broader subject matter. He produces 15-20 daily news stories per day and works with the Connect team and clients to develop longer-form content, ranging from Q&As to thought-leadership pieces. Prior to joining Connect, Paul was Managing Editor for both Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com at American Lawyer Media, where he oversaw operations at both publications while also producing daily news and feature-length articles. His tenure in B2B publishing stretches back into the print era, and he has served as Editor in Chief on four national trade publications. Since 1999, Paul has volunteered as the newsletter editor of passenger rail advocacy groups (one national, one local).