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Chicago Industrial Has Best Year on Record
By all metrics, 2021 was the best year on record for Chicago’s industrial market, in many instances by a wide margin, Colliers and Newmark reported. Net absorption totaled a staggering 44.9 million square feet, 69% greater than the previous record of 26.6 million square feet recorded in 2016, according to Colliers.
Newmark put the year-end vacancy rate at 5.1%, a record low. That new low occurred even as inventory grew to 1.16 billion square feet from 1.14 billion a year ago.
New leasing activity totaled 63.4 million square feet in 2021 among 648 new leases and lease expansions greater than 10,000 square feet. This figure represents a 34% increase over 2020’s previous record of 48.6 million square feet, Colliers reported.
Nineteen new leases greater than 500,000 square feet were signed during 2021, another new record, according to Colliers. This continues the trend of mega-sized leases becoming increasingly prominent since 2019.
