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Chicago & Midwest  + Greater Chicagoland  + Industrial  | 

Chicago Industrial Maintains Resiliency Through Pandemic

Chicago’s industrial market has remained resilient through the pandemic, Avison Young analysts led by Peter Kroner reported Tuesday. Overall leasing activity has been robust, currently sitting at +51.2% percent of the long-term annual average. 

Renewal activity is down 10.7% compared to the two years prior to COVID, as more tenants took advantage of the ability to relocate or expand. Net absorption is keeping pace with new deliveries as construction ramps back up, accounting for 95.4% of newly-built space. 

“More speculative construction will provide outlets for tenants and is unlikely to shift leverage towards tenants,” Avison Young reported. 

The Chicago industrial market continued to show resilience with vacancies dropping to 6.4%, a 40-basis-point decrease from the close of 2020. 

On the capital markets side, investors continue capital deployment on Chicago-area industrial assets at a rate that is 115.7% higher than the prior five-year average, according to Avison Young. 

Pictured: Bridge Point I-355 in Lombard, IL.

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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 16-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 7-10 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).

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