Chicago & Midwest + Greater Chicagoland + Industrial | April 28, 2023

Chicago Industrial Vacancies Post First Increase Since Q4 2020

Despite strongly positive net absorption and an uptick in new leasing volume, Chicago’s industrial vacancy rate increased during the first quarter of 2023 for the first time since Q4 2020, Colliers reported. Twenty speculative construction projects totaling 7.1 million square feet were delivered during the quarter, a record amount, introducing 5.4 million square feet of vacant space to the market and pushing up the overall industrial vacancy rate by 3 basis points to 4.53%.

At the same time, Colliers noted the market’s continued strength. Tenants signed 127 new leases or lease expansions totaling 12.1 million square feet between January and March, a 30% increase over last quarter’s total and the largest quarterly total since the Q2 2022.

As a result, net absorption totaled 7.4 million square feet for the quarter. Although slightly below last quarter’s total, it was still above the five-year quarterly average.

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Colliers Chicago

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).

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