Chicago & Midwest + Greater Chicagoland + Industrial | May 12, 2022

Amazon leased one million square feet at CenterPoint Intermodal Center, the Chicago area's biggest industrial lease of 2022's first quarter

Chicago Industrial Vacancy Reaches Lowest Rate on Record

Near-record new leasing volume and impressive demand in the Chicago industrial market pushed the overall vacancy rate down 53 basis points to 4.91% in the first quarter, the lowest rate ever recorded. The previous record of 5.39% was recorded during the third quarter of 2000, according to Craig Hurvitz, VP | market research for Colliers.

Five submarkets hit record low vacancy rates during the first quarter of 2022, led by the I-55 Corridor, where nearly four million square feet of new leases pushed the rate down 163 bps during the quarter to 1.73%. A year ago, the I-55 Corridor vacancy rate was 11.4%.

Net absorption totaled 11.7 million square feet between January and March, only slightly below last quarter’s total of 12 million square feet. Over the past four quarters, net absorption has totaled nearly 50 million square feet, the greatest tally over a 12-month period in the market’s history.

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Inside The Story

Colliers' Hurvitz

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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