Chicago & Midwest + Downtown + Office | April 17, 2020

Downtown Office Outlook a Question Mark for Now

Despite reaching a five-year high in vacancies, Downtown Chicago’s office market is best described as “healthy.” How healthy it remains, though, is an open question, says Colliers International’s Sandy McDonald.

“Considering recent pandemic events, it is more difficult to predict the state of commercial real estate based on recent indicators,” McDonald writes in the firm’s first-quarter report. “However, coupled with 2020 increases in property taxes in Chicago CBD, it is expected that the Chicago office market is moving toward a softening.”

She adds that landlords are expected to be “more negotiable with concessions in lease deals. For the first time in several years, base net office rates are expected to trend down to compete as tenants in the market scale back new deal signings and expansions. Subleases may also see an increase over the next few quarters, as companies deeply affected by this crisis may critically reconsider their space needs.”

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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).

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