Chicago & Midwest + Greater Chicagoland + New York & Tri-State + Industrial | July 18, 2022

Limited Availabilities Slow Net Absorption in Chicago Industrial

Vacancy in Chicago’s industrial market decreased by 40 basis points in the second quarter and 190 bps year-over-year to 4.0%, reported Newmark. Although net absorption declined in Q2 relative to Q1, Newmark’s report said, “the deceleration is more a result of limited availability and delayed deliveries of new space than of slowing demand.”

With absorption falling to 8.3 million square feet from Q1’s 11.1 million square feet, Q2 was the first quarter of decelerating absorption since Q3 2021. Although still above the five-year quarterly average of 5.6 million square feet, a larger portion of deals were renewals or expansions.

Just 54% of Q2’s deals and 37% of transaction volume resulted from direct new leases. “There is less space available for new deals, and tenants are more willing to hold onto the space they have than compete with the high market demand,” Newmark’s Amy Binstein reported.

Pictured: Bridge Point North in Waukegan, IL.

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Newmark's Binstein

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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