Chicago & Midwest + Industrial | January 11, 2019

Spec Industrial Ramps Up Across Chicago Region

Chicago’s industrial pipeline is more than twice as full as a year ago, Colliers International reported. As 2018 ended, 60 buildings totaling 18.9 million square feet were going vertical, compared to 8.9 million square feet at the end of 2017. Starts were also 74% ahead of year-ago levels.

Of that total, 12.8 million square feet, or 68%, was represented by speculative projects. Among these buildings, 12.3 million square feet of vacant space will be added to the market when completed, unless buildings are pre-leased over the coming months, according to Colliers. As it is, just 16% of 2018’s spec deliveries have been leased.

The fourth quarter’s largest completion was Marina Crossings (pictured), a 633,057-square-foot project in McKinley Park that represents Chicago’s largest spec project in decades. At Q4’s end, the largest industrial project under construction was another spec build, LFI Real Estate’s 879,040-square-foot project in Monee’s Bailly Ridge Corporate Center.

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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).