According to the company's figures, the Chicago industrial market, marking a shift from leasing activity to sales, remains relatively steady. Leasing across the market was 15 million sf in the third quarter of 2001, representing a 21% decline compared with the same quarter a year ago. Sales activity registered a 52.3% increase to 15.3 million sf in 3Q '01, as compared with 3Q '00.
Insignia/ESG pegs the industrial market's availability rate at 8.1%, up from 6.2% a year ago and attributes the difference to a large influx of sublease space. It attributes the leasing decline not only to the overall economic slowdown but also to low interest rates.
"Today, it can be as cost-effective to purchase a building as it is to lease one," says Jim Swartchild, executive director of Insignia/ESG's Midwest Industrial Services Group. "Low interest rates have no doubt provided users with options other than leasing."
Timed as if to illustrate the increased industrial sales trend, a number of sales have been announced in various parts of the market recently. San Francisco-based AMB Property Corp. has bought the Chicago Ridge Freight Terminal, a 59,600-sf cross-dock air-freight terminal in the O'Hare market for $7.3 million. Snap-Edge Corp., a maker of plastic molded edge restraints for concrete pavers, has also made an industrial purchase, buying a 60,000-sf industrial facility in west suburban St. Charles, IL.
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