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CHICAGO-Competition remains fierce for local retail assets, with REITs, tenant-in-common groups, private investors and those needing to make Section 1031 exchanges vying for the properties that come available. Meanwhile, overall vacancy rates dipped slightly in the third quarter to 7.72%, according to CB Richard Ellis' most recent market report.

Decreasing vacancy rates Downtown, including State Street, has resulted in Mills Corp. deciding to increase the retail portion of its 108 N. State St.—-formerly known as Block 37—-redevelopment by 100,000 sf to 500,000 sf, CB Richard Ellis notes. The overall bullishness comes despite 6.6 million sf of new space under construction at 34 sites, according to the brokerage's research.

More than one-third of that new construction is happening in Kane County, which already has one of the highest vacancy rates in the market at 11%. However, the inventory is poised to increase more than 25% with nearly 2.4 million sf of retail space under construction, according to CB Richard Ellis, which would make Kane County the third largest submarket behind the far West suburbs (20.2 million sf) and the Northwest suburbs (15.2 million sf). The construction binge will catapult Kane County past the far Northwest suburbs (10.3 million sf) and Northern suburbs (9.1 million sf).