CHICAGO—“I try to convince investors that Chicago is a really strong market and will continue to be a strong market,” Bruce Miller, the international director for Jones Lang LaSalle, said on Tuesday at BOMA/Chicago's mid-year Chicago commercial real estate market review, held at the AON Center. Some people consider a glass half-full, others half-empty, but when Miller talks up the Chicago market he acknowledged it's always “beyond 100% full.” But recent indicators have been so strong, he added, that even pessimists cannot fail to see them.

He began by noting that although the flow of high-tech firms, including Google, moving into downtown neighborhoods like River North has been well-documented, “there's a larger trend going on here." Many of the firms moving in are small and not very well-known. But incubators like 1871, Catapult Chicago and others have given many a home where they can go about attracting the younger workers who increasingly reject the suburban office park lifestyle. In addition, the University of Illinois has begun to work collaboratively with the city to help grow the tech market.

“I think the city is finally getting its act together and doing something Boston has been really good at,” Miller said, pointing to the collaboration between that city's many universities and a growing high-tech market.