Chi. Industrial Deliveries Highest Since 2008

CHICAGO—The recent good news about the nation’s economy is reflected in the metro region’s market for industrial real estate. As reported in GlobeSt.com, last week NAI Hiffman found that in the fourth quarter demand from industrial users helped push down vacancy rates to a level not seen since 2001. Furthermore, NGKF has just published its analysis on the fourth quarter, and found that about 11-million-square-feet of space was absorbed over 2014, and about 7.8 million-square-feet were delivered, pushing down vacancy to just 8.3%, which according to its slightly different methodology is the lowest level since 2006. The area has now seen 19 consecutive quarters of positive net absorption.

In addition, “weighted average asking rents also improved during the year, increasing each quarter to rise 3.1% during 2014 to end at $4.70-per-square-foot triple net,” the firm found, a fact which helped inspire developers to begin putting new projects in the ground. And just like the previous year, in 2014 it was the demand for new warehouse space which defined Chicago’s market.