John Coleman, executive vice president for industrial services at Transwestern agreed. He told conference attendees that even with the high level of speculative development going on in the region, he still has many clients looking for build-to-suit projects. “You'd think there would be an existing roof they could move under,” he said, but space is still limited in many areas.

Zubel pointed to the speculative project planned by Bridge Development Partners, LLC at the suburban Northlake property once used by the former Chicago-area Dominick's grocery chain. The Chicago-based developer plans to raze some obsolete structures there to make way for a new 588,284-square-foot distribution center featuring 36' clear ceiling heights. Zubel has heard that Bridge will soon find a buyer even though “it hasn't even been built yet.”

“To me, class B is the category where I see a lot of opportunity,” Zubel added. The sunken vacancy in class A has users checking out product that, while somewhat older and with perhaps lower ceilings, is perfectly serviceable. As a result, in many of these properties rental rates have risen to 2007 levels.

For example, the rise of the B market gave Brennan Investment Group, LLC, a private real estate investment firm in suburban Rosemont, the confidence to acquire for $164 million a 23-building, 4.68-million-square-foot industrial portfolio of largely B product spread out across the Chicago metro area. Steve Disse, principal of Colliers International, told GlobeSt.com that this deal illustrated that the class B “market has changed a lot in the last six months.” The increase in rental rates and a roughly 150 bps gap in the cap rates between A and B product means local investors can make real money in B properties.