Chicago Industrial Sales Activity Increasing

CHICAGO—Strong user demand for the city’s industrial properties is absorbing the city’s vacant spaces and giving a lift to rental rates, and buyers have moved in, even snapping up properties that have remained empty for years. Industrial brokers Larry Goldwasser and Colin Green of Cushman & Wakefield in Chicago have just helped complete two industrial sales transactions, totaling more than 220,000-square-feet, of properties that had been vacant for several years. And both expect to see more of these deals throughout 2015.

“Coming out of the economic downturn, buyer demand for industrial product was low,” says associate director Green. “2014 was a turnaround year and so far into 2015 we’re seeing an aggressive increase in demand, so properties are trading more quickly.”