CHICAGO—Duke Realtyhas just signed three leases at several of its buildings along the I-55 corridor southwest of Chicago, one of the most active markets in the region. The transactions, which total 496,183 square feet, include an expansion by RTC, Inc. and a new lease with APL Warehouse Logistics Management, Inc. in Duke's Crossroads Business Park in suburban Bolingbrook, and a new lease with Midwest Air Technologies, Inc. at a 324,115 square-foot speculative warehouse in Romeoville that the nationwide REIT delivered in May.

“It's the market that has seen the most spec space and there is a reason for that,” Ryan O'Leary, senior vice president of Duke's Chicago operations, tells GlobeSt.com. “The demand is at least keeping up with the new supply.” In fact, “developers have actually been fairly conservative,” and O'Leary feels bullish about the prospects for even more industrial building in the near future.

The vacancy rate among industrial properties in the I-55 Corridor submarket has been hovering around 10% even with new space hitting the market, according to a recent report from Colliers International. No developments were started in the first quarter, but Colliers said that developers had six speculative and two build-to-suit projects underway that will eventually add 1.5 million square feet to the submarket's inventory.