CHICAGO—As reported last week in GlobeSt.com, according to a new market overview on the second quarter by MBRE, the office market in Chicago's CBD saw a modest turnaround after a bit of a slowdown in the first quarter, raising hopes that absorption in 2015 could at least approach the robust level in 2014, the city's best year since before the recession.

One of the data points that make MBRE officials relatively optimistic is that they found at least 40 tenants actively seeking 50,000 square feet or more in the CBD. But Sara Spicklemire, senior vice president and managing director of leasing services, tells GlobeSt.com that although this is roughly equivalent to the number of tenants seen in recent years, many of these companies are seeking more space than in the past.

“That has definitely helped with absorption and vacancy,” she says. Motorola Mobility's 2014 move into the top floors of the Merchandise Mart and Avant Credit's recent decision to move from River North into 78,794 square feet at 222 N. LaSalle are emblematic of the office market these days, and how the downtown's core is filling up with many tenants seeking out much bigger spaces. That's one reason she is confident that the opening of several major office towers in the West Loop late next year won't push vacancy rates up very high.

The vacancy rate sank to 13.49% in the second quarter, MBRE found, a drop of just 6 bps, and Spicklemire says the company is forecasting that the rate will remain largely the same in 2016 even as Hines' 1.05 million square-foot River Point project at 444 W. Lake St. and developer John O'Donnell's 1.3 million square-foot tower at 150 N. Riverside Plaza bring in more tenants.

“Everybody gets worried about shadow space,” she adds, but she believes this concern is a bit overblown even with so many downtown tenants eyeing the new West Loop buildings. She points to the recent success that the Alter Group had in largely filling up the hole left in its 20 W. Kinzie St. building by Google's exit by signing co-working provider WeWork. “It's not like the spaces are being left vacant for a long time.”

Furthermore, and perhaps most important, even though the number of jobs in Chicago has just now approached the peak of 4.569 million hit more than seven years ago, the amount of occupied space in what MBRE terms the CBD has grown from 110.9 million square feet to 116.3 million square feet. And with the population of Chicago continuing to increase, coupled with the projected movement of more suburban firms downtown, Spicklemire says whatever shadow space gets created should not be a burden on the market for very long.

“It's clear that Chicago's metro has held an advantaged position as compared to the greater MSA during the economic recovery,” MBRE notes in its overview. “Chicago's downtown has attracted the lion's share of the region's potential, drawing companies from the suburbs and out-of-state into tightening space. Falling vacancy rates and growing demand for new developments reflect this rapid ongoing densification.”