He can't provide exact figures, but adds that the number of users in the market for this type of space is now in the dozens, or roughly equal to this time last year. Colliers defines the big box sector as structures of more than 300,000 square feet, with at least 28' ceilings, and precast construction.

The robust demand has encouraged developers to keep breaking ground on new projects. “We will see more speculative completions in 2017, than we saw in 2016,” says Hurvitz. Last year, developers finished 13.5 million square feet of speculative big box space, and in 2017 they will probably complete around 15 million square feet.

CTDI, Inc. signed the largest new big box lease during the first quarter of 2017. The company will occupy 501,313 square feet in a 751,769-square-foot building recently completed at 3900 Brandon Rd. in Joliet's CenterPoint Intermodal Center.

That lease helped push the amount of first quarter net absorption in the I-80 Corridor to more than 2.3 million square feet, by far the most of any submarket. In fact, most of the other areas were just treading water or even had negative absorption.

That shows the current importance of the I-80 submarket. The highly-developed I-55 Corridor, long the regional leader, is running out of usable land. But e-commerce users can still find big empty spaces around I-80, which also provides excellent road and rail connections. And, Hurvitz says, e-commerce “is what's driving this market.”

CHICAGO—The vacancy rate among the Chicago region's big box distribution buildings increased by 52 bps during the first quarter of 2017, the second quarter in a row with an uptick, according to Colliers International's latest report on the sector. But the increase had more to do with the fast pace of new development, rather than a significant slowdown in leasing activity.

“People won't be particularly surprised by this increase in vacancy, because there has been a lot of speculative big box development,” Craig Hurvitz, vice president of Colliers, tells GlobeSt.com. Two such facilities totaling 1.2 million square feet were completed during the first quarter of 2017.

Net absorption was positive between January and March, totaling 1.8 million square feet, Colliers found. That's way off the total from last year's first quarter, when tenants absorbed more than 4.1 million square feet. But in 2016, Amazon was absorbing millions of square feet in the Chicago region. And even though the e-commerce giant probably won't significantly expand this year, other tenants will take up some of the slack.

“There has been a bit of a lull for the last three to six months, but my gut tells me that's not going to continue,” Hurvitz says. “We're now seeing a lot of users looking for big box spaces.”

He can't provide exact figures, but adds that the number of users in the market for this type of space is now in the dozens, or roughly equal to this time last year. Colliers defines the big box sector as structures of more than 300,000 square feet, with at least 28' ceilings, and precast construction.

The robust demand has encouraged developers to keep breaking ground on new projects. “We will see more speculative completions in 2017, than we saw in 2016,” says Hurvitz. Last year, developers finished 13.5 million square feet of speculative big box space, and in 2017 they will probably complete around 15 million square feet.

CTDI, Inc. signed the largest new big box lease during the first quarter of 2017. The company will occupy 501,313 square feet in a 751,769-square-foot building recently completed at 3900 Brandon Rd. in Joliet's CenterPoint Intermodal Center.

That lease helped push the amount of first quarter net absorption in the I-80 Corridor to more than 2.3 million square feet, by far the most of any submarket. In fact, most of the other areas were just treading water or even had negative absorption.

That shows the current importance of the I-80 submarket. The highly-developed I-55 Corridor, long the regional leader, is running out of usable land. But e-commerce users can still find big empty spaces around I-80, which also provides excellent road and rail connections. And, Hurvitz says, e-commerce “is what's driving this market.”