The I-80 region has many large blocks of space available, but its rail connections, and access to labor, make it likely tenants will soon occupy much of the space.
CHICAGO—The Chicago industrial market saw a moderate decline in leasing activity recently, but tenants remain quite active, and that helped fuel an 80.6% increase in construction activity during the third quarter. Developers now have 18.5 million square feet underway, much of it speculative, up from 10.2 million square feet during last year's third quarter, according to statistics just published by Avison Young.
“Some of that has to do with the Southeast WI submarket,” Chris Lydon, a principal in Avison Young's Chicago office, tells GlobeSt.com. This relatively new submarket has a lot of available land, and the start of construction on Venture One Properties' Stateline 94 Corporate Park, a five-building, 1.8-million-square-foot spec project, sparked an 805% increase in construction activity, from 322,173 square feet in last year's third quarter to 2.9 million square feet now. Other areas favored by developers include the I-80 and I-55 corridors, along with the O'Hare submarket.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
