12 new leases, totaling 2.6 million square feet, were completed during Q2 in speculative buildings delivered since 2013 pushing vacancies in speculative buildings down to 25.6 percent, the lowest it has been during the current cycle — a signal that new speculative construction is continuing to lease despite economic uncertainty.

Spec leasing does well in submarkets

According to the report, submarkets also play a role in speculative construction development and many spec projects in submarkets that have seen significant speculative development are better leased. Most notably, the I-55 Corridor and I-80 Joliet Corridor submarkets account for 32.8 million square feet of spec development together, nearly half of the speculative development since 2013 and are 80 percent and 78 percent leased, respectively. Even better, the submarket of Lake County is 87 percent leased, the Central DuPage submarket is 86 percent leased and the I-290 North submarket is 85 percent leased.