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Suburban Chicago witnesses slight cooling of market; leasing activity steady for year
Despite a solid fourth quarter of leasing activity, the Chicago suburbs saw overall availability creep up this period. The suburban market stood at 26.7% available at the end of the third quarter, marking a 40-basis-point increase over the previous quarter. Tenant options are plentiful, and while the Suburban Class A rate increased by just 10 basis points to 26.2% quarter over quarter, availability rose by 130 basis points over one year prior. Benefitting from its urban-suburban location, the O’Hare submarket finished 2019 with the region’s lowest Class A availability rate, at 18.3%. In total, 5.5 million square feet (msf) was leased in 2019 across Suburban Chicago, up slightly over the 5.4 msf transacted in 2018.