New Industrial Development Reshaping Chicago Market

4050 Rock Creek Blvd. is a 291,728 SF industrial facility in Rock Run Business Park, Joliet, IL being leased by Avison Young. It is in the I-80 corridor near I-55 and was built by IDI.

CHICAGO—The region’s industrial market continued to expand at a historic pace in the first quarter, and with tenant demand fueling strong leasing, all signs point to a very solid 2018. Leasing velocity increased by 36.4%, with 273 leases totaling 7.5 million square feet completed, according to research from Avison Young’s Chicago office. The volume of completed construction projects also increased — by 58.8% to 2.7 million square feet. And overall vacancy sank 40 bps to 5.9%.

Some of the most notable changes are happening in the O’Hare submarket, which saw 519,314 square feet of absorption and had a vacancy rate of just 4.5%. Developers there also had 1.84 million square feet of new space underway at the end of the first quarter, an increase of 625% year-over-year.