Vacancy Rate for Trophy Properties Stays Low

Chicago’s 150 North Riverside Plaza was delivered in January, part of a group that will soon add millions of square feet to the city’s inventory.

CHICAGO—Both of the CBD’s new trophy office towers have solid leasing momentum, and the overall vacancy rate for the city’s top office properties has only increased slightly even with all the new choices in the market. That was the conclusion of researchers from MB Real Estate, who just released their latest index report, which examines the CBD’s 30 newest class A buildings.

The opening of 444 W. Lake in the fourth quarter of 2016, and the January delivery of 150 N. Riverside, added two new structures to the company’s index. The properties replaced 227 W. Monroe and 35 W. Wacker, both of which were built in 1989. This also decreased the index’s total square footage to 26,900,164 out of the CBD’s 133,230,229.