Suburban Off. Market Better Than You Think

CHICAGO—Many companies have recently migrated from the suburbs and down into the CBD, often generating headlines that give the impression these outlying submarkets are in permanent decline. But according to MBRE’s latest office market overview, a look behind the headlines shows that things are not so bad.

After six straight years of negative or stagnant absorption, the economic recovery gave the suburban market its own bounce last year with about 1.3-million-square-feet of positive absorption. Much of this came from class A properties, especially in the East-West and Northwest submarkets, and shows that although the region certainly has a lot of obsolete, vacant space, many top-of-the-line suburban properties retain tremendous appeal.