2016 Looks Good for Suburban Class A

CHICAGO—There was quite a bit of friendly competition between suburban and urban office brokers at yesterday’s 14th Annual Commercial Real Estate Forecast Conference. Sponsored by the Real Estate Publishing Group, more than 1,000 conference participants gathered at the Hyatt Regency Chicago to hear what the coming year could bring for the metropolitan area’s commercial real estate. And with much of the talk centered on the recent migration of companies from the suburbs into the CBD, suburban advocates felt compelled to speak up for their region.

“The suburbs don’t have an absorption problem, the suburbs have a perception problem,” Dave Trumpy of GlenStar Properties told a morning panel. In the past few years, his company has taken over recession-hit office suburban properties such as Continental Towers in Rolling Meadows and brought them back to life. However, in his experience, “if any big deal happens in the ‘burbs, you won’t hear about it.”