CHICAGO—United Stationers has just signed the second largest transaction in suburban Chicago year-to-date, a long-term lease extension for 198,000 square feet at One Parkway North in Deerfield along I-94, and the relatively few concessions agreed to by owner Arden Realty, Inc. illustrates how this corner of the regional office market has changed.

“The true class A properties on the North Shore have converted to a landlord's market where rents continue to go up and fewer lease concessions are needed,” Christopher G. Cummins, senior vice president of Colliers International, tells GlobeSt.com. This stands in stark contrast to a few other suburban submarkets and to class B properties throughout the suburbs, where landlords still have more of a struggle to hang on to tenants.

In the first quarter, the suburban vacancy rate ticked up from 21% to 21.2%, according to a Colliers report. The rate in the North submarket hit 23.1%, also a boost of about 20 bps. And even though the average rate for all class A office properties in the North dropped a little, it remained quite elevated at 26.5%. “However, when considering high quality, true class A properties, in the North market, vacancy was 17.1% at that end of the first quarter,” Colliers found.

Cummins and his colleague Steven W. Kling, principal, represented Arden in the transaction. United Stationers, a supplier of workplace essentials with 2014 net sales of $5.3 billion, was represented by Kevin Clifton and James Whalen of CBRE.

“United Stationers went through a strategic review of its workplace to figure out its true size requirements,” Cummins says. The company also considered some build-to-suit opportunities in the immediate area, but ultimately decided to stay at Parkway another 11 years and downsize a bit from around 203,000 square feet. A significant factor in this decision was United Stationers' good signage identity on I-94.

Furthermore, Arden did agree to make some changes to the 271,500 square-foot, five-story office building. The company will upgrade the common areas and build a fitness center inside the building. Occupants can already use the fitness center near the office park's entrance, but United wanted the building to have its own.

In addition, the building's atrium will get a makeover and become a more employee-friendly spot where people can socialize, or take their laptops and work during the day. Providing spaces like this have become standard, even in sectors where landlords hold the upper hand, so tenants can attract younger employees. “The millennial generation,” Cummins says, “has taken over.”