Suburban Chicago market exhibits moderately improved fundamentals at close of year

With occupier demand recovering, the Suburban Chicago office market reached what could prove to be an inflection point in its overall fundamentals at the close of 2024. Full-year leasing activity across the suburban market totaled 6.3 million square feet (msf) in 2024, marking the office market’s highest annual tally since the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Annual leasing volume increased 15.6% from the 5.4 msf reported in 2023. Meanwhile, available sublease options declined to their lowest level since Q2 2020. The two largest transactions this quarter were subleases: ADP committed to 150,000 square feet (sf) from Zurich Insurance in Schaumburg, while the Chicago Department of Aviation subleased 99,000 sf from UScellular in O’Hare.

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