Leasing velocity accelerates across Chicago retail

Chicago’s retail market has gotten much stronger over the past three years, with stores being leased faster than before. In 2022, it took about 12 months to find tenants for empty spaces, reflecting pandemic uncertainty and lots of big vacant stores. By 2023, that dropped to about 10 months, and now in 2025, it’s just under nine months — the quickest pace in nearly a decade.