Rhea Stephen

The situation: Even before the global pandemic, Chicago’s suburban office market was already bifurcated between the haves and the have-nots. Languishing office properties that lost their ...

Like most people, places and things, the Chicago office market's strengths and opportunities also frequently double as its weaknesses and threats.

On the surface, the past 12 months were rough for Chicago’s commercial real estate market’s construction sector. Across the four major property types — industrial/flex, office, retail and multifamily ...

Once deemed the "City of Big Shoulders" for its blue-collar might in the meatpacking and railroad industries, Chicago's broad shoulders now carry one of the nation's most diverse economies, where no ...

As Chicago’s industrial space market-watchers chronicle how tenants occupy — and vacate — their leased or owned spaces, they also have a front-row seat to witness how employment growth and losses ...

In a new twist, Chicago’s submarket clusters along the market’s most southern and southeastern shores — namely the Indiana, South Chicago and South Suburban areas — are 2024’s industrial space ...

Though Chicago still reigns as the nation’s largest industrial market in size and scope — at 1.4 billion square feet compared to second-place Dallas’ 1.2 billion-square-foot inventory — Dallas has ...

Despite the Chicago industrial market posting more space completions than move-ins as 2024 comes to a close, the Windy City’s underlying demand metrics — namely its overall vacancy rate and square ...

Of the U.S. office markets that carried over $1 billion of commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) worth of debt by the end of October, Chicago stands out with over $1.4 billion more than 90 ...

Downtown Chicago’s office sublet vacancy rate fell to below its post-pandemic, four-year average during 2024’s second half, yet with the market's direct availability hitting a new high during this ...

Since Chicago’s office market investors have learned from past recessions, they now often prefer to offer generous free rent and tenant improvement (TI) packages in lieu of lowering their asking ...

With historically low vacancy and less supply-side pressure than its peers across the country, Chicago’s multifamily market should maintain its standing on the asking-rent-growth leaderboard into ...

Yes, flight to quality is a real thing in the U.S. office market, and it can be true in downtown Chicago, too.

Although downtown Chicago’s big move-in gains in its office market come from the area’s best-in-class inventory, frequently it’s the lower-tier properties — namely two- and three-star properties — ...

Chicago’s manufacturing space development and tenant year-over-year move-in gains since mid-2021 are steadily increasing as employment improves for this sector, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor ...

If one considers the purchasing power of today’s dollar and indexes its value to that of five years ago, Chicago’s downtown office market asking rents have been on a virtual downward spiral since the ...

No matter how analysts slice the data, retailers with an experiential component continue to drive Chicago’s leasing velocity, scoring the most move-ins from 2023’s fourth quarter through 2026’s first ...

Though Chicago’s overall retail market has remained in balance since the second half of 2021, two shopping center types — general retail and neighborhood centers — have recorded the most move-ins ...

Chicago’s downtown and nearby infill locations for industrial space buck the overall Windy City trend to prefer recently built properties over legacy ones — where older properties near population ...

Most of the Chicago industrial space market’s positive demand momentum comes from tenants moving into newly completed facilities, while older properties maintain their higher-than-average occupancy ...