Expert; 23% suburban Chicago office space still vacant
Hard times for the economy have heavily affected the take-up of office space in suburban areas of Chicago, leaving them sitting vacant and being labelled by some Realtors as “zombies”.
Kevin McLennan, senior managing director of Studley Inc, a tenant advisory firm in Chicago, believes that the level of vacant office space is almost the highest in twenty years. He looked at around 50,000 square feet and found about 23% of them to be empty in the Chicago suburbs.
The main reason for the vacant space seems to be due to the state of the economy, especially in the commercial real estate market. More and more office space landlords may come under pressure from lenders, as the value of commercial property falls.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that it’s not going to happen, but we’re preparing as if it will,” Kevin McLennan says.
It seems that many companies are testing out the current market climate, the main obstacle being the cost of moving against what could be a better deal for rental.