CRE MARKETPLACE (pg.16): TAX INCENTIVES BROKERAGE FIRMS CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES/GENERAL CONTRACTORS EDCS FINANCE AND INVESTMENT FIRMS ROOFING COMPANIES VOL.31 NO.5
THE LEADING NEWS SOURCE FOR INDUSTRIAL REAL ESTATE PROFESSIONALS & USERS
SEPTEMBER 2021
Here’s who is leasing industrial space in the Chicago area this year
(and it’s not just Amazon)
The exterior of one of Amazon's newer hubs in Chicago. Photo by AJ LaTrace.
By AJ LaTrace, Managing Editor mazon, Tesla, and Lion Electric: These are just a few of the big players who are gobbling up industrial space across the Chicago area this year, helping push the region to a 20-year record low industrial vacancy rate. But how much space are they taking and how much is currently under construction? A recently released Q2 2021 report from Colliers offers insight into these numbers, and more.
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The report indicates what others have already illustrated this year, which is that demand is high for new industrial space and vacancies are low. But the Colliers report specifically looks at big box buildings specifically, or properties that are 200,000 square feet or larger with 28'
clear height or greater. And the Q2 numbers show that the record-setting pace of leasing activity continued into the early summer. One big takeaway is that 7.1 million square feet of big box industrial space was absorbed in the second quarter of 2021, bringing the total between the first half of the year to 15.3 million square feet of industrial space taken. This means that in the first half of 2021, more space was absorbed than in the entirety of 2020 (which was 15.1 million square feet). The 8.2 million square feet of net absorption from Q1 this year is the record, the report indicates. LEASING (continued on page 12)
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How distribution’s big moment is leading to exponential growth for property owners and logistics operators By AJ LaTrace, Managing Editor
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n May, RJW Logistics announced that it had leased a new 452,000-square-foot Class A industrial building in suburban Lockport to expand its warehouse and distribution operations in the Chicago area. When reviewing the biggest lease deals during the second quarter of 2021, RJW’s commitment to the Lockport space was the largest lease along the I-55 corridor and the sixth overall biggest industrial lease in the Chicago region. “Just wait until Q1 and Q2 of next year, and we’ll be on [the list of biggest leases] again,” says Kevin Williamson, CEO of RJW Logistics, on the company’s big lease commitments and rapid growth in the area. LOGISTICS (continued on page 10)