Removing 26 large "whale" buildings totaling over 100,000 square feet of vacant space each from data on suburban Chicago office markets causes the overall vacancy rate to drop from 18.6% to 12.6%, indicating a much tighter market for small and mid-sized tenants. The largest impact came from removing 9 whale buildings in Lake County, narrowing the vacancy rate in that submarket by nearly 9%.

1. Chicago – Suburban
Chart of the week: October 26, 2016
Source: JLL Research
Without whale* blocks suburban vacancy sinks
• In the absence of 26 “whale” blocks, the overall suburban vacancy rate drops 6 percent.
• As a result, small and midsized tenants face a much more landlord-friendly market due to the
adjusted vacancy rate of 12.6 percent.
• Removing nine “whale” buildings in North (Lake County) created the largest discrepancy of 8.9
percent between the current and adjusted vacancy.
16.8%
19.4%
16.7%
21.8%
16.9%
19.6%
14.4%
11.9%
9.4%
12.9%
14.8%
11.3%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
Eastern E/W Western E/W North-Cook North-Lake O'Hare Northwest
Current Vacancy Adjusted Vacancy
Suburban Overall Vacancy Adjusted Overall Vacancy
*100,000 s.f. full building vacancies
18.6%
12.6%