What’s hot — and what’s not — about Chicago’s suburban office construction pipeline

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 single-tenant occupiers sat virtually vacant for years — like the former 2.3-million-square-foot Sears headquarters in Hoffman Estates, which artificially inflated the area’s stabilized vacancy rate — while Class A office space in prime locations maintained availability rates below 5%.