Chicago Ranks Third in US Industrial Leasing at 9.4M SF as Big-Box Demand Surges

2 articles · Updated · Yahoo Finance · Aug 20

Chicago posted 9.4 million square feet of industrial leasing in H1 2026, ranking third nationally behind Southern California and Dallas-Fort Worth, with eight leases above 750,000 square feet.
Q2 net absorption reached 6.1 million square feet—more than five times Q1 and over eight times Q2 2025—as demand accelerated for bulk distribution space, logistics, packaging and data-center-linked users.
KeHE Distributors signed the region's biggest lease at 1.2 million square feet in Joliet, while Hyundai Translead took 900,000 square feet in Channahon; four of Chicago's nine biggest leases were renewals.
Asking rents rose 7.4% year over year to $9.33 per square foot, far above the 2.1% national average, while space above 850,000 square feet remained especially tight.
That squeeze is colliding with a data center land rush: US land sales for data center development hit $3.3 billion in Q1, up 141% from a year earlier, lifting land and building costs in some Chicago submarkets.