Chicago’s office market remains a tale of two asset classes, with new towers filled with amenities continuing to outperform the city’s older office stock.
While vacancy rates across the city’s central business district continue to climb, the newest generation of Class-A office buildings is attracting tenants seeking modern amenities, efficient floorplans and desirable locations.
That’s one of the key takeaways from the latest Chicago Office Market Index released by Transwestern for the first quarter of 2026.
The report tracks the 20 newest Class-A office buildings of at least 300,000 square feet in Chicago’s CBD. According to Transwestern, the index represents roughly 17.8 million square feet of office space, or about 11.4% of Chicago’s total CBD office inventory.
And what does Transwestern’s report say about the state of the Chicago CBD office sector? At the end of the first quarter, vacancy among buildings included in Transwestern’s index stood at 9.5%. While that figure increased from 8% at the close of 2025, it remained far below the overall Chicago CBD vacancy rate of 23.2%, which reached a new record high during the quarter.
Transwestern said that the continued strength of newer buildings demonstrates that tenants remain committed to high-quality office environments offering competitive amenities.
The biggest development during the quarter was the addition of 919 W. Fulton St. to Transwestern’s index. The newly completed Fulton Market building contains 369,007 square feet and is the smallest property in the index by rentable building area. The building was 46.9% preleased upon delivery, led by Harrison Street Asset Management’s 112,000-square-foot commitment. Still, the property delivered with nearly 231,000 square feet of direct vacancy, helping push the overall index vacancy rate higher.
With the addition of 919 W. Fulton St., Fulton Market now accounts for seven of the 20 buildings included in the index, highlighting the neighborhood’s growing dominance as Chicago’s premier office destination.
Even with the increase in vacancy, available large-block space remains relatively limited in the newest office inventory. According to Transwestern, only four direct vacancies larger than 100,000 square feet are currently available within office buildings listed in its index. The largest opportunities include two blocks at 300 N. LaSalle St. totaling more than 300,000 square feet and a 178,708-square-foot block at 919 W. Fulton St.
That shortage could influence future development activity. Transwestern reported that several tenants currently in the market are seeking more than 200,000 square feet of office space. Because no existing index building offers space of that size, some of those companies could become anchor tenants for future office developments should they decide to relocate.
Leasing activity among index properties remained steady during the first quarter, according to Transwestern.
Qube Research & Technologies signed a 29,067-square-foot lease at 320 S. Canal St., while Ryan Specialty leased 25,532 square feet at 151 N. Franklin St. Dorsey & Whitney expanded into a 16,629-square-foot space at 71 S. Wacker Drive, and BlackEdge Capital signed a 14,667-square-foot lease at 919 W. Fulton St.
The sublease market also showed signs of improvement, according to Transwestern’s research. Available sublease space within index buildings totaled 631,247 square feet at the end of the quarter, representing just 3.6% of the index inventory. One significant block disappeared from the market earlier this year when McKinsey & Company subleased Salesforce’s remaining space at Salesforce Tower, 333 W. Wolf Point Plaza.
