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As vacancies climbed to 28.2%, or more than double where they
stood prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the latest
declines driven by the rise of remote workers marked the 14th
straight quarter rates have hit record-high numbers.
“It's the anti-business attitude, high tech that are strangling
us,” Glennon told TSC. “You never see any effort to make life
easier for employers here. The state of Illinois is like one big
oppressive intermeddling HR department with countless rules and
regulations that strangle people.”
As companies vacated roughly 370,000 square feet of offices more
than they occupied in 2025, net absorption also fell for the
ninth time in 10 quarters, prompting Glennon to envision a world
where the city could see greater deficits leading to layoffs,
poorer services and perhaps even missed paychecks for workers.
“Even the leased space is going largely empty,” he said. “As
those leases come up, you'll have more people cutting back. The
valuations of those big buildings go down because they're not
getting as much rent and those lower valuations mean lower
property taxes that they pay that has to get passed off
someplace, and that goes largely to homeowners.”
Glennon argues all of it could ultimately lead to a world where
the city could see greater deficits leading to layoffs, poorer
services and perhaps even missed paychecks for workers.
“All those things, of course, snowball,” he adds. “They drive
more people away, other things will continue to deteriorate, and
businesses will get more fed up, more people will leave. It's
more of the same and a spiral downward.”
In the end, Glennon wonders how long the city can be the place
some have long known it to be.
“It's just like a gradual bleeding out, that's what we're
seeing,” he said. “I don't see any sense of urgency among voters
or even most of our civic leaders. I think they've been far too
timid about this and aren't demanding the radical changes that I
talked about.”
Data also shows that while average gross asking rents at
so-called trophy office towers are up by 26% over the last five
plus years, rents across all of downtown were essentially flat
across the same time frame.
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