Urban Innovations sees increased office leasing activity in Chicago heading to the fall

Urban Innovations' recent deals include NuHaus Corp. signing a 1,500-square-foot lease at 445 N. Wells. Urban Innovations has completed a number of leases in the River North area over the last few months, an indication that there's at least some activity in Chicago's office market. With a groundswell of companies moving away from remote work and stepping up enforcement of hybrid policies — including even Zoom — there maybe some reason for optimism in the market going forward. For example, Vivid Seats, which moved into its new headquarters in the Marshall Fields building late last year, has encouraged employees to come back and is seeing 85%–90% attendance on some days.

For Urban Innovations' part, the real estate firm saw increased activity going back late last year followed by a lull in the first part of this year, but now it has picked up again, Aaron Zaretsky, vice president of leasing, told the Chicago Business Journal. "We had a lot of activity in a very short period of time," he said. "They don't all translate into leases, but [we were] getting groups through all the varying sizes of our spaces — the expensive ones, the less expensive ones. Every space is getting a look." Zaretsky is not seeing a particular sector that is more active than others, however. "It's just a smattering of everything. We've seen some architecture firms, PR firms — we're seeing a bit of everything," he said.

Recent deals include:

Altec Solutions Inc. signing a 3,500-square-foot office lease at 325W. Huron.

Aptus Architecture renewing a 2,400-square-foot lease at 325 W.Huron.

Blue Chip Marketing Worldwide renewing a 6,800-square-footlease at 720 N. Franklin.

Challenger Logistics signing a 2,900-square-foot lease at 444 N.Wells.

Communication Research Associates Inc. signing a 1,500-square-foot lease at 325 W. Huron.

Ingenuity Incorporated Chicago renewing a lease at 440 N. Wells.

NuHaus Corp. signing a 1,500-square-foot lease at 445 N. Wells.

Zaretsky said that Urban Innovations is not immune to some of the concession packages and furnishing of spaces that are almost a “requirement" today. "We're putting money back into the spaces and common areas," he said. "We don't necessarily require long-term leases even for spaces that require more than just furniture."

Direct leasing is still down compared to prepandemic — 1.7 million square feet in the second quarter of 2023 versus an average of 2.6 million square feet per quarter in the 10 years prior to Covid. The bulk of activity is coming from leases of 10,000 square feet or less, according to Transwestern's data for Q2 2023.