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Chicago's Biggest Tech Submarket: The West Loop
Chuck Sudo/Bisnow
The former Fulton Market Cold Storage building, now 1K Fulton, Google's regional headquarteres.
A new report by CBRE identifies Chicago's hottest tech submarket and it should surprise no one.
Tech firms were nearly one-quarter of total CBD office leasing last year, and almost half (45.2%) of that was in the West Loop. The submarket has the lowest office inventory in the CBD with 4M SF, but is the place to be right now, spurred by high-profile tenants like Google's lease at 1KFulton. It's proven popular with developers looking to convert warehouse space into offices, and tenants seeking marquee addresses in the market.
River North has more than double the office inventory of the West Loop, with over 10M SF, and is considered a more mature tech market. But only 2.8M SF is leased to tech firms, a total of 26.8%.
