Chicago's Office Utilization Is Steadily Creeping Up

People are slowly making their way back to Chicago offices.

As of September, Chicago’s central business district was 63.5% as busy as it was in September 2019, prepandemic, according to Avison Young’s Office Busyness Index — up from 59% in August and 58% last September. But it still lags the national average by about 4.1% and is well behind the top-performing markets, like Manhattan’s 79.2% and Miami’s 83.1%. 

“We've got some ways to grow, and we're expecting that that's going to be the case based on the signs that we're seeing from our clients,” said Damla Gerhart, principal and central regional managing director at Avison Young.

The Fulton Market, West Loop and Central Loop submarkets are the city's top performers, with average respective year-to-date activity levels of 78% (up from 73% in the same period in 2024), 69% (up from 65%) and 60% (up from 58%). Laggards include the East Loop, River North and North Michigan Avenue. 

Chicago’s workplace culture has contributed to lower office usage, Gerhart said. In New York, being in the office is still very much the expectation. Chicago, by contrast, is a more spread-out market, and employers tend to take a more empathetic approach to hybrid work, mindful of commutes and employee preferences.

“Culturally, we’re Midwest nice,” Gerhart said. “If you're an employer, there hasn't been as much of the banging on the desk as maybe we've seen in some of the New York firms.”  

But there are signs employers are looking for an increased office presence in the coming years.

Gerhart said conversations she is having with tenants indicate some companies are trying to renew or expand leases early. Some tenants that have lease expirations that are three to four years out are starting the negotiation process now. 

She anticipates some landlords’ “good concessions” are going to dwindle in 2026 and 2027, so the companies that also anticipate that trend want to talk about early renewals or expansions. 

“That's a clear sign that they have some conviction about how their employees are going to work in the future, and they're also trying to capitalize on some of the market dynamics that are still favorable for tenants right now,” Gerhart said. 

More clients are looking for landlords to deliver ready-to-go suites, but landlords are also capping the amount of space they are willing to put their own capital into and develop turnkey space, Gerhart said. That is leading to a gap between what landlords are willing to deliver and the higher design and amenity expectations companies now have for their workplaces.  

Lease negotiations are also starting to reflect that artificial intelligence is increasingly shaping how companies are expected to use their workspaces, even if they haven’t completely restructured around it yet, Gerhart said. Rather than cutting staff, many firms are slowing hiring and exploring how automation can make existing teams more efficient, a shift that is beginning to influence long-term space planning and design decisions.

The impact of AI on the physical office remains mostly theoretical. There isn’t an office today that has been fully designed around how people are going to use AI and how that is going to change operations, Gerhart said, but it’s making its way into capital planning conversations.

“There's a lot more emphasis on, what technology do we really need in the space?” Gerhart said. “Everybody's going to be leveraging AI, and we're going to have more screens and more data sharing and this and that. So it's certainly being factored into the budgets when we're building out these spaces.”