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Tech Firms Accounted For Nearly One-Quarter Of Downtown Office Leasing Last Year

An aerial view of downtown Chicago
Photo credit: Andrew Horne/Creative Commons
A View Of Downtown Chicago From Willis Tower

A new report from CBRE shows the tech sector set new highs in downtown office leasing activity and footprint last year.

Tech firms leased 1.7M SF in 2015. That accounted for 23.8% of downtown leasing activity, the highest number since CBRE started tracking leasing volume five years ago. And tech firms are expanding their footprints, as well: the percentage of leases between 50k SF and 100k SF more than doubled from 2014 to 2015, to 37%.

Want more numbers? The CBD tech footprint totals 11.5M SF, with River North and the West Loop accounting for 6.8M SF. Overall, tech firms take up 10.6% of office space. With local tech firms receiving $1.7B in investment money last year, look for this sector to grow.

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