Chicago Retail Market Report

Rising food-service demand underscores local retail resilience. Following large move-outs in the first half of 2025, improving net absorption later in the year points to firming retail conditions. Store closures have clustered in big-box and power-center-heavy suburbs, such as Oak Brook, South Cook County, and the Lake Cook corridor, pushing vacancy near 6 percent. Meanwhile, vacancy has generally held under 5 percent in more residential nodes. These areas may continue to outperform amid steady demand from necessity and service tenants, including fast-food and restaurant users, whose leasing activity rose to multiyear highs in 2025. Within Chicago proper, performance remains split. Office- and tourism-dependent districts such as the Loop and Magnificent Mile posted retail vacancy above 10 percent, while conditions have stayed tighter in mixed-use areas such as Fulton Market and River North. The opening of Bally’s $1.7 billion casino in River West in late 2026 could reinforce this divergence.