Chicago market focuses on adaptive strategies

The Chicago office construction market in 2025 reflects a period of changing dynamics. While national cost escalation remains within historic norms, local bid pricing has flattened or declined year-on-year, driven by tariff uncertainty, elevated cost of capital and heightened competition. Public spending and the data center boom have buoyed the broader industry, but corporate office projects, particularly in the private sector, continue to stagnate.

Leasing activity shows signs of recovery, yet the construction pipeline tells a different story. Large-scale desirable space, also known as trophy blocks have all but disappeared, pushing premium first-generation project volume to historic lows and shifting demand toward smaller footprints or resulting in deferred real estate decisions. This evolution underscores a market where flexibility, cost efficiency and adaptive reuse are key.

This report provides an overview of Chicago office construction trends to guide client expectations. It draws data from 118 projects completed between Q4 2024 and Q3 2025, CBRE leasing data, Turner & Townsend’s 2025 US market intelligence report, and Turner & Townsend’s Chicago Construction Sentiment Survey of 15 leading interiors contractors. Where relevant, we have also included project data collected for previous reports.