Chicago office rents hit lowest level in a decade

Crain's Chicago Business reports:

Rents in Chicago’s top-quality office towers can’t get any lower, while lease payments in leading suburban buildings are heading higher.

In the central business district, landlords’ average net effective rents fell 38 percent to just $2.66 a square foot in 2005 compared with 2004, the lowest level in a decade, according to the Studley Effective Rent Index, an annual report that tracks leases in newer, so-called Class A structures.

We'd be willing to bet rents will be lower 6 years from now in Chicago's downtown business district.