Statistics on the office sector’s Q2 performance are starting to emerge, and it’s apparent the ongoing pandemic has severely cut into leasing activity. With most of the offices throughout downtown Chicago either shuttered or staffed by skeleton crews, Q2 leasing dropped 75.4% from Q1, the lowest level of activity in about 15 years, according to Savills’ Q2 2020 Downtown Chicago report.

Tenants leased about 800K SF in Q2, Savills found, including many transactions negotiated and agreed to before the pandemic sent unemployment rates soaring and tipped the local economy into recession. Other transactions were just short- and medium-term extensions that allow companies to “kick the can down the road” until the pandemic’s scale is better understood.

“Overall availability downtown increased by 80 basis points to 16.7%, its highest level in two years,” Savills reported.

Even though the state reached Stage 4 of its “Restore Illinois” plan on June 26, allowing many businesses such as bars and restaurants to open, at least partially, office users are still uncertain about the direction of the economy, Savills added. That has led some organizations to cut back on staffing levels, shrink footprints and open up more spaces for sublease. The amount of sublease space in downtown Chicago increased 25% year-over-year, with more than 4M SF available at the end of Q2.