Welcome To The Real Finds Blog: Commercial Real Estate Insights for Chicago and the Midwest
Welcome to The Real Finds Blog, your daily briefing on commercial real estate trends across Chicagoland and the Midwest. Published by Gordon Lamphere, a fourth-generation commercial real estate broker at Van Vlissingen & Co., this blog delivers sharp, actionable insights for CRE professionals navigating a changing market. Every article connects macro trends—interest rates, automation, supply chains, policy shifts—to local real estate strategy across high-demand submarkets, including:
- Downtown Chicago – office space, adaptive reuse, capital markets
- Elk Grove & O’Hare – industrial leasing, logistics infrastructure
- Kenosha & SE Wisconsin – warehouse development and distribution hubs
- Oak Brook & Schaumburg – suburban office leasing and reinvestment
- Naperville & the I-88 Corridor – flex space, R&D, life sciences
- Bolingbrook & the I-55 Corridor – fulfillment centers and industrial site selection
- Lake, DuPage, Will, Kane, and McHenry Counties – land use, entitlements, development opportunities, and tenant migration
From daily blog posts to in-depth strategy guides and transcribed podcast interviews, Real Finds turns global uncertainty into hyper-local market intelligence for investors, landlords, tenants, developers, and brokers New posts are published every weekday.
The Rise Of Industrial Outdoor Storage (IOS) As An Asset Class?
Why Industrial Outdoor Storage Is Surging In Chicago The Rise Of IOS As A Core Industrial Asset Class Industrial outdoor...
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What’s Fueling Industrial Outdoor Storage Deals With Andrew Wiesemann – RFP 83
The Real Finds Podcast: Why Industrial Outdoor Storage Is Becoming the Most Misunderstood Opportunity in Commercial Real Estate Every so...
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Is Fear Driving Your Return To Office Strategy
Look around, and it is clear that the conversation about returning to the office is no longer about public health....
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As Cook County’s Property Taxes Rise 16% So Do Doom Loop Fears
How Can Investors & Occupiers Protect Themselves From Cook County's Rising Property Taxes? Chicago’s commercial and residential property markets just...
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Making a Workspace for a Gen Z Workforce: What Modern Companies Need to Know
No generation has entered the workforce with more expectations, more digital fluency, or more influence than Gen Z. Born roughly...
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How To Right-Size Your Office Without Crushing Culture With Prof. Alana Dunoff – RFP 82
What Kindergarten Can Teach Us About Office Design When you think about the modern workplace, kindergarten probably isn’t the first...
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The Split in Chicagoland’s Industrial Market: Why Small-Bay Is Tight and Big-Box Is Soft
Over the last decade, Chicago has built more industrial space than almost any metro in the country. Developers lined I-55,...
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The Midwest Rebalance: Industrial Winners and Losers With Xander Snyder – RFP 81
When the industrial market peaked in 2022, nearly 800 million square feet of space was under construction across the U.S.—the...
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Oregon Investor Snaps Up 125 S. Wacker Drive for 64% Less Than Pre-Pandemic Price
125 S. Wacker Drive Buyer Betting on a Chicago Office Comeback The next chapter of Chicago’s downtown office market is...
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401 S. State Street Sold Out of Distress, Setting Stage for Possible Office Conversion
Office Conversion Ahead For 401 S. State Street In Chicago A new chapter is opening for one of the Loop’s...
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How CEOs View The 2026 Economic Outlook & Return To Office With Joe Galvin RFP – 80
What CEOs Really Want in 2025: Certainty, Skills, and a Smarter Office When the economy wobbles, tariffs shift overnight, and...
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Amazon’s Job Cuts and the Future of the Office: From Open Floor Plans to Executive Command Centers
Amazon’s Job Cuts and the Future of the Office: From Open Floor Plans to Executive Command Centers When Amazon announced...
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400 S. LaSalle Office Conversion Continues The Chicago Data Center Boom
Downtown Chicago Office Flip Highlights Data Center Gold Rush at 400 S. LaSalle A year after trading hands for just...
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As Labor Leverage Decreases National Office Occupancy Surges
The Labor Leverage Ratio and the Chicago Office Market’s Next Chapter Everyone in commercial real estate is still staring at...
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50% Faster, 10% Cheaper: Factory-Built Housing That Pencils With Rory Rubin – RFP 79
When most people hear “container home,” they picture a rusty shipping box dropped in a field somewhere. But in Chicagoland,...
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Creating And Adapting To Pet-Friendly Office Policies
Pet-Friendly Office Policy and the Case for Modern Adaptation in Commercial Real Estate Introduction: The Modern Office Has Changed For...
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How to Avoid Knowledge Silos and Make Work Suck Less?
How to Avoid Knowledge Silos And Create A Functional Workplace? If work feels like a grind lately, it’s not just...
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State Of The Chicago Multifamily Market 2025 Q3
Through the third quarter of 2025, Chicagoland’s multifamily market has remained one of the most stable in the nation. Demand...
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