David Petersen speaks at DuPage Regional Business Outlook and Executive Briefing

“DuPage business leaders optimistic after difficult times”

“I’m a half glass full kind of guy,” said Petersen. “I have to be because I’m in commercial real estate. But I do believe there is good news for real estate [in this area].”

Petersen said according to statistics compiled by Choose DuPage, there are a total of 1,765 office buildings in the county that have a total of about 66 million square feet. The vacancy rate is about 17.2 percent for office buildings right now.

Petersen said there are 3,301 industrial buildings in the county with 168 million square feet in this market. The vacancy for industrial buildings is at 13.6 percent.

Petersen said the good news is there have been 160 real-estate transactions for office space this year compared to a total of 142 transitions in all of 2009. He said there have already been 94 real-estate transactions for industrial buildings this year, compared to 96 for all of 2009.

“We are trending up,” said Petersen. “What that says to me is business is being done.”

Read the full article at chicagotribune.com