Nearly five years after the onset of the pandemic, one in three Loop storefronts remains vacant as retail vacancy stayed virtually flat in 2024. But the year wasn't without some glimmers of hope.

There are more than 1,300 storefronts in the Loop, but right now more than a third of them are empty. Remote work and concerns over crime have kept some major retailers at bay since the pandemic, but there’s new reason to be optimistic.