Lifestyle developments offer retail, spa amenities and woodsy retreats
In the search for a dream condo or single-family home, buyers carefully weigh factors such as views, location and floor plans. But these days, many Chicago homebuyers are seeking a readymade “lifestyle” as much as a home. Some long to live in a building with luxurious spa amenities. Others are looking for the tranquility of a leafy, off-the-beaten-track community. A number of new residential developments are catering to their desires.
Retail therapy: Centrum Properties hopes that buyers who want to feel part of a busy urban neighborhood close to shops, restaurants and movie theaters will be drawn to The Roosevelt Collection, a $900 million mixed-use residential and retail enclave underway on the north side of Roosevelt Road just east of Wells Street in the South Loop.
The plan for The Roosevelt Collection calls for construction of a boulevard the width of Michigan Avenue, flanked on each side by home-furnishing, book and music shops, restaurants, boutiques, a 16-screen theater and a fitness center. “There will be more than 40 high-end retailers when [the project is] complete, and there is a two-acre park which is at the north end of the development,” said John McLinden, a partner in Centrum Properties, the developer.
The first residential phase of the project consists of 342 loft-style condos with views of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline, located above shops at 150 W. Roosevelt Road, said Jennifer Arons, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Centrum Properties. Later phases will include a 40-story high-rise.
The retail boulevard will be located on top of a parking garage that rises 30 feet above grade to intersect with the existing Roosevelt Road overpass. Six floors of residential lofts will be built above the four-level garage and two floors of retail space, Arons said. The sales center for The Roosevelt Collection is located at 709 S. Clark St.
“Lifestyle” centers: Buyers at X/O, a 485-unit development in the South Loop, will have access to a 13,000-square-foot “lifestyle center” called Spa X/O. The building’s amenities include a running track, a swimming pool and a fitness center offering yoga classes and massage. Spa X/O also will have a screening and performance theater, game room, café and “wine bistro” for tastings and mixers. An “aqua grotto” with waterfalls and hot tubs will be located outside the building.
Plans for the two-acre site call for a 46-story north tower with 273 condos and a 34-story south tower with 202 units. The south tower is set behind a row of 10 townhomes. Condos in X/O’s first phase, the 46-story north tower, range from the low $300s to more than $2 million, according to marketing agent Frankel & Giles Real Estate. The X/O sales center is on the fifth floor at 1712 S. Prairie Ave.
Astoria Tower is another downtown high-rise development offering buyers the spa treatment. AÂ “Spa Life Center” is planned for the 10th floor of the 30-story building, which is under construction at 8 E. 9th St. The spa, which encompasses more than 12,000 square feet, will have a swimming pool, fitness center, sauna, steam room, private massage room, nail salon and two landscaped terraces, according to developer Astoria Tower, LLC. An in-house “spa concierge” will book treatments for residents with an external spa provider.
Condos at Astoria Tower are priced from the $230s, and the sales center is located at 832 S. Wabash Ave.
Woodsy tranquility: That’s the mood that CA Development is aiming for at Edgebrook Glen, 5200 W. Armstrong Ave., a community of 64 single-family homes planned on an 11-acre site adjoining Indian Woods Forest Preserve on the Far Northwest Side.
“There are lots of mature trees on the site that we’re saving, and the whole community backs up to the forest preserve,” said Paul Bertsche, founder of CA Development. About one-third of the homes will be clustered around 2.25 acres of green space, which includes a landscaped park and an 800-foot trail for jogging, biking and walking.
The first of four planned model homes at Edgebrook Glen is slated for completion in May. The homes will have five or six bedrooms, 3.5 to 4.5 baths and attached two-car garages, said Patricia Rodriguez, of marketing agent At Properties. Pre-construction prices range from the $680s to the $960s. The sales center is located on site.
Real estate columnist and media consultant Don DeBat has written about Chicago-area housing and mortgage markets since 1968. He is chief executive officer of DeBat Media, Inc.