Until recently, homeowners in Chicago’s South Loop have had limited shopping options. The situation should improve even more next year when the Roosevelt Collection (at Roosevelt Road and Wells Street) comes online with two new blocks of stores, restaurants, and movie theatres—and those best positioned to take advantage of the improvements will be the residents of the condominiums right upstairs.

The developers, Centrum Properties, envision a "lifestyle center that brings all the dining and boutiques and entertainment you’re going to want right to your doorstep," says Sol Barkett, a Centrum partner. In addition, there will be a 2.5-acre park immediately north of the complex, as well as a ribbon of landscape running through the center of the project.

The megadevelopment is now under construction at a site immediately west of the South Loop Target store. The 342 residential units, dubbed the Lofts at Roosevelt Collection, will be on the third to eighth floors. For the 156 units still on sale at presstime, prices started at $305,900 for a 759-square-foot one-bedroom unit, and climbed to $662,900 for a 1,497-square-foot unit with two bedrooms and a den. The first residents should begin arriving in summer 2009.

Illustration: Courtesy of Centrium Properties Inc.