Urbanize has toured Optima Lakeview, Optima’s newest luxury rental apartment building in Lakeview. Located at 3478 N. Broadway, the project’s site was originally home to a shuttered Treasure Island Foods grocery store.

Designed in-house by Optima’s team, the building stands as a luxury apartment community, from its modern exterior – made with a palette of transparent bronze glass and dark brick to complement the architecture of the surrounding neighborhood – to its unique interior, which includes a seven-story atrium that runs through the core of the building and features vertical landscaping to flood the space with natural light and foliage.

The tour began in the lobby which sits within the large atrium in the center of the building. Light flooded in from above, illuminating the walkways on each floor for the residential access. Off to the side on the ground floor, the building’s sports lounge offers a basketball court and golf simulator.

Taking the elevator to the top floor, the 8th floor hosts a party room with full kitchen space. On the outdoor deck, residents have access to a heated pool deck and spa as well as grilling stations. With Optima Lakeview being one of the taller buildings in the area, views are uninterrupted looking in every direction, including towards the lake and to Wrigley Field.

Working our way down, we visited the business center on the sixth floor which offers furniture intended for residents to be able to work in the space. On the fourth floor, the resident lounge offers gathering space as well as another full kitchen and game room. Enclosed conference rooms are also included. On the third floor, a sauna room overlooks the second-floor fitness center with locker rooms also accessible to tenants. The final amenity space inside the center atrium was the fitness center on the second floor. The space has been outfitted with all the equipment residents would need to truly quit their gym.

In between seeing the amenity spaces, Urbanize toured select model units within the building. Located in the rear wing of the building, the first model unit was a three-bedroom, 1,940 square foot unit. Overlooking the dog park from the third floor, the unit features a large open plan living space. A theme throughout the units, the floor plans have been designed to maximize storage opportunities.

The second unit toured was a two-bedroom, 1,396 square foot floor plan. The floor plan features a split bedroom layout with a large living room and storage space at the entrance of the unit. Accessed from the living room, an inset balcony overlooks activity on the street. The final model unit was a one-bedroom configuration looking south out of the building. Planned with a borrowed light bedroom, the bedroom sits inboard of the living space, using a partial height wall between the kitchen and bedroom to allow light to reach the bedroom space.

Currently 46% leased, Optima Lakeview offers one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. Remaining units include floor plans renting at $2,600 – $4,700 for one bedrooms, $4,900 – $6,400 for two bedrooms, and $7,100 – $9,800 for three bedroom configurations. The first move-ins for tenants began back in April 2022.

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A 198-unit apartment building that replaced a grocery store on Chicago’s North Side is for sale, adding to an already lengthy shopping list for multifamily investors in the city.

JLL brokers have been hired by developer Optima to seek a buyer for the Optima Lakeview building at 3478 N. Broadway, according to a marketing brochure.

The offering adds to a slew of large apartment buildings already on the market downtown and on the North Side. A dearth of new construction in the city has fueled strong rent growth relative to other markets, leading to some high-dollar sales and prompting other property owners to test the market.

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Optima, a Glencoe, Illinois-based real estate development and design firm, completed the glassy, eight-story building on the former Treasure Island grocery store site in 2022.

That project came after the local grocery chain abruptly went out of business in 2018.

It’s unclear how much Optima is expecting in a sale. The firm did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CoStar News on Tuesday.

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Major sales in the city have included the $170 million sale of the 375-unit Fulbrix tower in Fulton Market in April, which was the highest-priced multifamily sale in the city since 2023.

Overall Chicago-area sales have totaled $2.3 billion so far in 2025, compared with $3.9 billion for full-year 2024 and $4 billion in 2023, according to CoStar data.

Properties that have gone on the market for sale in recent months include The Mason, a 363-unit tower in Fulton Market; the 451-unit Left Bank tower at 300 N. Canal St., just east of Fulton Market; and the 275-unit Milieu tower along the edge of the Greektown and Fulton Market neighborhoods.

Optima bought the vacant grocery store for $12.85 million in July 2019, according to Cook County property records.

The firm knocked down the grocery store and secured a nearly $63.3 million construction loan from Village Bank & Trust to kick off the project. Optima refinanced the property in March, taking out $56 million in permanent debt from PNC Bank and paying off the construction loan, property records show.

JLL is marketing the property as the opportunity to buy a new building in a high-density neighborhood where large apartment developments are relatively rare.

Optima Lakeview includes large outdoor areas such as private balconies and a large rooftop deck with a pool, spa, party room, fire pits and grilling stations. There also is a fitness center, indoor basketball and pickleball courts and sports lounge with putting green.

The property is more than 91% leased, with asking rents of $4,372 per unit and $4.13 per square foot, according to CoStar data.

Large sales on the North Side this year have included the nearly $114 million sale of the 191-unit Elevate Lincoln Park and the nearly $87 million sale of the 292-unit Cobbler Square complex in Old Town.

Amid high borrowing and construction costs, some developers are teeing up smaller projects to meet high demand in Lakeview.

That includes an ongoing project to replace buildings across the street from Wrigley Field with a 29-unit building, plans to repurpose and add on to the 124-year-old Briar Street Theater building to create a 66-unit multifamily property, and a proposal to replace Torstenson Glass’ longtime home in the 3200 block of Sheffield Avenue with a 92-unit apartment building.

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Optima, Inc. has launched pre-leasing for its 198-unit Optima Lakeview luxury rental apartment building, which includes 14,000 square feet of street-level retail at 3478 N. Broadway in the North Side’s Lakeview neighborhood. First move-ins are scheduled for April.

Designed by Optima CEO and founder David Hovey Sr., and built by Optima’s in-house construction team, Optima Lakeview offers one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans with high-end finishes and smart home technology. Rents start at $2,400 per month.

“Optima Lakeview is a true original for the area in that it offers the best of both worlds – the same Class A management service, innovative design and deep amenity package of our Optima Signature high-rise in downtown Chicago, but in a more intimately sized building within one of the city’s most beloved neighborhoods and just blocks away from historic Wrigley Field,” said David Hovey Jr., president, COO and principal architect of Optima.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has altered many renters’ lifestyles, and multifamily developers and owners have responded through their amenity offerings—from connectivity and additional co-working space for the work-from-home crowd to enhanced fitness spaces for health and wellness.

Multifamily Executive caught up with several multifamily developers and owners—including Lissette Calderon, CEO of Neology Life Development Group; David Hovey Jr., AIA, president of Optima, Inc.; and Stuart Zook, principal and chief Investment officer at Monument Capital Management, an A-Rod Corp company—to see what’s new in their communities and how they are pivoting their amenities to meet renters’ needs and wants.

MFE: Are you planning to introduce any new indoor amenities at your properties in 2022?

Hovey: Our communities celebrate the fundamental connection between design and nature, and Optima Lakeview’s design will reflect that with a striking atrium that runs through the core of the seven-story building. The building’s two-story fitness center will feel especially spacious given that it will be flooded with natural light from the atrium. This design also allows us to spread out equipment and encourages good air flow, which will add to the wellness aspect for our residents.

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The executive assistant loads Sunshine, her yellow Labrador retriever, into the car and drives from her home in northwest suburban Crystal Lake to the insurance company’s Schaumburg headquarters, where Sunshine cavorts with other employees and their dogs.

“I have a great group of cubicle mates who love my dog,” she said. “It brings a real sense of community and everyone has been excited about the opportunities to meet new people and new dogs.”

Company officials believe pet dogs bring a touch of home to the office. It’s all part of an effort to change workplace culture and encourage employees to return to the office, at least for several days per week.

“We have been very focused on making sure employees are comfortable with the environment,” said Zurich North America Chief Human Resources Officer Laura Rock. “It’s not just an office where you sit in front of your screen doing Zoom calls.”

Most Chicago-area firms are adapting to COVID-19 the same way. Instead of giving employees hard deadlines to leave comfy home offices, most are enticing people back with new amenities and perks, including the option to stay home for a portion of the week.

It’s a big change from how the return to the office was first envisioned, according to market experts. Many companies planned to make a sharp break with the past after the Labor Day holiday, designating it as the date when workers finally returned. Similar hopes were pinned to the first two Labor Days of the pandemic.

But the tight labor market, and the difficulty in recruiting new hires, means popular work-from-home options are here for the foreseeable future. That leaves uncertainty hanging over a market already plagued by high vacancies, because it could take office users months to calculate just how much space they will need in the future.

“The conversations over the past couple of years has gone from ‘We’re going to return when it’s safe’ to ‘We’re going to do what the employees want to do,’” said Jim Adler, executive vice president of commercial real estate firm NAI Hiffman. “So, there is a little bit of a tug of war going on, but (employees) have been shaping the return to the office.”

Zurich North America began allowing dogs in April, and over the past six months brought other new touches to its gleaming, 11-story complex, first opened in 2016 and familiar to anyone driving through Schaumburg on I-90. The company broke down some walls on the 11th floor to create more open spaces, and the facility also now includes a cafe that serves beer and wine in the late afternoons, new outdoor patio furniture and a fire pit.

But it’s the dog days that Feuillerat, who started with the firm in April, said she finds special. Feuillerat doesn’t have a set schedule of in-office days but does come in when she needs to meet someone in person, and if it’s a Monday or Friday, Sunshine makes it easy to break up the routine and get to know other dog lovers.

“I meet people from different departments that I probably would never get a chance to meet, but we all bring and bond over our dogs and also learn about each other’s lives,” she said.

Feuillerat said eliminating her commute on most days also makes it easier to juggle work responsibilities while taking care of Sunshine, other pets and her two children.

“I find myself being more productive because I don’t have that 35-to-40-minute drive from Crystal Lake,” she said.

Only a tiny number of the 2,200 employees assigned to Zurich’s Schaumburg headquarters now come in four or more days a week, according to Rock. Roughly 30% of its 9,000 employees across the nation work remotely because they’re out in the field meeting clients, and the rest visit their office between one and three days per week.

Zurich isn’t setting hard deadlines for office workers who don’t show up often, Rock said. Remote working has been largely successful for Zurich, with high productivity, so leaders will be content if employees starting after Labor Day return more frequently over an extended period as their comfort increases, eventually forging new routines, with working hours split between work and home.

“Post-pandemic, it’s just how we work,” Rock said. “Employees are expecting that level of flexibility from their employers.”

Insurance firm Allstate Corp. took an even bigger step than Zurich. In 2021, company officials announced they were selling Allstate’s 2 million-square-foot headquarters in suburban Northbrook for $232 million and moving to a much smaller building in Chicago’s Loop because so many employees were working remotely.

According to a 2022 Pew Research Center survey, 61% of those working from home now prefer it over their office jobs. That’s a big shift from early in the pandemic, when 36% of those surveyed said they chose to work at home, with the remainder doing so simply because their offices had closed.

Commercial real estate firm JLL surveyed office employees this year and found that most want jobs with work-from-home options, with technology and finance workers stating that such flexibility is the equivalent of a 10% salary increase. JLL also forecasts that more than half of companies will offer remote working to all employees by 2025.

“I was with a financial client yesterday who has 60 positions to fill,” Adler said. “And they told me the first question from every job applicant is what the hybrid schedule looks like.”

The tight job market means employers have good reason to be accommodating, for now at least, said Cassandra Francis, principal of Kariatid, a Chicago-based real estate planning and management firm. And with so many employees loving the freedom of working from home and skipping long commutes, whether companies can successfully lure people back is still unknown.

“We’re in this strange place where even though we’ve had high inflation and rising interest rates, employment is still high, so it’s very hard to find people,” Francis said. “Employees still have more leverage and just a bit more say.”

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data show the U.S. economy created 528,000 new jobs in July, and the unemployment rate sank to 3.5%, reaching the pre-pandemic rate and tied for the lowest unemployment rate since 1969. August was another solid month, with 315,000 jobs created.

But young people and new hires are likely to be required by many corporate leaders to spend more time in the office, Adler said.

“I think there are some strong opinions that workers, especially ones in their 20s and 30s, need to be in the office more than they realize,” he said.

Rock said she agrees. Zurich fills many of its apprenticeships with young people just out of high school, and both this group and other new hires will spend significant time at headquarters, meeting with coaches and mentors to learn how the insurance industry works.

“There is a certain value to doing that in person,” she said.

Other Chicagoland firms are adopting similar strategies. Discover Financial Services decided that the first cohort of 75 hires for its new data analytics center will work at the firm’s downtown Chicago office at 350 N. Orleans St. for three days a week, according to spokesperson Matthew Towson. A new cohort of at least 75 will join the program in 2023.

Workers did return to Chicagoland offices in greater numbers over the course of this year. According to Kastle Systems, a security firm that tracks card swipes, the metro region’s office occupancy hit 42.5% on August 24, almost equal to the national average and up from 27.1% in January.

But large-scale use of remote working seems likely to continue for a long time at firms such as Discover.

“The company overall continues to employ a hybrid work model where employees have the option to work fully remote or in the office,” Towson said. “This applies to new hires as well who are not part of the (new data analytics) program.”

Working at home, with all the conveniences and comforts, is just too alluring to give up, said Desmond Lathan, a property manager and leasing agent who runs a four-person team for Chicago’s Fulton Grace Realty.

“Prior to the pandemic, I was in the office every day, but it’s changed the way I look at going to the office,” Lathan said. “I’ve run my business from my home for two years now, and I’ve found that people are equally productive at home.”

Lathan said moving into Optima Lakeview, a seven-story apartment complex that opened earlier this year in the Lakeview neighborhood, made working at home even easier. Like an increasing number of apartment developers, Optima provides its residents, many of whom work from home, with high-tech conference rooms and a business center, among many other amenities.

“When it’s time for our weekly meeting, I’m saying: Where do I want to be, in my office, in my home or in Optima’s conference center?” Lathan said. “Everybody has choices now.”

Other large corporations claim they’re also all-in when it comes to mixing remote and in-office work.

“We know that the workplace has changed as a result of the global pandemic and we see a flexible hybrid work schedule as the future and new normal for Groupon,” said Nicholas Halliwell, spokesman for the Chicago-based daily deal company, which has about 800 Illinois-based employees and still occupies office space at 600 W. Chicago Ave. on the Near North Side.

“While it’s still early, many Grouponers have favored a remote working environment, although some are also adopting a hybrid approach,” he added. “We’ve also made the decision to open up most of our open U.S.-based roles to remote work, which is showing some promising, early returns in our efforts to recruit the best, diverse talent.”

Even companies committed to bringing people to the office almost every day recognize the need for some remote work. About 60 people work at the South Loop headquarters of James McHugh Construction Co., and other than during the initial COVID-19 emergency in early 2020, most are in the office every weekday, according to company President Michael Meagher, largely to show solidarity with their construction workforce, which is in the field on job sites.

“Our office culture is that we’re here to support the field,” Meagher said. “And it’s hard for us to support them effectively and then turn around and say, ‘we can work wherever we like.’”

The company does allow a limited amount of remote working, but typically it’s just one day per week.

“We think we needed to do that to be more competitive in the marketplace,” Meagher said.

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CHICAGO — Optima Inc. has topped off Optima Lakeview, a 198-unit luxury apartment project in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. The seven-story, transit-oriented development includes 14,000 square feet of street-level retail space. First move-ins are scheduled for spring 2022. Work on the project, which is situated on the site of a former Treasure Island grocery store, began five months ago. Optima is serving as both architect and general contractor.

Optima Lakeview will feature 40,000 square feet of amenities, including a rooftop sky deck, indoor basketball court, golf simulator, fitness center, yoga room, sports lounge, dog park, game room, demonstration kitchen, business center and two conference rooms. Units will feature keyless entry and smart thermostat and lighting. Optima says the units are significantly larger than what’s currently available in the market in order to accommodate dedicated space for a home office with the rise of the work-from-home model.

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LEASES

Optima launched pre-leasing for its 198-unit Optima Lakeview rental apartment building, a transit-oriented development that includes 14K SF of street-level retail at 3478 North Broadway St., just blocks from Wrigley Field in Chicago’s Lakeview neighborhood. First move-ins are scheduled for April. Designed by Optima’s David Hovey Sr. and built by Optima’s in-house construction team, Optima Lakeview offers one-, two- and three-bedroom floor plans. It also features 40K SF of amenities across the building, including a sky deck.

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