H&M Opens Today at Roosevelt Collection Marking a Major Milestone for the Beleaguered Development

H&M is the first retail tenant
to open at Roosevelt Collection

Today at noon a major milestone will be reached for the beleaguered Roosevelt Collection development - H&M, the first retail tenant, will officially open up shop.  In honor of the opening, they're running some cool promotions (via Chicago Magazine).  But in our mind that isn't the real story.  The stor

Yes, Kerasotes Movie Theater has been open since December 2009, and while this has been a great addition to the neighborhood the massive amount of empty retail at the development has been a head scratcher.

So how did we get here.

While Centrum Properties dreamed up Roosevelt Collection, their timing (like many others) was bad as it coincided with the housing bubble that decimated the world economy.

This left the door open for other investors to sweep in and infuse some new blood into the ambitious development.  Enter McCaffery Interests.

In Q1 of 2011, word came out that Roosevelt Collection was sold to a group of investors lead by Dan McCaffery.  The move was encouraging given their experience in similar large scale developments.

While news coming out was all rosy initially, things were still relatively slow moving.  McCaffery even had a bold goal stating that he wanted to have 75% of the vacant retail space leased and opened by November 1st, 2012.

That didn't happen, but setting goals are critical for success in business.  In late November of 2012, Roosevelt Collection threw an announcement party for a variety of retail tenants that had signed leases.

Haberdash at 607 N. State in River North

While we're unsure what the total leased space percentage is now, momentum is clearly building for the development.  Beyond the stores that were announced late last year, a new wave of retailers have been announced including Bridgeport Coffee Company, Bevello and according to a post last week on the blog Racked Chicago, the popular men's store Haberdash has leased 4,000 square feet.

Rumors still tantalize Sloopers about a potential Apple store coming to the development.  And other developers are bringing big box stores to the Roosevelt shopping corridor (see The Maxwell at Clinton and Roosevelt).

But first things first - it's July 3rd, 2013 and today is a big step for the South Loop's most prominent retail development.

Congrats to the McCaffery team and welcome to the Sloop H&M!

So what do you think?  What is the current state of the South Loop's retail scene?  What does the future hold?

(Hat tip:  NM & CC!)