Related Midwest Opens Dog Friendly Apartment Building in Chicago

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

Chicago, Ill.— Related Midwest has opened 500 Lake Shore Drive, a luxury apartment building in Chicago’s Streeterville neighborhood, which caters to dog owners and their pets. Residents can utilize the building’s Dog City, Related Midwest’s on-site pet care service that offers everything from dog walking and pet sitting to grooming services, routine vet visits and pet training.

“It’s always our goal to offer innovative amenities that line up with the priorities of our residents, and above all else make their lives a little easier and a little more enjoyable,” Curt Bailey, president of Related Midwest, tells MHN. “We know from our research just how important pets are to Chicagoans, so we created Dog City to help our residents with a variety of things around caring for their pets—whether it’s getting the dog to the groomer or finding someone to cat-sit for the weekend. Our residents really appreciate that we’ve thought about this aspect of their lives and put as much emphasis on it as they do.”

To that end, the development company set out to provide its residents with the first comprehensive, on-site pet care residential building in Chicago, so they never have to leave their building, as it’s located on the first floor of 500 Lake Shore Drive with direct access to a dog park on the east side of the building.

Membership to Dog City is included in the building’s pet fee. Dog City’s includes self-service pet grooming equipment and towel service, complimentary coordination of fee-based services, pick-up and drop-off of pets for scheduled services, and invitations to special events and seminars on dog care, diet, training, and wellness. Fee-based services include dog walking and jogging; routine veterinary care; in-home visits and pet sitting; “nanny” services for puppies; vacation care; professional dog and cat grooming; nutritional counseling and delivery of custom pet meals; and group and individual dog training.

“Since Dog City is right here in the building, it’s really a one-stop-shop for our residents’ pet-care needs,” Bailey says. “Residents don’t have to make separate calls to set up the dog walker, the groomer and the vet, and they don’t have to spend their valuable free time shuttling their pets to these appointments. Instead, they simply work with Dog City as a single point of contact to arrange those services. The staff will even pick up and drop off pets from their apartment for appointments in the Dog City facility.”

The Streeterville neighborhood is home to many dog-friendly features thanks to the lakefront and nearby Milton Lee Olive Park, which is steps away from 500 Lake Shore Drive. “Many of our residents love to let their dogs play at the beach,” Bailey says. “When they return home, they can enter the building via Dog City and use the grooming station to wash all the sand and mud off their pet before heading up to their own apartment.”

According to Bailey, Related Companies has had a lot of success with Dog City in New York, and so far the response from its renters at 500 Lake Shore Drive in Chicago has been incredibly positive, so it’s something they are considering incorporating into other properties around the country.