Why Optima Residents Choose to Rent

Choosing where to live is choosing how to live. What makes a home feel like home is being redefined. Ownership isn’t the only way to put down roots anymore, and for a growing number of residents, it isn’t the preferred way either. An Optima community offers something different, a way of living that feels complete on its own terms.

The reasons are layered, but they share a common thread: residents are choosing freedom without compromising on quality, design, or community.

A Lifestyle Designed Around You

Optima has spent more than four decades refining what residential living can be. Each community is developed, designed, constructed, and managed in-house, which means every detail, from the architecture down to the resident events, reflects a singular vision.

That vision spans two regions and six distinctive communities. In Chicago and the North Shore, residents find Optima Signature in Streeterville, Optima Lakeview in the heart of Lakeview East, and Optima Verdana in downtown Wilmette. In Scottsdale, Optima Sonoran Village anchors the Old Town neighborhood, while Optima Kierland and the newest community, Optima McDowell Mountain, define modern living in North Scottsdale. Across every location, design, service, and lifestyle are inseparable.

For residents, the result is simple: homes that are well designed and easy to live in. Floor-to-ceiling windows, open floor plans, signature vertical landscaping, quality appliances, and thoughtful finishes are part of every home.

Amenities That Make a Home Feel Limitless

One of the clearest reasons residents choose to rent at Optima is what waits just beyond the front door. Resort-style amenities turn the building itself into an extension of home, and each community brings its own distinct character to the experience.

At Optima Signature, the 57-story tower in Streeterville offers four full floors of amenities, including indoor and outdoor heated pools, a basketball court, and co-working suites, plus indoor access to Whole Foods. At Optima Lakeview, a rooftop sky deck delivers panoramic city views alongside a heated pool and spa, BBQs, fire pits, and a glass-enclosed party room. At Optima Verdana on Chicago’s North Shore, lush vertical landscaping wraps a rooftop Sky Deck and residents’ club designed around a hospitality-infused quality of life.

In Arizona, Optima Sonoran Village stretches across more than five acres of landscaped gardens, terraces, and courtyards, with two outdoor pools, a 19,000-square-foot fitness center, and indoor basketball and pickleball courts. Optima Kierland raises the bar with an Olympic-length rooftop pool, an outdoor pickleball arena, an indoor golf simulator, and a rooftop running track. And at Optima McDowell Mountain, the 8-story towers frames sweeping views of the McDowell Mountains, Pinnacle Peak, and Camelback, surrounded by world-class wellness amenities, rooftop sky decks, and an indoor/outdoor fitness center.

At Optima, amenities aren’t an afterthought. They’re part of the original design, shaping communities where residents can swim, train, gather, host, and recharge without ever leaving home.

Service That Returns Your Time

The other side of renting at an Optima community is what residents don’t have to do. There are no roof repairs to schedule, no landscapers to manage, no appliances to replace. In their place is a layer of service designed to give time back: on-site maintenance, in-home package delivery, housekeeping, dry cleaning, grocery delivery, and a 24/7 concierge.

It’s a model rooted in hospitality. Many residents describe the experience less like an apartment and more like living inside a private resort, one that happens to be in the heart of Chicago, the North Shore, Old Town Scottsdale or North Scottsdale.

Community Without Obligation

There’s also something to be said for the sense of community that forms inside an Optima property. On-site resident coordinators curate events, clubs, and gatherings, from book clubs and kid’s clubs to cocktail evenings on the sky deck, guided hikes, and cooking demonstrations, turning everyday encounters into real friendships. Residents can engage as much or as little as they like. The community is there when you want it, and your private residence is there when you don’t.

The Freedom Factor

Underneath all of this is the simplest and most powerful reason residents choose to rent: flexibility. The ability to move with a career, a season of life, or a change of scenery, between Streeterville, Lakeview, Wilmette, Old Town Scottsdale, Kierland, and North Scottsdale, without the friction that comes with owning a home.

A Different Definition of Home

Choosing to rent at Optima is choosing a life that’s been thoughtfully designed on every level: the building, the amenities, the service, the community, and the freedom to live the way you want to live. It’s not about renting instead of owning. It’s about living more, with less holding you back.

That’s what makes Optima feel like home. Visit a community and experience the difference firsthand.