Over the past two decades, the West Loop, an industrial area in Chicago just west of the downtown Loop, has gradually shifted from meatpacking operations, commercial storage and food distribution to loft residences and restaurants. Its low-rise brick warehouses with unobstructed views of the downtown skyline were seen as attractive and affordable for restaurants and residents willing to put up with truck traffic from wholesalers. But in the past year, the area has rapidly developed as not just a place to taxi in for a trendy meal, but to stay a while.

Last summer, the West Loop got its first boutique hotel, Soho House Chicago (sohohousechicago.com), catering to artistic types working and networking in the area. The stylish 42-room building houses two restaurants open to the public, but most of the five-story former factory, including a rooftop pool, deluxe gym with a boxing ring and private lounge, is reserved for hotel guests and club members (the London chain restricts membership to those in “creative” fields).

“We loved the fact that you could sit on that roof and see the entire beautiful skyline and you can’t see it in the Loop,” said Nick Jones, the founder and managing director of Soho House, of which there are 14 outposts.