CHICAGO — On a prime piece of property in the heart of Lincoln Park, Jessica Kirsch, 19, has moved into new DePaul University housing.

Just don't call it a dorm.

"It's not a dorm," said Kirsch, a junior. "There is more freedom here."

Kirsch is living in a new residential building with condo-like units, a real lobby and retail shops on the first floor. It cost $73 million to build but didn't require any investment from DePaul.

The building, Loft-Right, was built by Smithfield Properties and is part of a trend that some are touting as the next hot real estate specialty: the use of outside developers and investors to provide university housing.

Developer interest is being piqued at a time when a large percentage of the 80 million "echo boomers" — children born between 1982 and 1995 to baby boomers — are opting to attend college. And they have different tastes than previous generations, who accepted the dorm's classic Spartan style.

Many 18-year-olds today have never shared a bedroom, barely shared a bathroom and are accustomed to high-quality cable TV and Internet access.

Moreover, the cost of building student housing has risen, leading more universities to look for partnerships with private developers. At the same time, developers are looking to hedge their reliance on the condo market.

About 10 percent of the current 350 university housing projects nationwide include private developers, "and that clearly is up from previous years," said Norbert Dunkel, vice president of the Association of College and University Housing Officers International, based in Columbus, Ohio. Real estate investment trusts including GMH Communities Trust, American Campus Communities and Education Realty Trust have sprung up in recent years to meet the new demand.

Others are jumping into the category. Among them is Chicago-based Harrison Street Real Estate Capital, which recently announced it has $75 million in equity commitments for its first fund targeting student housing and other ventures.

The trend is taking place both in cities like Chicago and in traditional college towns, such as Bloomington, Ill., and Urbana, Ill. A big driver is the idea that private developers know more about how to cater to young people today and can provide housing more cost-effectively than many colleges and universities.

There is also a widespread feeling that dorms are cramped and lack privacy, so many students can't wait to move out.

Anna Allen of Elkhart, Ind., chose Columbia College in downtown Chicago over two Indiana schools in part because some freshmen are housed in an apartment building for which the school has a master lease.

"Their dorms were kind of nasty," said Allen, 19, of the Indiana schools. "The floors weren't carpeted and the students all shared a bathroom down at the end of the hall."

At Columbia, Allen and three roommates share a two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment with a kitchen and view of Lake Michigan.

"It is very difficult beyond the freshman year for people to share a bedroom," said Robert Bronstein, president and founder of the Scion Group, which collaborated with Smithfield on Loft-Right.

At Loft-Right, the aim is to provide features of a traditional dorm along with the freedom and amenities of a big-city apartment.

Retail shops are on the first floor, as well as a building lobby. There is also a laundry room and indoor parking for more than 60 cars.

Eighty percent of the units in the building are 1,100-square-foot, four-bedroom, two-bathroom furnished suites.

The bedrooms open to a common area and a full kitchen, a configuration that resembles a stripped-down version of a starter condo.

The rent for each bed is $1,045 a month, including utilities, which means about $4,200 monthly for each four-bedroom suite. Contracts are on a 12-month basis. Rents run $1,550 a bed in smaller units with more privacy and a view of the city skyline.

The rates are about 10 percent or 15 percent higher than for an old-fashioned dorm room, but Bronstein said it is a premium many baby boomers are willing to pay for their kids.