Conditional reference in Visual Studio Community 2017

If MsBuild is taking into account only your first <Choose/> or condition then you'd want to do this:

 <Choose>
    <When Condition="'$(Configuration)'=='Debug'">
      <ItemGroup>
        <ProjectReference Include="..\path\to_your_project.csproj" />
      </ItemGroup>
    </When>
    <Otherwise>
      <ItemGroup>
        <PackageReference Include="Package-Name" Version="1.0.0"/>
      </ItemGroup>
    </Otherwise>
  </Choose>

Visual Studio ignores the condition in these cases. Use a Choose/When instead, that should be fully supported: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms164282.aspx

<Choose> 
  <When Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == 'netstandard2.0' ">
    <ItemGroup>
      <PackageReference Include="CommandLine.DotNetStandard">
        <Version>1.0.3</Version>
      </PackageReference>
    </ItemGroup>
  </When>
  <When Condition=" '$(TargetFramework)' == 'net45' ">
    <ItemGroup> 
      <PackageReference Include="CommandLineParser">
        <Version>1.9.71</Version>
      </PackageReference>
    </ItemGroup>
  </When>
</Choose>