Jameson Development adjusted plans for this highrise after the initial announcement in early 2003, eliminating larger units and focusing on one-bedrooms for entry-level buyers. The finishes, however, remained at a higher level than in most product aimed squarely at first-time buyers.

The 24-story highrise underway at 200 N Jefferson St is all one-bedrooms – some with dens – ranging from 623 to 1,072 square feet. In early 2004, prices ranged from the low $200s to the $370s, and in July 2005, available units were priced from the $230s to the $370s.

High standard finishes

All of the homes will have private balconies with glass doors and kitchens with slate flooring, granite counters and stainless steel appliances. The master baths are marble, and entry foyers and living rooms have hardwood floors. Most units have gas fireplaces, and every condo includes a state-of-the-art integrated data, voice and video communications system.

Building amenities include a secured lobby with a 24-hour attendant, first-floor retail, a fitness center, a community room with a kitchen, a sundeck, a receiving room, bicycle storage and individual storage lockers. Parking spots valued at $29,800 are included in the purchase price.

“Jefferson Tower offers a high-end entry-level product,” said Charles Huzenis, a partner in Jameson Development, L.L.C. “We feel that economic conditions over the past 10 years have created an ever-growing demand for this type of residence.”

Luxury starter homes

The same market conditions created these types of buyers – people who, though not millionaires and probably purchasing their first homes, want upscale dwellings, according to Huzenis. The 198-unit highrise is designed to give them that.

“We intend for the building to have a clean slick exterior with strong vertical lines,” said architect Patrick Borzenski, whose firm, Loewenberg & Associates, Inc., designed Jefferson Tower. “The columns really stand out, and they continue through the base and down to the street, creating a lean look and not the appearance of a tower plopped on a base.”

That base contains the lobby and 8,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, with a three-story heated parking garage above. Jefferson Tower is located in what Jameson calls “the Fulton River District,” a pocket bounded by the Chicago River, Kinzie, Halsted and Randolph streets, and redeveloped from old railroad and manufacturing land in the West Loop during the mid-'90s.

“You always need hooks to get a neighborhood started,” Huzenis said. “In the Fulton River District the true original anchors were the river and the East Bank Club.”

Fulton River District growth

Those “hooks” eventually turned some heads, and in 1997, Jameson, headed by Charles and his brother Harry Huzenis, developed a number of loft buildings in the area, including China Club Lofts, Clinton Street Lofts and Randolph Place. The neighborhood began to flourish as other developers followed suit with such projects as Fulton Station, RiverBend and Kinzie Park.

The Fulton River District received formal recognition in 2000 in the form of its own community organization, the Fulton River District Association, organized to support and improve a neighborhood that boasted an influx of some 4,000 residents in recent years.

A simple structure

As a new highrise, Jefferson Tower will be a part of that emerging identity.

“It’s a very simple structure,” Borzenski said. “We use lots of glass, and that gives an open airy feeling to the interiors and allows the columns to give the building a strong vertical look.”

The building will be very “street-friendly,” the architect said, with the pre-cast reddish-brown granite of the base contrasting with the lighter earth tones of the tower.

“We have pulled the building footprint off one of the corners,” Borzenski said, “and this gives something back to the pedestrians.”

The Jefferson Tower sales center is located directly across the street from the construction site, at 217 N Jefferson St, and contains a full-size contemporary model designed by Nancy Kovacevich, of Riha Design Group.

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