Roll on Columbia
JDL builds new homes, neighborhood in prime pocket by Dan Schuyler

For more than a half century, the intersection of North Paulina Street and West Diversey Parkway marked the center of a bustling industrial neighborhood, complete with drab rectangular buildings and trucks clogging the streets as they backed in and out of loading docks.

The area still bustles, but now the trucks carry construction materials, and soon they will disappear altogether. This one-time hub of industry is being transformed, almost overnight, into an upscale residential community. JDL Development’s Columbia Place is leading the way.

JDL Development was founded in 1994 by its president, Jim Letchinger, with the vision of eliminating the stress and frustration that often accompany the purchase of a new home. “I wanted to make buying a new home a fun, enjoyable experience,” Letchinger says. As a result, he says, customer satisfaction and happiness have always been the top priorities at JDL.

Letchinger’s company began with smaller residential projects, but as its reputation grew, so did the size of its developments. And now, with the development of Columbia Place, JDL has reached a level that many developers never achieve.

“Columbia Place is large enough to create what I think of as critical mass,” says Letchinger. “It is literally changing a neighborhood from old worn-out industrial to new upscale residential.”

Named for one of the businesses that occupied the area for many years, Columbia Place has two distinct components that straddle two of Chicago’s most popular neighborhoods. The “South Homes” consist of 32 rowhomes on the west side of the 2600 block of North Paulina, just south of Diversey, in West DePaul. The “North Homes” are 48 townhomes and 16 duplexes on the west side of the 2900 block of North Paulina, just north of Diversey, in Lakeview.

“We did a lot of the conceptual designing of Columbia Place ourselves,” Letchinger says. “We incorporated a number of suggestions which came up at the extensive rezoning meetings, and when we are finished we will have created a true Chicago-style residential neighborhood that looks like it belongs.”

Designed by architects Pappageorge Haymes, the 32 rowhomes that comprise the South Homes contain two stories plus a lower level. The homes have traditional brick and limestone façades, gated front and back yards and two-car garages in the rear. The South Homes are built as five separate buildings, and the front facades are differentiated by color, window design and recessed corners.

All of the South Homes have a bedroom, bath and recreation room on the lower level, living quarters and a half-bath on the first floor, and three bedrooms and three baths on the top floor. They have 3,600 to 4,400 square feet and prices starting at $819,000. Delivery is scheduled for spring of 2005, and at press time, about 50 percent of the units had been sold.

The North Homes’ 48 townhouses and 16 duplexes form a quadrangle bounded on three sides by George, Paulina and Hermitage. The duplexes are located on the Hermitage Avenue side, while the townhouses form the rest of the quadrangle, with some in the center of the courtyard.

“The townhomes facing Paulina are really the front door of Columbia Place,” says Steve Rezabek, one of the project architects. “They are broken up into three buildings with passageways to the courtyard in between, and although they have a very traditional brick and limestone façade, we gave them a more formal appearance by using lots of glass in the front bays and creating a pergola effect that extends above the mansard roofs.”

Most of the duplexes have one or two bedrooms and 1,650 to 2,400 square feet, priced from the $530s. The townhomes typically have three bedrooms and 2,400 to 3,400 square feet, with prices starting in the $590s. All of the North Homes have attached garages.

At press time, the North Homes were 75 percent sold, with delivery scheduled to start in May and continue through the end of the year.

Both the South and North Homes include gourmet Jenn-Air stainless steel appliances, granite counters and maple, alder or oak cabinets. Living areas have red oak flooring, fireplaces with stone hearths and eight- to ten- foot ceiling heights. Master baths include marble counters and tile and oversized showers and soaking tubs.

In addition to the homes’ yards and private wood decks or terraces, buyers at Columbia Place will have easy access to outdoor space at a new two-acre city park, which is being constructed just southwest of the North Homes on Hermitage Avenue.

“I’m proud to say we dedicated a part of the land for the new park,” Letchinger says. “It really puts a nice finishing touch on this newly created community.”

And directly north of the new park, JDL is involved in a custom single-family home development. Located on a private cul-de-sac with heated driveways, these homes are priced from $1.9 million.

The JDL sales center for Columbia Place, www.jdlcorp.com, is located at 2640 N. Paulina.