a chicago real estate success story
With backgrounds in real estate sales, brothers Charles and Harry Huzenis established Jameson Realty Group in 1982 as a small real estate firm specializing in Chicago's neighborhoods. Today, Jameson has grown into one of Chicago's most prestigious and successful full-service real estate firms. We have overseen more than $5 billion in sales and have become a respected leader in Chicago residential sales, commercial sales and leasing as well as representing developers in a wide range of new developments, new construction and conversion projects.
With our founders continuing to provide inspiration, expertise and support, Jameson enjoys a well-earned reputation for being proactive and down-to-earth, and for continually exhibiting the traditional Chicago values of hard work, honesty and professionalism. As Jameson Realty Group embodies Charley and Harry's vision of the American dream, every Jameson professional takes pride in helping our clients realize their own personal American dreams of property ownership.
please see the article below, reprinted from the
February, 2003 issue of JUF News.
To say that Charles and Harry Huzenis pulled themselves up by their bootstraps is a major understatement. From a young age, the boys faced seemingly insurmountable challenges, yet they always worked hard and rose above their circumstances. Today, their success is as much a testament to the human spirit as it is to the Jewish Children's Bureau (JCB), which sheltered and cared for them during their formative years.
Their remarkable story is rooted in the horrors of the Holocaust. Their Polish-born father, Jacob, was the sole survivor in his family - he had been one of 13 children. A mechanic by profession, he was sent to Auschwitz, where his ability to repair things kept him alive. Their Austrian-born mother, Babette, experienced the brunt of the SS force early in childhood; eventually, she and her family were driven from their home. They spent the duration of the war in Shanghai, China.
In 1952, Jacob and Babette met in Sweden. He was a merchant seaman trying to eke out a living; she was a displaced person trying to rebuild her life. Shortly after their wedding, they were sponsored to come to Chicago, where they scraped together the funds to buy a small garage.
Their struggle to care for a growing family was compounded by the severe physical and mental handicaps that plagued three of their six children. Babette was unable to cope. In 1960, Harry and Charles came under the auspices of juvenile court for truancy problems, and social services quickly stepped in and dispersed all of the children to various group or foster homes.
Charles and Harry spent two weeks in the Audi Home, a juvenile detention center, before being placed in the Freund Unit of the Jewish Children's Bureau, which was home to 25 boys. Charles was 10; Harry was 9. "We lived there for about nine years," recalls Harry. "Despite the coming and going of staff and other kids, it was the most stable time in our lives."
Adds Charles, "At first, the home felt foreign; it was a new era of social work and a new way of taking care of children, but the counselors were great role models and really good people. Many of them were college or graduate students who were pursuing social work degrees, and they taught us a lot of people skills and how to deal with difficult situations." Both Harry and Charles still keep in touch with a couple of the counselors, whom they credit as "very responsible for our success."
At age 18, each of the boys left the home and began attending community college. Harry later graduated from Roosevelt University and Charles from Northern Illinois University. After graduating in the late 1970's, they and some friends bought a music bar and went into the saloon business. On the side they dabbled in real estate, purchasing and refurbishing 3-flats in "pioneering neighborhoods" such as Bucktown.
Today, Harry and Charles have achieved considerable success in the real estate arena and both are husbands and fathers. Harry is married to Stacey and the father of Madeline, Olivia and Eleanor; Charles is married to Deirdre and the father of Audrey and Jacob. While they provide their own families with the stability and normalcy that they never had, they also give back to the agency that gave them so much.
"Fifteen years ago, we began giving to the JUF campaign because we felt that we had a debt to JCB and to the Federation because of the vital role they played in our lives," says Harry.
Recently, the brothers established a joint gift that will name a director's office at the Joy Faith Knapp Children's Center, which will serve as the new home for JCB's therapeutic day school and for a number of other critical programs.
"We recognize how fortunate we are and we feel privileged to be in a place where we can give back to those in need," says Charles. "Clearly, we recognize that many of the children served by JCB come from very troubled environments, and that some may be able to turn things around, despite what they have experienced at home.
"It is our hope that JCB will always have the resources to provide these children with the help they need to get going on their own, so that they in turn will be able to contribute back to society."
