Like many of you, no doubt, I watched Cast Iron Lofts go up. I’d be riding the light rail, and soon there it was rising impressively on the Jersey City-Hoboken line. It seemed to suit its name. It looked solid and industrial, yet had beautiful contemporary lines. A business acquaintance had moved there, and I was dying to have a look.
Well, along come Terry and Elaine Pritikin, who moved in this spring and couldn’t be more pleased. Wait ’til you hear their back story. They certainly have a lot to compare it to.
“We’re a long way from being kids,” Terry relates. “We’ve owned eight homes and have moved all over the place.” No kidding. Here’s the rundown: Chicago; Columbus, Ohio; New Jersey; Connecticut; Miami; New York; and finally Jersey City.
The move was triggered by an imminent renovation of their West Village loft. “When it came time to remodel the kitchen and the bathrooms, with the dollars and cents and aggravation, it was stupid,” Terry says, “so we decided to let the next guy worry about it.”
Fed up with the complications of home ownership, they started looking.
Their search was wide-ranging: Long Island City, Brooklyn, Riverdale, Englewood, Edgewater, West New York, Weehawken, Hoboken, and Jersey City.
Proximity to Manhattan, an urban environment, and good bang for the buck were major considerations. They’d pretty much settled on Hoboken or Jersey City.
“We found an apartment in Jersey City, put down a deposit, and signed a lease,” Terry says. “But a week later, my wife and daughter, who’d seen Cast Iron Lofts online, went to take a look.”
They were hooked. “They said it was magnificent and wanted me to get over there immediately. A day or two later, I showed up, and the rest is history.”
So, what was so magnificent?
“The overall finishes were substantially better than most things seen in a rental,” Terry says. “The flooring, the countertops, from a design standpoint, it was outstanding. It was important to us to have an open-area kitchen. For most people, the kitchen is the center of energy, and that’s exactly what we wanted for our lifestyle.”
They have three bedrooms, a den, and three full bathrooms in an 11th-floor unit.
Terry and Elaine have separate bathrooms. “That’s really nice when you’ve been married a long time,” Terry reveals. “All my stuff is in mine, and the same for my wife; it makes for a longer marriage.”
Their long marriage has produced kids and grandkids, and accommodating them is important. Their daughter, Alicia, is there temporarily, and their son and his family visit from Los Angeles. “They can stay with us and have privacy,” Terry says
The public spaces include a nursery, party room, pool, and gym.
When I talked to Terry, the family had been living in Jersey City for only a month, not long enough to fully explore their new hometown, but they can’t wait to hit the local restaurants.
“We enjoy eating out and taking friends to new places,” Terry says. One couple they know is thinking of selling their place and moving to Jersey City.
Says Terry, “We’re in the learning and discovery phase, and it’s fun.”—Kate Rounds