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'Swashbuckler' Jack Hoffman, 84, took Chicago Building Success Nationwide

Suburban Chicago namesake built first Chicago condo high-rise, homes for veterans across nation

By Nick Bajzek, Staff Writer
December 19, 2008
HousingZone

Jack Hoffman

Buz Hoffman says he likes to recall the days of when he and his father, Jack, would meet with a tight-knit group of builders who, despite being competitors, fought for issues the local home building associations didn’t have the capital or resources to fight. “They were my heroes. I called them, ‘The Swashbucklers.’ It was a different time,” recalls Buz. He adds, “Publics were one-tenth the size they are today…these guys took risks and they were almost guaranteed a recession every few years. Now it’s a different industry. But it makes me sad. With the passing of my father there just aren’t many Swashbucklers left.”

Jack Hoffman, age 84, former chairman of F&S (Father & Son) Construction Co. team that built the Illinois community that bears his name, Hoffman Estates, died Tuesday, Dec. 16.

Hoffman, who grew up on Chicago’s West Side and attended Austin High School, completed his accounting degree at the University of Illinois after returning from the Navy in 1946. He later joined his father, Sam, building homes. The pair chaired F&S (Father & Son) Construction Co. and built homes for returning veterans in Phoenix; Denver; Salt Lake City, Utah; Albuquerque, N.M.; and Chicago.

F&S started a community next to Schaumburg, Ill. Parcel A, which would become Hoffman Estates, was closely located to the expanding O'Hare Airport. The community, which first occupied just three square miles, adopted the family name, and in 1959 Hoffman Estates was born with a population of about 8,000. Hoffman later donated land to Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54, where six schools were built.

He built the first high-rise condo building in Chicago and, according to his son, Buz, was particularly passionate about building and philanthropy work in Israel. “Of course, at the time, interest rates were extremely high and you couldn’t get much money out of it. But he kept at it,” says Buz.

Hoffman became the first president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago in 1969 and was inducted in the HBA’s Court of Honor in 1988. Hoffman and his brother-in-law, Robert Rosner, ran the company in Hoffman Estates, and the company name changed to Hoffman Rosner. Hoffman sold the company and retired 1988 after building an estimated 30,000 homes, with 5,000 of them built in Hoffman Estates.

Services were held Friday, Dec. 19, at Chicago Jewish Funerals, 195 N. Buffalo Grove Rd., Buffalo Grove, Ill. 

Related links:

• Chicago Suburban Daily Herald Newspaper Article:
  "A Home Building Legend, and Hoffman Estates' Namesake"

• Village of Hoffman Estates

© 2009, Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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