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DAVID AXELROD was chief strategist for Obama’s campaign.
Family: Wife Susan Axelrod, president and founder of the nonprofit Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy. He has three grown children.
Current Address: Chicago’s Lake Point Tower. This 70-floor luxury condo building is the only residential property east of Lake Shore Drive, a north/south highway along Lake Michigan. Real estate agent Jean Ward has lived in Lake Point Tower for 10 years. Ward also has had the distinction of serving as a pet-sitter for the Axelrods (one cat, no dogs, she reports). They’re “very nice, down-to-earth people” who’ve lived in the building for a while-“probably at least 10 years,” she says. The high-rise is a “complete full-service building,” according to real estate agent Mary MacDiarmid with Prudential Preferred Properties, who currently has one listing in the building. “Two doormen on at all times. There’s a grocery store in the building. A dry cleaners. A garage-spots in the garage sell for anywhere between $70,000 and $100,000. Sammy Sosa used to have four units combined. There’s a restaurant on the top floor called Cite. There’s a fabulous workout facility. Indoor pool. Outdoor pool. Two-and-a-half acre park. There’s also retail in the building. A pilates studio. A dentist. A massage therapist. A couple of businesses.” Any more celebrities? “Rumor has it Tom Cruise was in there.”
And the selection…
22 West: The Residences, 1177 22nd St. NW
Neighborhood: West End
Price Tag: Units range from the mid-$800,000s to $3.8 million
Why: If Axelrod comes to D.C., he’ll likely spend much of Obama’s first year working on the economy. Lucky for him, 22 West is just a 10- to 15-minute jaunt from the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, should Axelrod want to stroll down at 2 a.m. to make sure employees are working through the night. (The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are also close by.) This building has more amenities than most in D.C. OK, so it’s no Lake Point Tower. But Eric Ripert’s D.C. outpost, Westend Bistro, is across the street, and the White House is a few blocks away. Plus, the longtime Chicagoan will likely appreciate how many steakhouses are in the area: Smith & Wollensky, Morton’s, BLT Steak, and Bobby Van’s are all within walking distance. And if Axelrod ever needs a reminder of the pitfalls of over-strategizing, he can just walk down New Hampshire Avenue until it hits Virginia Avenue. Right across the street is the Watergate.
Top photo by NewsHour. Lower photo by Darrow Montgomery.