BRIDGEPORT
FROM $439,900
TO $499,900

At Lexington Square, a townhouse development at 3704 South Sangamon Street, a safety feature required by city code turned out to have a hidden benefit. Thanks to the deep setbacks that were needed to provide emergency exits from the rooftop decks, about 80 percent of the 39 townhouses will have windows on three sides (rather than just on the front and back). “That really pays off in the feeling you get when you’re inside,” says Jeff Benach, a co-principal of the developer, Lexington Homes.

The windows contribute to a comfortable layout that includes a large combined living and dining room, a big kitchen, three bedrooms, two-plus baths, a balcony, and a two-car garage. The townhouses come in three sizes, starting with a 2,250-square-foot model priced at $439,900, and topping out at 2,560-square-foot homes priced at $499,900. At presstime, one of the ten completed townhouses had been sold. Benach intends to complete all 39 homes, though it will likely take two or three years. “In 2005 or 2006,” he says, “we would have thought of this as a one-year project.”

Photograph: Lexington Homes