One Burton
“If you love what you do, it never feels like work.” Jason Algaze grew up surrounded by creativity. His mother was an interior decorator, and his grandfather, a civil engineer, built apartment buildings in Brooklyn and Queens. From a young age, Jason was drawn to both the artistry and structure of making things. “I was definitely a very creative kid,” he recalls. “I did a lot of art, but I was also always in that extra class during lunch building bridges or robots. I was obsessed with Legos.” Years later, that creative foundation would lead him - together with his business partner, Daniel Rudofsky - to form Abstract Group, the development company behind One Burton, a stunning new apartment building in South Salt Lake.
By high school, Jason's fascination had shifted toward spaces people could experience, particularly the emerging boutique hotel scene. Ian Schrager became his idol. “It brought together all the creativity in my head and made it tangible,” he says. “Half of me probably should have been an architect.” At the University of Miami, however, Jason majored in finance and marketing - skills he would later draw on constantly - before landing a job in New York with Credit Suisse’s real estate finance group. Suddenly, he was working on multi-million and billion-dollar projects: Las Vegas hotels, luxury condos in Miami, Los Angeles, and New York, even properties in South America. “It was the finance side, which I didn’t love, but it gave me a front-row seat to how big projects actually get built,” he says. The job also cemented a tireless work ethic shaped by “all-nighters” and the relentless pace of investment banking.
When the 2008 financial crisis hit, Jason enrolled in NYU’s master’s program in real estate development and took a position with a small private equity firm acquiring distressed properties nationwide. He traveled constantly, taking over half-finished subdivisions, run-down hotels, and other neglected assets. It was here he learned how critical local expertise is to any project. “No matter where you are, you need boots on the ground,” he says.
After a short stint raising capital for large international projects - including the Four Seasons in Milan - Jason joined Property Markets Group (PMG) in 2011. Over the next eight years, he worked on some of the most celebrated residential developments in the country: the Art Deco restoration of Walker Tower in Chelsea, the record-breaking 111 West 57th Street built behind historic Steinway Hall, and a forty-story tower in Long Island City he helped bring from bare land to completion. At PMG, he learned the value of integrating construction and operations teams into the design phase to create efficient, livable buildings. “It takes 200 really smart people to bring a vision to life,” he says, “and you need them in the room from the start.”
By 2019, Jason was ready to branch out. Around that time, he reconnected with Daniel Rudofsky, whose father Barry ran a large New York real estate portfolio. Daniel remembers, “Our sisters were friends from kindergarten. Our families were close for decades, but we were never in the same circles. When we finally sat down to talk business, it just clicked.”
Daniel had built a career of his own, graduating from NYU Law School and working in both law and politics. “I was ready for something new,” he says. Changes to New York’s rent laws had limited his family’s traditional real estate business, and he was looking for ways to diversify. Jason’s track record and creative vision for ground-up development appealed to him. “He could see a project from dirt to delivery, and I knew I could help navigate the legal, political, and city-relationship side,” Daniel says. “It was a natural balance of strengths.”
They formed Abstract Group, with Jason at the helm of development and Daniel focusing on the broader strategic and civic landscape. “We’re very different,” Jason says. “I’m the creative and development side. He’s the legal, political, and city-relationship side. Where I’m short, he’s strong, and vice versa. That’s what makes it work.”
Initially, Daniel and Jason explored New York, Florida, and Philadelphia. But when the pandemic hit, Jason - now a new father - saw an opening in Salt Lake City. He had already been watching the market for its growth, quality of life, and under-the-radar potential. Stuck in his family's upstate New York home, he scheduled dozens of Zoom calls a week with Utah brokers, architects, contractors, and consultants. “It actually expedited our ability to get into the market,” he says.
By early 2021, Daniel and Jason had assembled a one-and-a-quarter-acre site in South Salt Lake, combining parcels from multiple owners, including a billboard company that retained its sign. Jason knew instantly what he wanted to build a mid-century modern–inspired apartment building with clean geometric lines, a dramatic entrance, and views of the mountains that would forever remain unobstructed. He arrived at his architect’s office with a seventy-page mood board - angles, entrances, and furniture references from Charles and Ray Eames to George Nelson. The two men brought in local architecture firm Arch Nexus. “They did a fantastic job,” Daniel said, noting the building’s most distinctive exterior feature, the porte cochère. “The city gave us a hard time about it, but now it’s our favorite part. It gives you that high-end hotel feel when you pull in.”
The result, One Burton, opened in May 2025. The 180-unit building offers twenty-four unique floor plans, eighty-five percent with outdoor space. Oversized entry closets double as urban mudrooms; built-in workspaces reflect post-Covid living; and large-format Calacatta-look shower panels bring an elegant touch without breaking the budget. Amenities include a co-working space, fitness center, and an art gallery featuring rotating works on Samsung Frame TVs. “I wanted it to be a place people stay, renewing their lease each year” Jason says, “somewhere that feels like home.”
Daniel loves how that vision translated into reality. “When you walk into the lobby, you immediately feel the openness and light. The courtyard is the heart. It is where people will bump into each other, connect, and still have their own private space when they want it.” He points out how the building’s design creates both energy and calm. “We didn’t want it to feel cookie-cutter. Every floor plan, every view, feels intentional.”
With a second child on the way, Jason is considering a move to Utah. His five-year-old son Elias already loves the building, racing through its hallways and proudly pointing out his own artwork on the walls. For Jason, One Burton is more than his first Utah project. It is a statement of what Abstract Group can bring to the market: financially sound, thoughtfully designed buildings that stand out.
“I understand the reality of what it takes to get these things done,” Jason says, “but I also want to bring something fresh - something that hasn’t been done here before.”
