From the December issue: New York City is known for its sky-high rents. But lately, tales of Brooklyn’s hot rental market have become as numerous as the 20-somethings flooding into the borough.

Two Trees recently finished leasing up its 103-unit rental at 25 Washington Street in Dumbo, where all 80 of the market-rate units were rented in four months at prices of roughly $50 per square foot, according to company vice president Jed Walentas. At JMH Development’s 184 Kent Avenue, a Williamsburg warehouse converted into a 340-unit rental building, leasing was completed within 10 months, according to Jason Halpern, managing partner at JMH. Now, with some of those leases starting to turn over, interest in the building is stronger than ever — so strong that the rental office inked eight new leases and fielded 25 walk-in inquiries during one week last month, Halpern said. [more]

From left: City Council Speaker Christine Quinn (credit Jonathan Fickies); Jed Walentas, vice president of Two Trees Management, (credit Jonathan Fickies); and a rendering of the hotel at 80 Wythe Avenue

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn gave the keynote address at the Brooklyn Real Estate Roundtable’s fifth anniversary luncheon today, but Jed Walentas, vice president at Two Trees, stole the show.

The casually dressed 30-something, son of pioneering Dumbo developer David Walentas, entertained the crowd of some 100 real estate professionals with updates on Two Trees’ projects, punctuated with candid one- liners that drew laughs from the audience.

For example, Walentas said he decided to undertake Two Trees’ new Williamsburg hotel project “to have a new experience and do something fun.”

He added: “To be honest, I have no idea how the economics are going to work out.”
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From left at the Brooklyn Real Estate Summit: Tim King of CPEX, Joe Chan of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Michael Phillips of Jamestown; Michael Zazza of the Zazza Development Group and Susan Pollock of CPC Resources

Though the price disparity in their residential markets may be narrowing,
Brooklyn still lags far behind Manhattan in the number of big national
retailers. That was a major discussion point at the 2011 Brooklyn Real
Estate Summit held yesterday at St. Francis College in Downtown
Brooklyn. Not coincidentally, commercial real estate veterans pointed
to the very neighborhood where the conference took place, Downtown
Brooklyn, as crucial to landing those retailers.

“Brooklyn is too spread out to achieve national retailers in every business
district in the borough,” said Michael Phillips, managing director at
real estate investor Jamestown, which has stakes in Be@Schermerhorn in Downtown Brooklyn and four Manhattan buildings. But, by trumpeting Downtown Brooklyn, where retail traffic is already evident, Brooklyn
can lure the big-box national retailer willing to be a pioneer. [more]

Brooklyn-based real estate development firm Two-Trees Management has provided a 6,440-square-foot space at a highly subsidized rate for a new city-sponsored business incubator to support the development of technology start-ups in Dumbo, the city said today. The incubator, located at 20 Jay Street — one block from Brooklyn Bridge Park — is designed to accommodate technology entrepreneurs in New York City over the next three years.

Seth Pinsky, president of New York City Economic Development Corp., announced the plan this morning during an Internet Week NY panel on the city’s “Digital Corridors.” EDC has provided a $250,000 grant for the incubator as part of a major Bloomberg administration effort to encourage entrepreneurship. TRD [more]

For months, brokers have been describing the Manhattan luxury rental market as white-hot, and here’s further evidence: the 222-unit first phase of Two Trees Management’s new Mercedes House, which hit the market less than three weeks ago, is already 50 percent spoken for.

The 29-story building at 555 West 53rd Street, named after the 330,000-square-foot Mercedes-Benz showroom at its base, was designed by starchitect Enrique Norten and is priced from $2,200 per month.

Among the draws: floor-to-ceiling windows, views of the Hudson River, on-site parking and amenity menu that includes a health club, boxing ring, golf simulator, basketball and volleyball courts and both indoor and outdoor swimming pools. TRD [more]

Two Trees Management has signed a deal with the city’s School Construction Authority to build a 300-seat middle school within its planned Dock Street residential tower, moving ahead a project that’s drawn criticism from the likes of actress Helen Hunt, historian David McCullough and director Ken Burns. According to the Brooklyn Paper, Two Trees, which is run by father-and-son development team David and Jed Walentas, has agreed to pony up the construction costs for the middle school. The facility will be on the Dock Street side of their future 17-story building and is slated for completion in time for the 2014 school year. 1 Comment

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The group suing to block the planned transfer of Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Tobacco Warehouse to a private theater troupe are armed with a set of e-mails that reveal close ties between the theater group, Dumbo’s Walentas family and park president Regina Myer, according to the Daily News. In one exchange, Susan Feldman, artistic director of St. Ann’s Warehouse, which was ultimately picked to head a $15 million redevelopment project at the vacant site, apparently wrote to Myer: “I always come out of our meetings feeling a kinship with you and what you are trying to do in the park. I hope we can be a part of it.” She added: “I’m leaving two tickets for you tonight.” [more]

Dumbo developer Jed Walentas ran into some hot water this morning when the Brooklyn Paper published a year-old e-mail exchange in which his language sounds somewhat less than politically correct. “The opposition is clearly panicked and turned out 75 or so folks,” he wrote to Brooklyn Bridge Park President Regina Myer, recapping a public hearing on his controversial Dock Street project, set to include residences and a public middle school. Fort Greene Council member Tish James and Marty Markowitz “agreed to not turn out dozens from the projects and make it a total racial mess… I got very good vibes from Marty and his staff,” he added. [more]

In a sign that the credit markets are loosening, two developers have secured $135 million of state-backed construction loans, Crain’s reported. Two Trees Management has closed on a $77 million loan to finance its Clinton Park residential and commercial project at 770 Eleventh Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen, the Brooklyn-based company’s first development in Manhattan, and its largest, at 1.2 million square feet. Landlords Savanna and Monday Properties closed a $58 million loan from private investor PCCP to fund a renovation at 386 Park Avenue South, a 20-story art deco office building in Midtown South. [more]

David Walentas

Dumbo development kingpins David and Jed Walentas are on track to restart their stalled, 73-room hotel project in Williamsburg if the city approves the designation of $15 million in federal stimulus funding towards the “shovel-ready” project today, according to the Brooklyn Paper. The boutique hotel, on Wythe Avenue and North 11th Street, would be borne of a renovation of a five-story former textile factory. In 2008, the city rejected the Walentases’ $3.6 million plan for the building, which would have doubled its height. But today, their Two Trees Management is among three developers awaiting a decision from the city about who will receive funding, and how much. It wouldn’t be the only new luxury hotel in the transforming Northside area of Williamsburg, once filled with factories and row houses, as another is slated to open next year. Two Trees says the project will create 75 construction jobs and 195 permanent jobs, though the city pegs the estimate as significantly lower. [Brooklyn Paper]

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