With his bet on the transformation of Dumbo from a seedy industrial neighborhood to a high-end enclave, developer David Walentas is often considered a visionary. Now, those who bought condos in the neighborhood’s early years could be congratulating themselves for similar prescience.
Last month, a $7 million-plus sale at Dumbo’s One Main Street, the centerpiece of Walentas’ empire and the building he also calls home, beat out a unit at One Brooklyn Bridge Park for the most expensive condo ever sold in Brooklyn. One Main Street is one of only three condominium buildings in the borough with units in contract for amounts exceeding $4 million.
Those figures are staggering when one considers that those who bought at One Main Street in the late 1990s paid around $300 per square foot for their units. In the past four years, sales have consistently brought in more than $600 per square foot, and in several cases, more than $1,000 per square foot.
However, even the $7 million record could be shattered by the potential sale of a unit one floor up from Walentas’ own home: He is renovating a 16th-floor penthouse apartment with a value pegged at $25 to $30 million. Originally it was on the market for $4 million as raw space, but two years ago, Walentas purchased the unit for $10.75 million and began renovations.
Walentas pointed out that in the 10 years that he’s lived in the building, “property values have doubled and tripled.” He said the penthouse on the 14th floor that sold for $7 million was originally purchased for $2 million by husband-and-wife Bliss Spa founders Thierry Boué and Marcia Kilgore, although the amount is not officially recorded.
The 14th-floor condo, which showed signs of heavy wear and tear on a recent tour, will be gutted by the new owners, “two gentlemen working in the finance industry,” said Sotheby’s International Realty broker Karen Heyman.
The 3,100-square-foot condo has dramatic 360-degree harbor views, which Heyman’s brother Alan, also marketing property in the building, pointed out are for the most part protected because the building is on the waterfront. He said the only view at risk is the approach to the Brooklyn Bridge, where Walentas has asked the city for permission to build an 18-story tower.
Last year, Walentas began renovation on the 16th-floor penthouse, with its four distinct, 15-foot-high glass-faced clocks on each side of the unit.
Once completed, the towering abode will have three floors totaling 6,000 square feet, an elevator and skylights, which are already evident from the outside along with an “observation deck” on the very top.
Walentas declined to discuss the penthouse.
The Heymans said the listing will likely be in the $25 to $30 million range, more than double what Walentas paid for a big chunk of the neighborhood a quarter century ago. He purchased the former 1915 factory with its giant clocks on top as part of a 10-building complex for a reported $12 million back in 1981, when the neighborhood was still named Gairville after cardboard box baron Robert Gair.
Walentas waited 17 years for zoning approval to transform the industrial neighborhood, and he chose One Main Street as his first project. The conversion took him seven months, and he had ‘Walentas Building’ inscribed on its steel awning.
But One Main Street’s ascension to star of the Brooklyn real estate market hasn’t been without grief for unit owners.
Past and present residents reached by The Real Deal described contentious interactions with the developer over maintenance and renovation issues, some ongoing. “The building was renovated, but major systems were not renovated,” said Irving Gotbaum, president of One Main Street’s board of managers.
He said early fights over expensive capital improvements such as the roof, façade and elevator led to a settlement for an undisclosed amount, which mainly covered the façade. “We’ve already spent what he allocated,” said Gotbaum.
According to a correspondence between Gotbaum and condo owners, in recent months the board signed or bid contracts for capital repairs exceeding $1 million — $430,000 to refurbish the elevator, $360,000 to replace the roof and $250,000 for what Gotbaum described as “routine” hallway and gym renovation.
A now-defunct outdoor common area leading from the modest, 13th-floor gym, which Gotbaum described as “pretty much useless … a semblance of a roof deck,” has been leaking into the apartment below for years, he said. Plans to elevate the roof deck, now blocked by an imposing wall, so residents could enjoy its spectacular views have been put on hold.
“I remember people having a fair amount of issues with the punch lists,” said former resident Paul Girolamo. “When we opened the pantry, it had no shelves in it … It took us two or three months to finally get the shelves.”
Another resident who asked not to be named said “there were no doors on closets and bathrooms … [Walentas] said because they weren’t part of the offering plan.” And
three people said getting trapped in the elevator was a regular occurrence.
Another current resident complained the slate countertops scratched easily.
When asked about many of these complaints, Walentas focused on the slate issue in an e-mail. He wrote, “Slate has been used for countertops in kitchens for generations, and we’ve built hundreds of apartments using slate. We have slate countertops in our loft, and we love it. Slate is a soft stone, and if it’s cared for properly, it’s the best; if it’s abused, it scratches.”
Still, many of the residents who have complaints might be betting on the long-term appreciation of the neighborhood. Several of them, including the woman beneath the leaking roof, have hung on to their apartments.