Manhattan, Ho! Brooklyn Walentases Buy Manhattan Office Building from Moinian
By Dana Rubinstein September 2, 2010 9:17 pm
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David and Jed Walentas, the father-and-son real estate moguls whose Two Trees Management got its start decades ago in Soho, before abandoning it to craft Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood almost wholecloth, are buying a Manhattan office building, the only one in their portfolio.
The family is in contract to buy the 340,000-square-foot 50 West 23rd Street, an office loft building right next to Home Depot, for $129.5 million from Joe Monian‘s Moinian Group.
“We gave them a hard deposit last Friday,” said Asher Abehsera, of Two Trees Management. “It was an off-market deal.”
Mr. Abehsera said this is the firm’s first office building acquisition in Manhattan, though its footprint there will soon grow much larger. The Walentases have begun construction on a striking, Enrique Norten-designed, 900-unit rental apartment building at 54th Street and 11th Avenue.
“We toured it maybe a month, month-and-a-half ago,” Mr. Abehsera said of 50 West 23rd Street. “As it turns out, a friend of mine I grew up with in L.A. works for Joe [Moinian], and that’s how we put the deal together.”
The acquisition is scheduled to close within the month. Mr. Moinian’s spokesperson declined to comment.
drubinstein@observer.com
