The Plan: Two Trees Management Has High Hopes for The Refinery’s 12th Floor

Jed Walentas, CEO of Two Trees Management, is feeling confident the firm will score a major tenant to occupy the 31,000-square-foot luxury office space on the 12th floor of the former Domino Sugar Refinery building in Brooklyn in 2025.

It’s been about two years since the historic building — acquired by Two Trees in 2012 for $185 million — began welcoming retail and office tenants, and so far it is just 35 percent leased. (And its struggles haven’t exactly been a secret, making the pages of Commercial Observer and the Wall Street Journal.)

Brooklyn has become a tough market for office leases. Once a trendy and lower-cost alternative to pricey Manhattan properties, Brooklyn didn’t see as much leasing activity in 2024 as Manhattan. Brooklyn’s third-
quarter office leasing activity (the most recent numbers available) totaled 171,000 square feet, a far cry from the 5.47 million square feet Manhattan saw in that same period, according to CBRE reports.

But, despite the slow pace of leasing, Two Trees is still on a mission to make The Refinery one of the city’s most sought-after office properties.

“As a developer, you’re always trying to create desirability,” Walentas said. “The essence of what we do is create places where people want to be.”

One of the building’s most dynamic offices is on the 12th floor, a prebuilt space in which Two Trees recently invested a couple of million dollars to attract a top tenant. Walentas is confident the entire floor — images of which were shared exclusively with CO — will be leased this year.

“The interest and the response has been very strong, and I’ll be shocked if a year from now the space is not leased,” Walentas said.

Amenities in the office include wide-open spaces with no columns and floor-to-ceiling windows that offer views of Brooklyn and Manhattan. There is also a mothers’ room, an eating area that has more of a residential vibe than a typical office kitchen, and giant comfortable couches for working away from the desks.

Employees on 12 will also have access to a large walk-up conference room, with seating on the steps for a more relaxed communal atmosphere.

“It’s both a conference room and a collaboration space,” Walentas said. “When you’re pre-building something, you have to walk this line of something that works for everyone. You don’t want to be too specific, because you’ll limit your market, but at the same time you want a couple of features and aspects that really give it some style and some uniqueness.”

The Dominio refinery has been a staple of the Williamsburg waterfront — which Two Trees controls a good amount of — since it opened in 1882. The doors of the former sugar refinery closed in 2004, and the building sat dormant until its acquisition in 2012.

“The building has been one of the great success stories in the city over the last year,” Walentas said. “It’s a different kind of narrative, but we’ve signed close to 30 commercial leases in the building. We’re building an ecosystem there.”