Jed Walentas

If there has been a single person who’s had a ringside seat for all the shocking change that has come about in Brooklyn, it’s Jed Walentas.

Actually, many of the changes started with his dad, David Walentas. Working via his firm Two Trees Management, he built a position in the then-derelict industrial buildings in what became the borough’s Dumbo neighborhood, and then marketed the space to growing tech startups. The elder Walentas turned some sites into apartments, which were gobbled up by big spenders.

Now Jed Walentas has the task of making that stick. Two Trees can no longer play upstart. It’s now part of New York City’s real estate establishment, a position recognized by Jed Walentas’s colleagues in the industry, who last year made him chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York, one of the industry’s most powerful lobby groups.

Sticking to his day job, Jed Walentas has two main tasks as Two Trees’ CEO: overseeing the transformation of the old Domino sugar refinery on the Williamsburg waterfront from its historical industrial past to its upscale office and residential present, and maintaining Dumbo as a compelling place for both companies and residents.

“Our office portfolio in Dumbo continues to be in high demand, with 150,000 square feet of leasing last year, one of our busiest years ever,” Walentas said in an email.

Regarding Domino, he has one special concern: leasing out the 460,000-square-foot old refinery building, where Two Trees spent millions to essentially put a state-of-the-art office building inside the shell of the 19th century factory, which lacked even floors when they started. In his email, Walentas called it “one of the most challenging and exciting projects we’ve ever done. Nothing like it.”

He remains optimistic that a big breakthrough is in the offing. “It’s part of the community we’re creating,” he said. “We have great early leasing momentum and I expect the building to fill up even more quickly as we open the retail, including an Equinox, and complete the park next door.” (Equinox took 42,000 square feet there in October, and Two Trees announced four new leases in April, bringing its total office leasing to 34,000 square feet.)

Regarding his new job as REBNY chair, Walentas described addressing New York’s housing crisis as “items one, two and three.” He said in April he has been working closely with New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office “to reach a compromise that will move the city forward” on new development.