Jed Walentas

Two Trees, which owns and operates more than 4,000 apartments and 3 million square feet of office and retail space in New York City, in 2025 was responsible for over 40 percent of new commercial lease deals in Brooklyn office buildings over 100,000 square feet.

“We have tremendous assets, and I think we have the right philosophy to engage with the Brooklyn office market,” said Jed Walentas, who led Two Trees to a strong year while doing double duty as the chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York.

One of Two Trees’ major successes this past year has been the Refinery at Domino at 300 Kent Avenue in Williamsburg, a 19th century landmark with a full-service office building constructed within it. The converted sugar refinery now features 460,000 square feet of Class A office space, a triple-height atrium lobby, and amenities such as an Equinox fitness club.

Attracting mostly tech companies, the building is now more than 90 percent occupied, and Walentas calls such success “absolutely staggering.”

“We probably signed 50 or 60 leases there over the last 15 or 16 months,” said Walentas. “We’re developing a real symbiosis there, where tenants work on stuff together and feel a positive feedback loop from each other’s presence.”

The luxury condos at One Domino Square,  meanwhile, are over 70 percent sold, with over $300 million in sales to date, including two penthouses that each sold for at least $7 million — among the priciest sales in North Brooklyn history.

The company is having equal success with its properties in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood.

Architecture firm Snøhetta took 25,000 square feet at 55 Washington Street, and the Bjarke Ingels Group, another architecture firm, renewed its 50,000-square-foot headquarters at 45 Main Street, the largest lease in Dumbo last year, according to Two Trees.

For 2026, Two Trees is continuing development at the Domino site with twin 50-story buildings at 280 Kent Avenue that will include another 1,200 residential units, 315 of them affordable.

Walentas sees growth in the two neighborhoods as part of two expanding ecosystems — one oriented toward design, the other tech — that Two Trees will continue to nurture.

“We’re very much in the ‘rising tides lift all boats’ school of thought,” said Walentas. “I’m very much hoping that our success in Dumbo and at Domino will encourage other office investment and activity over the coming years.”