Rank #2080
David Walentas
Net worth $2.0B
Real estate · United States
- Born
- Aug 07, 1938
- Age
- 87
- Source
- Real estate
- Residence
- New York, New York
- Citizenship
- United States
- Marital status
- Widowed
- Children
- 1
- Education
- Bachelor of Arts/Science, University of Virginia
Net worth over time
Biography
- David Walentas founded Two Trees Management, which is best known for transforming two Brooklyn neighborhoods, Dumbo and Williamsburg.
- Walentas owns over two dozen residential and commercial properties across Dumbo, Brooklyn Heights, Williamsburg and Manhattan.
- In the 1970s he borrowed $12 million to buy 2 million square feet of industrial buildings in an unpopular part of Brooklyn that later became Dumbo.
- He acquired the Domino Sugar refinery's 11 acres in Brooklyn for $185.5 million in 2012 and is remaking it; the first tower opened in 2017.
- Walentas works closely with his son Jed, who became CEO of Two Trees in 2011.
- Walentas grew up poor in Rochester, New York, milking cows and shoveling manure on a farm.
- He was kicked out of Navy ROTC at the University of Virginia for "raising some hell" with a lady. He eventually became the first college graduate in his family.
- Walentas has pledged $100 million to the University of Virginia, his alma mater, mostly to fund opportunities for first-generation students.