25 Millon Dollar Apartment Building For Sale

A $25 Millon Dollar Apartment Building For Sale

David Walentas did not grow up a wealthy man. In fact, he grew up in Rochester that lacked indoor plumbing. He wanted to attend the University of Virginia’s architecture program but did not have enough scholarship money to do so. Instead, he joined the United States Navy and served in Morocco and Denmark. After his service, he attended business school. With a partner he started Two Trees Real Estate in New York. He bought and sold a few buildings in New York, but always was an average businessman.

All that changed when he came up with the idea to change 11 rotting warehouses and convert them to posh condos. In fact, he still did not have the money to do this as the current owners of the warehouses Helmsley-Spear wanted 12 million dollars. So he approached Ron and Leonard Lauder, of the makeup world, to help him finance the project.  After acquiring the buildings his fight was not over. He then had to convenience Mayor Ed Koch and economic development coordinator Ken Lipper that it was a great idea to build the condos there. They were not easily convinced.

Finally in 1997 Walentas cleared the last roadblock. To encourage tenants to move into the area he offered free or reduce rent to artists, gallerists, architects and chefs. Many of which took him up on the offer. Bring these types of people to the area encouraged a younger upscale crowd to want to move in.
The area is now home to many culinary delights such as a chocolate factory and an ice cream store. The area is also home to many art galleries and places of music.

Walentas, now a multi-millionaire, has the words “no guts, no glory” embroidered on the cuff of all his dress shirts.

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Walentas is currently offering the clock tower apartment for sale that overlooks the Brooklyn Bridge for $25 million dollars. Interesting characteristics of this property include 14 foot high round windows, 4 working clock faces, and a 3000 square foot open living room, dining room and kitchen on the main floor. The 124 unit apartment complex also has a glass-walled elevator and a floating staircase.