For three decades, the Walentas family's Two Trees Management built DUMBO from a forgotten row of Robert Gair cardboard factories into Brooklyn's priciest neighborhood—and when a neighbor's building goes on sale at a discount, Jed Walentas rarely lets an outsider win it. Two Trees paid $86 million—just $351 per square foot—to buy back-to-front concrete loft building 55 Washington Street, capturing a 31.2 percent discount to its $125 million 2018 price. When the deed closed on January 24, 2026, Two Trees Management (Jed Walentas) had officially taken down 55 Washington Street from L&L; Holding Company and Prudential Joint Venture for $86 million, with Eastdil Secured brokering the trade.
Look past the headline figure and the story is all about the basis reset. The 245,000-square-foot building last traded in February 2018 for $125 million. Stepping in at $351 a square foot shaves 31.2 percent off that prior valuation, giving Two Trees Management (Jed Walentas) a margin of safety that would have been unthinkable at the top of the cycle. Even better for the buyers, the in-place rent roll hands them a verified 6.80 percent going-in cap rate from day one.
M&T; Bank Backs the King of DUMBO at $351 a Foot
How you structure the debt on a Brooklyn acquisition matters almost as much as what you pay for the deed. M&T; Bank stepped up with a $55.9 million senior loan—representing 65 percent loan-to-value—while the buyers wrote a $30.1 million equity check behind it.
Rather than extinguishing the seller's old note and originating a scratch mortgage, the buyers and M&T; Bank kept the existing mortgage wrapper alive through a Consolidation, Extension, and Modification Agreement, or CEMA. Because New York City levies a roughly 2.8 percent mortgage recording tax on new commercial debt, that single piece of legal plumbing saved the deal upwards of $1.57 million at the closing table—cash that stays in the property's capex and leasing reserve instead of going to the Department of Finance.
From Our Desk
When we look at 55 Washington Street on our placement desk at Light Tower Group, the lesson for New York sponsors comes down to the marriage of entry basis and lender selection. Two Trees Management (Jed Walentas) didn't try to fight the tape—they bought DUMBO footage at $351 a square foot and paired it with the exact lender bucket built for this business plan. When the dominant landlord in a neighborhood buys a 245,000-square-foot building on its home turf at $351 a foot and a 6.8 percent cap rate, regional banks like M&T; will line up all day to write 65 percent CEMA paper.