Most Expensive property to sell in New York - Walentas in on it!

by Dogpatch 9 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Dogpatch

  It appears the famous stunt family the Walentas are in on the Brooklyn real estate craze, too!

  (and have been for some time.

  I knew the Walentas were JWs but thyey are practically in bed with them as well!

  http://gotham-magazine.com/personalities/articles/jed-walentas-is-building-brooklyn

  ________________

  Walentas, the `King of DUMBO,`Tells How He Developed Former Industrial Area by Jennifer Needleman ([email protected]), published online 02-27-2004

  The Neighborhood Has Become His Life?s Mission, the Center of His Business DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN ? Yesterday morning, at the opening of the second day of the Brooklyn Home Expo at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, David Walentas, one of this borough?s most prolific and successful real estate developers, gave a surprisingly forthcoming and overall fascinating talk about the recent history of DUMBO. Unassuming and casual in crisp jeans and a slight, ambiguous, non-New-York drawl, Walentas spoke to rousing applause, and revealed the trials and tribulations, along with the successes that have made DUMBO what it is today. Walentas is almost wholly responsible for the revival and gentrification of the area, having renovated and developed almost every building from scratch. ?We own everything between the bridges,? said Walentas, adding that DUMBO?s other large landlord, the Jehovah?s Witnesses (see related story, page one), owns everything around that. But it was Walentas, not the Witnesses, who came to the neighborhood with an unwavering vision ? a vision of an upscale, fully peopled area of town with natural, historical and urban beauty that is unsurpassed across the five boroughs of the city. Walentas spoke at an Expo breakfast, and told the story of how DUMBO came to be what it is today, starting from the very beginning. Twenty-five years ago, DUMBO was practically abandoned, said Walentas. At this time, Walentas was busy as a developer in SoHo and NoHo ? his was the building that housed the first Tower Records in the city. On the lookout for a fresher area to put his paws on, Walentas asked one of his artist tenants: ?What?s next?? ?DUMBO,? replied the tenant, and caught Walentas off guard. ?I had never heard of DUMBO,? admitted Walentas, who had also never been to Brooklyn apart from pass-throughs during ?trips to JFK and LaGuardia.? Walentas crossed the bridge to check it out, and was utterly floored by the historic, non-landmarked buildings, the river access, the views, the streaming bridges arching overhead, the proximity to Downtown and Brooklyn Heights. ?I thought to myself, ?I?ve been training for this my whole life,?? said Walentas. DUMBO became Walentas? raison d?etre, his life mission and the center of all his business. He bought as many buildings as were available, and began to rebuild the nearly uninhabited neighborhood from scratch. At the Marriott, he spoke of the various financial failures, the lost and broken partners, the disillusioned politics, the city?s reluctance to help out with zoning laws. ?For a while, I was known as the dumb of DUMBO,? admitted Walentas. One listener asked, ?Did you ever want to throw in the towel?? ?The thought never crossed my mind,? said Walentas, who would always rather buy out a partner than leave a project for dead. Walentas conveyed the impetus behind his rabid development of DUMBO as being almost personal; he lives in DUMBO and truly loves the area. His remarkable success seems to have come from his genuine concern for the area, and his courage in assuming responsibility for a swath of real estate and his sensitivity to the existing details. Walentas is clearly more concerned with preserving and renovating wonderful Brooklyn buildings than with wiping the slate clean to erect a mammoth money-mill of a development. ?It?s really the artists who made the neighborhood,? said Walentas, who describes DUMBO as an upscale, creative place. Throughout his time working on the area, Walentas leveraged the future of DUMBO in order to find occupants for apartments and commercial spaces ? to round out the neighborhood in its entirety. He filled apartments and offices with ?artists and young start-up businesses, dot-coms ? the type of businesses that young New Yorkers were staking their futures on,? and thus, the area was infused with an irreplaceable energy. Walentas spoke about the skepticism of early investors. ?I used to take bankers up to the top of the clock tower in DUMBO and say, ?Look at this view!?? said Walentas, adding, ?They looked and said, ?Where are the grocery stores??? There were no grocery stores ? or any other kind of stores for that matter ? in DUMBO when Walentas began. But he embarked on a populating mission, and enlisted his favorite vendors, business owners and service providers to open up shop in his neighborhood. Walentas? wife, for instance, was fond of the Peas and Pickles deli, located on Henry Street in north Brooklyn Heights. Walentas invited the owners, who were, as he put it, ?just a couple of Korean kids,? to open a market in DUMBO, free of rent for two years. The owners agreed and immediately began doing profitable business. Recently, as Walentas recounted, the married couple behind Peas and Pickles, no longer just a ?couple of kids,? were able to offer Walentas the money to buy one of his fabulous DUMBO loft apartments. ?She paid me in cash,? said Walentas, smiling. ?This is America, and this is DUMBO.? Walentas is the type of savvy and visionary developer that Brooklyn needs ? one who saves instead of demolishes, who listens to the soul of a neighborhood and hopes to uplift rather than eradicate. Many of his developments ? such as the upcoming project at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Court Street which will contain an enormous YMCA ? include details that serve to benefit the neighborhood before Walentas himself. But that, it seems, is Walentas? bag. If you stake a claim on a neighborhood and do everything for its betterment, everyone will win. ?These apartments in DUMBO have made a lot of people rich,? said Walentas. ?It?s a good thing.? Walentas, surely, is one of those people whose finances expanded immensely through the development of DUMBO ? certain properties were bought at six dollars a square-foot and are now selling for $800 a square-foot and DUMBO properties have the highest value in Brooklyn. But Walentas, as opposed to many of the rich and powerful in this city, does good as he does well, and his bravery, patience, vision and perseverance are the qualities that deserve all the admiration in the world. May we all be fortunate enough to be part of a community whose buildings were developed by a neighbor and friend! ? Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2004 http://50.56.218.160/archive/category.php?category_id=5&id=871

  ___________________

  DUMBO Developer Steals Electricity!

  
  As if real estate developers didn't have a bad enough rap! David Walentas, the mastermind who turned the clocktower in DUMBO into a Clocktower of luxury apartment, is accused of stealing $130,000 of electricity by rigging wires from the Clocktower to his commercial building. The Daily News' exclusive story says that the Clocktower's condo owners are suing Walentas, after finding out that the "commingling" of heat and electrical from 30 Washington Street and Clocktower actually meant more expensive electrical bills for the Clocktower residents. And this is just the latest in problems for the Clocktower: There have been leaking roofs, non-working windows, boiler issues, and more. Most impressive of Walentas's chutzpah is this:

  Brockstedt also found that Walentas had an air conditioner installed on the Clocktower building's roof that served only his unit but was powered by the common area meter - and thus paid for by the condo association.

  Good lord. And everyone who lives in a Trump Building - see if all the wires are leading to Mar-a-Lago!

  NY magazine called Walentas's Clocktower development the "tipping point" in DUMBO development. And here's Bluejake's DUMBO series from last fall.

  Contact the author of this article or email [email protected] with further questions, comments or tips

  http://gothamist.com/2005/02/11/dumbo_developer_steals_electricity.php

  ____________

  The Most Expensive Property In Brooklyn, New York

  Categories: ARCHITECTURE · Leave a Comment

  

  

  
  A stunning triplex penthouse apartment that overlooks the Brooklyn Bridge and New York Harbour has just been listed for $25 million USD, making it the most expensive property in Brooklyn (if it sells mind you). The penthouse sits atop one of the tallest buildings in Dumbo, the cobblestoned neighborhood that sprang to life in the 80s in a former industrial area between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges.

  

  Unsurprisingly, the apartment was commissioned by David Walentas, the creator of the Dumbo neighborhood (I hate this name!). The building was originally a cardboard box factory, a relic from New York’s industrial past. Walentas renamed the factory the ClockTower Building and converted it first into offices for the New York State Labor Department, and then into 124 condominiums in 1998.

  

  The ClockTower Building Penthouse

  - Listed at $25 million USD
  - 3,000 square foot main floor features an open concept design with 16 foot ceilings
  - Each wall is dominated by a striking 14-foot fully functional window clock
  - A glass-walled elevator and a three-story floating staircase at the center of the space lead to smaller floors that narrow toward the top of the tower
  - There are three bedrooms on the 2,300-square-foot second floor
  - On the third floor, there is a 988-square-foot open loft with a 15-foot ceiling
  - Of course, at the very top of the building is a tiny windswept crow’s nest

  

  The highest sale price on record for a home in Brooklyn is the $11 million sale of a house in 2006 in Gravesend. The highest price paid for a condominium is the $7 million sale of a 14th-floor apartment at the ClockTower building last year. That condo is now listed for sale at $8.5 million. (Is it coincidence the two most-expensive condos in Brooklyn are for sale and in the same building?)

  

  Walentas’s real estate company recently won approval to construct an 18-story building near the base of the Brooklyn Bridge over the objections of neighborhood residents. Walentas says the building will not affect the views from One Main Street, as the ClockTower Condo is also known.

  

  The glass-walled elevator and a three-story floating staircase

  

  A glimpse into a second-floor bed and bath

  

  Surprisingly, the sofa will not be included with purchase

  

  Watch out!

  

  Do you have the time? Why yes, it’s $25M past poor o’clock

  

  Sources

  All information and photographs from the New York Times article and slide show below:

  - http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/realestate/09deal1.html
  - http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/08/07/realestate/0809-deal-slideshow_index.html

  All photographs by Ángel Franco for The New York Times

  Maximum respect to my friend Paul for showing me this beautiful property. Good Look!
• 

  ShirleyW

  Dogpatch - Are you sure you're referring to the right family. The family that does the high wire walking does not spell their name that way, matter of fact they have a special coming up this weekend when someone from the family will be crossing the Grand Canyon. I believe they spell their name Wallenda, but what you have referred to above is not the way they spell their name
• 

  zed is dead

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flying_Wallendas

  http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/w/david_c_walentas/index.html
• 

  exwhyzee

  Very cool apartment...too bad about the power scam, hope they aren't JW's. Theres the Walentas in the real estate article and then there's the Flying Wallendas who are the acrobats who suffered a huge tradgedy back in the 60's when one of their stunts went terribly wrong.

  Are the current members of the Flying Wallendas, JW's ? It seems like skydiving and bungee jumping is sort of frowned upon by the Society. Can't imagine how they'd view a JW who teetered on a tight rope across the Grand Canyon.

  http://wallendaenterprises.com/

  Seattle has it's own version of the Clock Tower Apartment located in the Smith Tower here
• 

  Dogpatch

  I didn't notice the difference in spewlling of the last name, but it has been well-known for years that the circus family were mainly JWs. It might be a good story. A google search on Wallendas+Jehovah yields this:

  1. wallenda / is walking the wire over Atlantic City. (1), Jehovah's...

     www.jehovahs-witness.net › Jehovah's Witnesses › Friends ‎ Aug 10, 2012 - 2 posts - 1 author Nick Wallenda is walking the wire over Atlantic City; halfway over.

  2. Nik Wallenda: Witness on the Wire - Pentecostal Evangel: Articles

     www.pe.ag.org/articles/index_2012.cfm?...2... ‎ Nik Wallenda: Witness on the Wire ... Nik Wallenda, the seventh generation of the legendary Great Wallendas, holds a .... He's our Jehovah Jireh, our provider.

  3. Seeking the Lord with a true heart 01/24 by Jehovah Shalom | Blog ...

     my.beta.blogtalkradio.com/jehovah.../seeking-the-lord-with-a-true-heart ‎ BlogTalkRadio - Jehovah Shalom Jan 24, 2012 – If you liked this show, you can follow Jehovah Shalom. ... Nik Wallenda, “The King of the High Wire,” is a seventh-generation member of the ...

  4. Dr Pepper Arena

     www.drpepperarena.com/ ‎ In addition to David Larible, CIRQUE MUSICA will feature the world famous Wallenda Highwire Duo, the thrilling España Family and a cast of world-renowned ... Sat, Jun 22 Sat, Jul 20 Cirque Musica Big Sean http://www.drpepperarena ... www.drpepperarena.com ...

  5. Life Lessons from the National Parks

     www.pennymusco.com/lifelessonsfromthenationalparks/ ‎ Perhaps the most famous member of the Great Wallendas was Nik's ..... The title Most High (Yahweh, or Jehovah), as mentioned in those verses, is undoubtedly ...

  6. 157. What Do Jehovah's Witnesses Believe? With Richard Howe ...

     ? 1:11 ? 1:11 video.christianpost.com/157-what-do-jehovahs-witn... ‎ Apr 13, 2013 Nik Wallenda on Fear and Faith on the High Wire · A Minute with T.D. Jakes: How Can We Forgive Our ...

  7. 6/17 - Fathers' Day; GOD the Father's Glory; Niagara Falls' Wallenda...

     ? 15:12 ? 15:12 www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PvE0L6Ww4I ‎ Jun 18, 2012 - Uploaded by ArcturusRex ... GOD the Father's Glory; Niagara Falls' Wallenda; Elian Cuba's hope .... Dear Jehovah's Witnesses ...
  8. More videos for Wallendas+Jehovah »

  9. myPTfriends : Message: A Word With You #6336 - "Hesitating on the ...

     health.groups.yahoo.com/group/myPTfriends/message/882 ‎ Aug 12, 2012 – The patriarch of the Wallenda clan was Karl Wallenda, and at the age ... will provide" - that's the name of God we know today as Jehovah Jireh.

  10. Favorite videos - YouTube

      https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...feature=c4-feed-f ‎ 9 Jehovah is not slow respecting his promise, as some people consider slowness, but ...... Daredevil tightrope walker Nik Wallenda crosses highwire 200 feet up: ...

  11. Nik Wallenda completes tightrope walk across Niagara ... - US News

      usnews.nbcnews.com/?nvo=4300...58 ‎ Reuters reports: Nik Wallenda, a member of the famed "Flying Wallendas" family of ... Sex case: Jehovah's Witnesses must pay $20 million · Billionaire pledges .
• 

  iCeltic

  I've just glanced at this, just wondering, is the point of this some rich family who happen to be jw's are buying property, or is there something else to it?
• 

  Dogpatch

  Here's another one, rather confusing. Walentas, the `King of DUMBO,`Tells How He Developed Former Industrial Area by Jennifer Needleman ([email protected]), published online 02-27-2004

  The Neighborhood Has Become His Life?s Mission, the Center of His Business DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN ? Yesterday morning, at the opening of the second day of the Brooklyn Home Expo at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge, David Walentas, one of this borough?s most prolific and successful real estate developers, gave a surprisingly forthcoming and overall fascinating talk about the recent history of DUMBO. Unassuming and casual in crisp jeans and a slight, ambiguous, non-New-York drawl, Walentas spoke to rousing applause, and revealed the trials and tribulations, along with the successes that have made DUMBO what it is today. Walentas is almost wholly responsible for the revival and gentrification of the area, having renovated and developed almost every building from scratch. ?We own everything between the bridges,? said Walentas, adding that DUMBO?s other large landlord, the Jehovah?s Witnesses (see related story, page one), owns everything around that. But it was Walentas, not the Witnesses, who came to the neighborhood with an unwavering vision ? a vision of an upscale, fully peopled area of town with natural, historical and urban beauty that is unsurpassed across the five boroughs of the city. Walentas spoke at an Expo breakfast, and told the story of how DUMBO came to be what it is today, starting from the very beginning. Twenty-five years ago, DUMBO was practically abandoned, said Walentas. At this time, Walentas was busy as a developer in SoHo and NoHo ? his was the building that housed the first Tower Records in the city. On the lookout for a fresher area to put his paws on, Walentas asked one of his artist tenants: ?What?s next?? ?DUMBO,? replied the tenant, and caught Walentas off guard. ?I had never heard of DUMBO,? admitted Walentas, who had also never been to Brooklyn apart from pass-throughs during ?trips to JFK and LaGuardia.? Walentas crossed the bridge to check it out, and was utterly floored by the historic, non-landmarked buildings, the river access, the views, the streaming bridges arching overhead, the proximity to Downtown and Brooklyn Heights. ?I thought to myself, ?I?ve been training for this my whole life,?? said Walentas. DUMBO became Walentas? raison d?etre, his life mission and the center of all his business. He bought as many buildings as were available, and began to rebuild the nearly uninhabited neighborhood from scratch. At the Marriott, he spoke of the various financial failures, the lost and broken partners, the disillusioned politics, the city?s reluctance to help out with zoning laws. ?For a while, I was known as the dumb of DUMBO,? admitted Walentas. One listener asked, ?Did you ever want to throw in the towel?? ?The thought never crossed my mind,? said Walentas, who would always rather buy out a partner than leave a project for dead. Walentas conveyed the impetus behind his rabid development of DUMBO as being almost personal; he lives in DUMBO and truly loves the area. His remarkable success seems to have come from his genuine concern for the area, and his courage in assuming responsibility for a swath of real estate and his sensitivity to the existing details. Walentas is clearly more concerned with preserving and renovating wonderful Brooklyn buildings than with wiping the slate clean to erect a mammoth money-mill of a development. ?It?s really the artists who made the neighborhood,? said Walentas, who describes DUMBO as an upscale, creative place. Throughout his time working on the area, Walentas leveraged the future of DUMBO in order to find occupants for apartments and commercial spaces ? to round out the neighborhood in its entirety. He filled apartments and offices with ?artists and young start-up businesses, dot-coms ? the type of businesses that young New Yorkers were staking their futures on,? and thus, the area was infused with an irreplaceable energy. Walentas spoke about the skepticism of early investors. ?I used to take bankers up to the top of the clock tower in DUMBO and say, ?Look at this view!?? said Walentas, adding, ?They looked and said, ?Where are the grocery stores??? There were no grocery stores ? or any other kind of stores for that matter ? in DUMBO when Walentas began. But he embarked on a populating mission, and enlisted his favorite vendors, business owners and service providers to open up shop in his neighborhood. Walentas? wife, for instance, was fond of the Peas and Pickles deli, located on Henry Street in north Brooklyn Heights. Walentas invited the owners, who were, as he put it, ?just a couple of Korean kids,? to open a market in DUMBO, free of rent for two years. The owners agreed and immediately began doing profitable business. Recently, as Walentas recounted, the married couple behind Peas and Pickles, no longer just a ?couple of kids,? were able to offer Walentas the money to buy one of his fabulous DUMBO loft apartments. ?She paid me in cash,? said Walentas, smiling. ?This is America, and this is DUMBO.? Walentas is the type of savvy and visionary developer that Brooklyn needs ? one who saves instead of demolishes, who listens to the soul of a neighborhood and hopes to uplift rather than eradicate. Many of his developments ? such as the upcoming project at the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Court Street which will contain an enormous YMCA ? include details that serve to benefit the neighborhood before Walentas himself. But that, it seems, is Walentas? bag. If you stake a claim on a neighborhood and do everything for its betterment, everyone will win. ?These apartments in DUMBO have made a lot of people rich,? said Walentas. ?It?s a good thing.? Walentas, surely, is one of those people whose finances expanded immensely through the development of DUMBO ? certain properties were bought at six dollars a square-foot and are now selling for $800 a square-foot and DUMBO properties have the highest value in Brooklyn. But Walentas, as opposed to many of the rich and powerful in this city, does good as he does well, and his bravery, patience, vision and perseverance are the qualities that deserve all the admiration in the world. May we all be fortunate enough to be part of a community whose buildings were developed by a neighbor and friend! ? Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2004
• 

  Dogpatch

  Perhaps it's just a curious coincidence, but both names have some connection to the WT and DUMBO it appears.

  I DO know the Wallendas are/were associated with JWs.

  Walenta? Heavily involved in real estate and WT's favorite DUMBO property??

  I don't have time to research it, but maybe someone else will.

  Randy
• 

  Band on the Run

  DUMBO is so hot now! People are shocked at hot it is. I almost passed out when I linked the two. DUMBO and the area I knew when I was there.

  The Wallendas/Walendas might be the same family. My last name is spelled differently by different cousins. The immigration worker at Ellis Island spelled it, incorrectly. No wonder i could never quite place my nationality. It could be an accident. Perhaps a way to separate business from family life. There may have been a typo on some legal document. Many show business people have several names. I know hair stylists with different names. They want their private life private and their business life public. Also, many ethnic people change their last names.

  This is a great mystery. The JWs seem knee deep in show business people. Show business people who are so nonJW at their core that it must be particularly hard to navigate the culture daily. My personal input is that Bethel will accept anyone with cash. How did everybody who never could have a single rock or pop album or 45 feel when Michael Jackson grabbed his crotch and kept it there for eternity. Cash gives you great class with the Bethel authorities.
• 

  Dogpatch

  Interesting Band, thanks!

  Randy