The New York Times Reports on Jed Walentas

By on January 1, 2012 7:46 pm in DUMBO, Real Estate

The New York Times profiled Jed Walentas of Two Trees Management over the weekend. In the piece by Marc Santora we learn among other things that the heir to the Walentas empire is pals with Donald Trump and that Bruce Ratner doesn’t think the kid is chopped liver. And just in case you didn’t think there was any tension between those down the hill in DUMBO and folks up here in Brooklyn Heights…

New York Times: Judy Stanton, the executive director of the Brooklyn Heights Association, has battled with both David and Jed Walentas over numerous projects.

“I think Jed has better manners — which is not to say he is well mannered — than his father,” she said. “He does not come up to people out of the blue and say really crude, rude things.”

David Walentas, whose shirt cuffs bear not his monogram but his motto, “No Guts No Glory,” makes no apologies for the battles he has waged. “I was the lone ranger out there at war with everyone,” he said, noting that his success had allowed his son the luxury of patience.

But critics like Ms. Stanton still get under his skin. “They are up there on the hill, holier than thou,” he said. “But if it had been up to them, there would be no Dumbo.”

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  • EHinBH

    Jed Walentas sounds like he is a complete TOOL.

  • Fritz

    Regarding the Brooklyn Heights Association, didn’t they hire George W. Bush’s lawyers to block St. Ann’s Warehouse project at the Tobacco Warehouse? Any friend of Patton Boggs is not a friend of mine.

  • EHinBH

    The BHA has done amazing things for this hood. Everyone makes wrong decesions here and there…. But for the most part, this organizations has moved mountains to make this a desirable place to live. They deserve some applause from everyone who lives or visits here…

  • AEB

    When will it become a commonplace that great wealth doesn’t equal admirable character–or even denote a person of interest?

  • Gerry

    And its NOT Dumbo it is DUMBO even the New York Times screws this up?

  • stuart

    while Judy’s quote made me laugh out loud, I have to wonder if perpetuating this Hatfields and McCoys feud is in the best interests of Brooklyn Heights.
    Clearly the BHA was in error when it opposed the initial proposal to adapt and reuse the empty industrial buildings between the bridges. I wonder what possessed them? But since then, instead of burying the hatchet and working professionally with Two Trees to advance mutual interests, the feud seems to have gotten worse and worse. I see no upside in that.

  • Andrew Porter

    Stuart, you are not only totally wrong when you state, “clearly the BHA was in error”, but several courts have also declared you are wrong. You are entitled to your opinion, but happily it is not the law of the land.

    Next week: the city sells Clark Walk and Pineapple Walk, the entrances to the Promenade from Columbia Heights, to be infill housing…

  • stuart

    Andrew Porter, I think you have had too much to drink.
    Come back and post again when you are sober and make at least some minimal sense.

  • David on Middagh

    Stuart, as someone who has studied (and tried to produce) mathematical proofs, I myself am wary of the word “clearly”. I don’t always agree with everything my friend Andrew posts, but I think he was right to call you out (if bluntly) on your rhetoric, and the ad hominem attack was beneath you.