How much is David Walentas worth? “Three or four hundred million. I don’t know, really,” he told Reuters. “We made $200 million alone on one building last year.” As far as we’re concerned, he deserves every penny for the risk he took in placing his bet on Dumbo over 25 years ago. His strategy of offering free rent to store owners and art galleries has been an effective strategy; and now he’s talking about building a $30 million park and donating it to the State. His own one-of-a-kind 6,000-square-foot loft in the clock tower isn’t on the market, but if you’ve got $25 million to spend, he says you’re welcome to it. Of course, it wasn’t always this good for Walentas. “For years I couldn’t pay my taxes and couldn’t service debt,” he says. “But the mortgage company didn’t even want to foreclose.”
Brooklyn Developer is Duke of Dumbo [Reuters]