D avid Walentas is a self-made American real estate developer with a visionary and transformative impact on the Brooklyn waterfront. He is the founder of Two Trees Management, the company responsible for developing the DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) neighborhood. He grew up in a working-class family and, after earning an MBA, he embarked on a career in real estate.

In the late 1970s, he had the foresight to purchase a large, derelict industrial area on the Brooklyn waterfront for a mere $12 million. Over the next several decades, he painstakingly transformed this forgotten neighborhood into one of New York City's most desirable and expensive residential and commercial districts. His DUMBO project is a landmark case study in urban revitalization. He has since handed over the leadership of Two Trees to his son, Jed Walentas, but he remains the architect of the family's real estate empire.