Finding the ties that bind: Walentas Jr. joins Two Trees.

Though his father was a successful real estate developer who had helped redefine the DUMBO neighborhood, Jed Walentas almost chose a career where the pay is notoriously low.

Having worked as a sports editor for The Daily Pennsylvanian while attending the University of Pennsylvania, Walentas was offered a job at the New York Post upon his graduation in 1996. He turned it down, choosing instead to work for Donald Trump and help develop 40 Wall St. into the premier commercial building it is today.

Nowdays, Walentas, 29, is a major force at Two Trees Management, the company his father, David, founded. Both father and son have played an extremely crucial role in the transformation of Brooklyn's DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) neighborhood.

"He really is better than I am at everything," David Walentas said of his son.

The younger Walentas had the inspiration for a real estate career--having attended school with future developer, Jamie LeFrak.

"I remember having conversations with him," Walentas said. "Somehow, some way, we both knew we would wind up doing this."

But during his college years, the DUMBO and New York markets were in a lull and "David," as Jed refers to his father, was semi-retired. In the year after college, "we were quoting space in the teens," Walentas said.

Enter Donald Trump, who claimed in his latest book "How to Get Rich" to have acquired 40 Wall St. for a mere $1 million--a practical "sold for a song" transaction.

The building was so mis-managed, some insiders were convinced that it was a better candidate for residential conversion than commercial use. In 1996, Walentas was hired to help develop the property.

"I started two to three days after I graduated (from college)," Walentas said.

"It had more sort of psychological problems than it had real problems and he [Trump] was the type of person to overcome the psychological problems. When he bought it, the capital problems were (everywhere). The building had so much negative stigma."

He continued, "Donald was all about making a good first impression. Everything was smart there."

The first day, the developers talked of getting the "Mangia" restaurant chain to the site. Then they redid the telecommunications infrastructure.

"We made good decision after good decision," Walentas recalled. "It was excellent to be downtown--to be involved with buildings with that much history and to be able to recreate them and bring them back with so much vibrancy. Donald was a pleasure to work for--hardworking (and) fair. You couldn't ask far more from a boss."

But when Walentas' father lost his only tenant at the ClockTower Building, an impressive structure at One Main St. in DUMBO and promptly had the building rezoned for residential conversion, Jed saw his chance and gave Trump notice of his leave.

Then he joined his father on a project that they started without a loan. Once financing was approved, tenants moved in within six months.

"By January of '99, we had the building pretty much full," Walentas said. Space that was once quoted at $250 to $300 a s/f has since boomed. According to Walentas, space in the building now sells for up to $700 per s/f.

Since then, Walentas has headquartered himself in DUMBO. And as the area has grown, he's handling some of its biggest projects.

One of those is a 500,000 s/f mixed-use project on the site of a city-owned parking lot at Atlantic and Court Streets in downtown Brooklyn. The project includes 240 residential units and about 540 below-grade parking spaces.

It will also include a 40,000 s/f YMCA of Greater New York. The first residential tenants are scheduled to move in on Jan. 1.

Walentas is also working on the $100 million conversion of 110 Livingston St., the former headquarters of the city's Board of Education--and the building former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani wanted "blown up" in light of the city's famously dysfunctional education department of the past.

In addition to his real estate activities, Walentas is a powerful force in sports as an accomplished skier and a skilled tennis player. Last August, he reached the finals of the Huggy Bear pro-am tournament in Southampton.

David Walentas called working with his son "a pleasure."

"He's smart," Walentas said. "He works hard, he plays hard (and) he's a great tennis player."

He's also the reason dad stays active.

"I wouldn't be doing too much if it wasn't for him," he said.