Two Trees Management pays $37.5M to Aaron Berger for dev site in Gowanus

Two Trees Management through the entity Gowanus 9th Street Holdings LLC, paid $37.5 million to Aaron Berger through the entity Gowanus 9th Street Owner LLC for the industrial building (E1) at 37 9th Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn. The expected use is ground up development.
The deal closed on March 13, 2026 and was recorded on March 23, 2026. The property has 118,367 square feet of built space and 133,631 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 252,134 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $316 and the price per buildable square foot is $148 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The seller bought the property on December 30, 2010, for $6 million. The signatory for Aaron Berger was Aaron Berger. The signatory for Two Trees Management was Amish Patel . The contract date was August 14, 2025.

Prior sales, articles and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer Two Trees Management purchased four properties in one transaction for a total of $10.1 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Aaron Berger had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period. The 118,367-square-foot property generated revenue of $2.9 million or $24 per square foot, according to the most recent income and expense figures.
Commercial Observer reported on March 18, 2026 that Aaron Berger paid $37 million to Two Trees Management for 69 Ninth Street, Brooklyn, NY. The sell-side brokers were Daniel O’Brien and Ronald Solarz of Newmark.

The property

The industrial building in Gowanus has 118,367 square feet of built space and 133,631 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 252,134 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has frontage of 348 feet and is 362 feet deep with a total lot size of 126,067 square feet. The zoning is M2-1 which allows for up to 2 times floor area ratio (FAR) for manufacturing The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $14.4 million.

Violations and lawsuits

The property was involved in one lawsuit and zero bankruptcies over the past two years. The suit was a $26 million commercial foreclosure concerning a loan filed on July 25, 2025, by Maverick Real Estate Partners against Aaron Berger. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $22,000 in OATH penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $1 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In Gowanus, The bulk, or 46 percent of the 9.2 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with elevator buildings next occupying 19 percent of the space. In sales, Gowanus has 2.1 times the average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $671.5 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 10th highest in Brooklyn. For development, Gowanus has 1.2 times the average amount of major developments relative to other neighborhoods and is the 10th highest in Brooklyn. It had 1.8 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 19 percent of the neighborhood’s built space. There were 36 pre-foreclosure suit filed among other industrial buildings in the past 12 months.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of two of the 13 commercial properties representing 488,367 square feet of the 656,494 square feet. The two identified owners are Regal Ventures and Aaron Berger.
There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 100 percent of the 656,494 square feet of built space are industrial buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 0 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Aaron Berger owned at least three commercial properties with 64 residential units in New York City with 173,683 square feet and a city-determined market value of $20.4 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $65.4 million in debt, with top three lenders as Sterling National Bank, Genesis LLC, and Peapack-Gladstone Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 68 percent of the 173,683 square feet of built space are industrial properties, with walkup properties next occupying 18 percent of the space. They are all located in Brooklyn.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Two Trees Management owned at least 34 commercial properties with 1,229 residential units in New York City with 3,443,419 square feet and a city-determined market value of $820.2 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) The portfolio has $2.2 billion in debt, with top three lenders as Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, and M&T Bank respectively. Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 50 percent of the 3,443,419 square feet of built space are office properties, with elevator properties next occupying 37 percent of the space. The bulk, or 92 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Manhattan next at 8 percent of the space.

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