Conoscenti appointed director of commercial leasing at Two Trees

Two Trees Management Company has appointed Thomas Conoscenti, an expert on the downtown Brooklyn real estate market, to serve as director of commercial leasing. Conoscenti is the former executive director of planning and administration for the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership (DBP). In his new position, Conoscenti will focus on Two Trees' office and retail properties, including 50 West 23rd St. in Manhattan; and 20 Jay St., 45 Main St. and 55 Washington St. in DUMBO. "Tom has first-hand experience working with the types of industries that are growing in New York City, and will be a tremendous asset for the long-term growth of the company," says Jed Walentas of Two Trees Management Company. During Mr. Conoscenti's tenure at DBP, he helped to attract many creative office tenants and restaurateurs to Downtown Brooklyn, including Makerbot, Homer, Ganso and Shake Shack. In addition, he worked on several major initiatives for the organization, including the conversion of the lower floors of the Brooklyn Municipal Building to retail and the conversion of 370 Jay Street, a long-vacant MTA building, into an applied sciences campus for NYU Center for Urban Science and Progress. Mr. Conoscenti, 32, began his career at the NYC Department of City Planning, where he worked as a city planning technician. In 2008, he was named one of New York Real Estate Magazine's "30 Under 30 Rising Stars." A Long Island native, Mr. Conoscenti now lives in Downtown Brooklyn and serves on Brooklyn Community Board 2, chairing its economic development committee. He earned a master's degree in city and regional planning from the University of California at Berkeley, and a B.A. degree in geography and political science from Vassar College. Two Trees Commercial is a division of Two Trees Management Company, a Brooklyn-based real estate development firm that owns and manages a property portfolio worth more than $3 billion, including more than 6,000 apartments and over three million square feet of office and retail space.