Before he was 10, Daniel Klaynberg spent part of his weekends answering the phone in the Manhattan offices of his father’s company, Wonder Works Construction.
As a teenager, Klaynberg began cleaning construction sites as a laborer. But Wonder Works founder Joseph Klaynberg soon moved his son into administration, working with financial records, record keeping and managing jobsite events.
At the age of 23, Daniel Klaynberg was helping lead the construction of a 163-unit housing development in Manhattan.
Now 36, Klaynberg is at the forefront of a company that has created more than 550 mark-to-market apartments in downtown Hartford over the past decade, and many more. At New York.
Daniel Klaynberg has been the face of business in Hartford for about a year, meeting with city officials and putting his name on loans and agreements on ongoing projects.
“It’s kind of a natural progression,” said young Klaynberg, who has served as Wonder Works’ CFO since 2016. “I’ve worked with Wonder Works and my dad for a long time.”
The transition, Klaynberg admits, may have been hastened by the financial troubles that hit his father in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a condominium project in New York failed. The building was completed, but Wonder Works was unable to show the units early in the pandemic, Klaynberg said.
Joseph Klaynberg filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February in the Southern District of New York. According to Klaynberg’s filing, he has $5.2 million in assets and $121 million in liabilities, which includes his debt guarantees for earlier Hartford projects.
“It certainly brought changes to our lives and forced us to do deals differently,” Daniel Klaynberg said.
Klaynberg said he took on increasing responsibilities and ownership of projects even before his father’s financial troubles.
“It’s possible I would have been the front runner and the guarantor anyway,” he said.
Klaynberg said operations at the four Hartford apartment buildings his father helped develop were unaffected by the bankruptcy filing.
Hartford a good bet
Wonder Works got its start in Hartford in 2012, when it teamed up with another New York developer – Girona Ventures – to buy a long-vacant hotel on Constitution Plaza for $500,000. The 250,000 square foot building was transformed into 193 apartments in a $23.6 million project that ended in 2016.
Wonder Works and Girona then transformed two decaying office buildings on Pearl Street into modern apartments. They also purchased and renovated the former Trumbull on the Park apartment building.
The buildings – operating under the “Spectra” banner – feature high-end amenities including a theater, fitness center, rooftop terrace and more. All amenities in the four buildings are open to all Spectra tenants.
These projects have made Wonder Works one of the most important players in the city’s ongoing efforts to grow its downtown residential population and create a more thriving restaurant/retail culture.
This has become all the more crucial as the pandemic has emptied office buildings and taught businesses that much of their workforce can indeed work from home.
Daniel Klaynberg said Hartford remains a great investment. He praised city staff for their responsiveness to everything from inspection requests to road closures, which saved considerable time and development costs.
Even so, Spectra apartment buildings have been rocked by the pandemic. As occupancy fell in 2020, Girona sold its half of these buildings to local parking magnate Alan Lazowski and prominent developer Martin Kenny. The occupation quickly rebounded in the 1990s, Klaynberg said.
New projects, new partners
Now, Daniel Klaynberg has teamed up with new partners for the mixed-use redevelopment of a former fire hall at 275 Pearl St. and a former municipal building at 525 Main St.
In November, Hartford City Council signed a tentative agreement to sell the buildings to Wonder Works for $785,000. Under the terms, Wonder Works was to lease the parking lots adjacent to the municipal building for $32,000 per year, with an option to buy anytime for $162,000.
Klaynberg is partnered with Matthew, Evan and Dean Levy—son of prominent Hartford-area attorney Coleman Levy—for the redevelopment.
The plan is to build 40 apartments at 525 Main Street and 36 rental units inside the fire hall, with retail on the first floor of both buildings. Daniel Klaynberg said he secured funding through Massachusetts-based PeoplesBank.
Klaynberg said he plans to redevelop the parking lots associated with the municipal building into about 80 apartments with parking on the lower levels of a six- to eight-story building. This work could begin in a few years, he said.
Officials and Klaynberg say they are close to finalizing legal agreements for the sale and redevelopment of the fire hall, municipal building and associated lots.
The municipal building already houses a delicatessen and a shoe repair shop. Klaynberg said the two are welcome to stay. A convenience store operator also signed a lease to move into a space of about 500 square feet, Klaynberg said.
At the fire station, Hartford restaurant entrepreneur Gina Luari plans to open a 4,500 square foot pizzeria.
Coleman Levy had provided legal advice to Joseph Klaynberg since his arrival in Hartford. Daniel Klaynberg said Levy’s local knowledge and banking connections proved crucial to earlier efforts.
Matthew, Evan and Dean Levy, along with their mother, Judie, are the directors of Levy Properties. The business is an inherited business from the side of Judie Levy’s family. It focused on the redevelopment and leasing of shopping centers in Greater Hartford up to approximately 65,000 square feet.
Matthew Levy said it was the “mutual respect” between his father and Joseph Klaynberg that paved the way for the sons’ partnership. He said his family’s retail expertise will help keep the first floors of the redeveloped buildings filled with quality tenants.
“Daniel and I have a really good working relationship,” Matthew Levy said. “They’re good people. We’ve been mostly in retail centers, so it’s a great opportunity to branch out into multi-family buildings with retail.
As with virtually all market rate apartment developments in Hartford, the Capital Region Development Authority is prepared to provide part of the financing. CRDA executive director Michael Freimuth said Daniel Klaynberg had represented the Wonder Works side throughout the latest deal.
Freimuth said all necessary funding and legal agreements for the redevelopments are “fairly close” to completion.
“It was really Dan, not Joe,” Freimuth said. “He’s really a whole new creature. We’ve been dealing with Dan and his banks and his investors. The transition is relatively smooth.