Hartford Business Journal

6 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | September 26, 2022 Deal Watch Brothers Evan and Matthew Levy (pictured left to right), along with their brother Dean (not pictured), are partnered with Daniel Klaynberg (right) on a planned renovation of a former firehouse at 275 Pearl St. in Hartford (pictured here) as well as a former municipal office building at 525 Main St. HBJ PHOTO | GARY LEWIS Changing Hands Sons of developer, lawyer take control of major downtown Hartford developments By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com B efore he was 10, Daniel Klaynberg was spending a portion of his weekends answering phones in the Manhattan office of his father's company, Wonder Works Construction. As a teen, Klaynberg began tidying up job sites as a laborer. But Wonder Works founder Joseph Klaynberg quickly moved his son into administration, working with financial records, record keeping and event management at job sites. By the time he was 23, Daniel Klaynberg was helping lead construction of a 163-unit apart- ment development in Manhattan. Now 36, Klaynberg is stepping into the forefront of a company that has created more than 550 market-rate apartments in downtown Hartford over the past decade, and many more in New York City. Daniel Klaynberg has been the company's face in Hartford for about a year, meeting with city officials and putting his name to loans and agreements on pending projects. "It's a little bit of a natural progres- sion," said the younger Klaynberg, who has been CFO for Wonder Works since 2016. "I've been working with Wonder Works and my father for a long time." The transition, Klaynberg concedes, may have been accel- erated by financial troubles that hit his father in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as one New York condominium project failed. The building was completed, but Wonder Works was unable to show units at the pandemic's outset, Klaynberg explained. Joseph Klaynberg filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protec- tion 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 prior Hartford projects. "It sure has made changes in our lives and made us have to go about securing 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 at the forefront and the guarantor anyway," he said. Klaynberg said operations at the four Hartford apartment build- ings his father helped develop have not been impacted by the bankruptcy filing. Joseph Klaynberg

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