A waterfront building stands on Van Brunt Street in Red Hook, Brooklyn, N.Y.
Photographer: Jeenah Moon/BloombergDrug Cop Worth $400 Million After Bets on Brooklyn Real Estate
Greg O’Connell acquired his first Red Hook building in 1967 for $22,000.
Red Hook was a ghost town when Greg O’Connell started buying property in the Brooklyn neighborhood more than four decades ago.
“You could drive down Van Brunt Street on a Sunday on a bike with no clothes on and it wouldn’t make any difference,” said O’Connell, a former New York detective whose accent betrays his Queens roots.