Jonathan Butler

Jonathan Butler is a Brooklyn-based writer, entrepreneur and investor responsible for creating some of the New York's most beloved and enduring institutions.

A financial journalist and investment manager earlier in his career, Jonathan started the local real estate and architecture blog Brownstoner.com in 2005 and, after growing it into the largest website in Brooklyn, sold it in 2015. More recently, Jonathan published a non-fiction book – Join the Conspiracy (Fordham 2024) – about an undercover FBI informant in 1960s New York City; the Midwest Book Review called it “a seminal work of meticulous scholarship.” You can see a video of Jonathan discussing the book here.

In 2008, Jonathan co-founded the Brooklyn Flea, New York City's biggest flea market business, and three years later launched Smorgasburg, the artisanal food festival that supports hundreds of diverse mom-and-pop businesses and has attracted millions of visitors from all over the world to its weekly locations in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami as well as its annual events in Osaka, Japan and Sao Paulo, Brazil. In 2020, Jonathan and his business partner took over management of the legendary Chelsea Flea market on West 25th Street in Manhattan.

In 2012, Jonathan, who would later be named to the Commercial Observer's list of most powerful people in New York real estate, spearheaded the acquisition of the 150,000-square-foot Studebaker Service Station at 1000 Dean Street in Crown Heights; after converting the building into office and studio space, the partnership, which was backed primarily by Goldman Sachs, sold the property in 2019 for five times what it paid for it.

Jonathan began his career at Fiduciary Trust Company International and was a vice president at Merrill Lynch before laumching his own projects. He has received awards from the Historic Districts Council, the Municipal Art Society, New York Landmarks Conservancy, the Brooklyn Historical Society and the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce for his work in preservation and community-building and is a former board member at the Center for an Urban Future and the New York City Hospitality Alliance. He received his BA in History from Princeton University and MBA from NYU. He and his wife are recent empty-nesters and reside in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, where he collects records and plays in a Grateful Dead cover band.

To contact Jonathan, please email [email protected].