318 Knickerbocker Avenue (The Knick)
318 Knickerbocker Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11237
BBL 3032357503 · BIN 3396713
- Year built
- 1899
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 49
- Floors
- 5
- Landmark
- No
- Flip tax
- 1 percent of the gross sale price — payable by the buyer. This is unusual: most New York flip taxes fall on the seller. Underwrite it as a closing cost on the buy side
Every recorded sale at this building, 2011–2026
Price-per-square-foot over time, the line- and floor-premium curves, and every recorded sale.
- Median $/sf
- $1,018
- Listing discount
- 0.0%
- Recorded sales
- 46
- On record
- 2011–2026
The Knick is what a careful conversion of ordinary buildings looks like. There is no trophy structure here — three adjoining brick walk-ups from the 1890s, long vacant, on a commercial avenue in northern Bushwick. What the sponsor did with them, between 2008 and 2011, produced the neighborhood's first real amenity condominium and a product that has held its identity for fifteen years.
The buildings belong to a continuous Romanesque Revival row on Knickerbocker Avenue, put up in the boom that followed the arrival of elevated service in 1889 — round-arched upper-story windows, bracketed cornices, load-bearing brick, the standard vocabulary of Brooklyn's late-nineteenth-century avenue construction, executed here at unusual length. The conversion restored the facades, gutted the interiors, added a fifth floor of penthouses above the original four, and put an elevator into what had been walk-ups. That last move is the one that matters most commercially: an elevator in a five-story 1890s building is a different asset from a walk-up, and it is why this building has aged into a resale market rather than an entry-level one.
The environmental program was genuinely ahead of its market. The building was marketed at launch as among the first LEED-certified multifamily developments in Brooklyn and built to NYSERDA's multifamily energy-savings standards, with the original timber reused in the interior finishes. Fifteen years on, that translates into a building that is generally cheaper to run than its 1890s vintage would suggest — worth confirming against the actual common-charge and utility history rather than taking on faith, but it is not marketing language without a record behind it.
Two facts should govern any purchase here, and both are financial rather than architectural.
The first is the abatement. Listing records describe a benefit running to 2026, which means it has ended or is ending now. For most of this building's trading life buyers underwrote an abated tax line; that line is resetting. Any comparable drawn from a sale more than a year or two old embeds an assumption that no longer holds, and the honest comparison is a full carrying-cost comparison at current taxes.
The second is the flip tax, and it is genuinely unusual. Management-sourced records current to August 2026 show a 1 percent flip tax on gross sale price payable by the buyer, not the seller. In New York the transfer fee almost always falls on the seller; here it is a buy-side closing cost that a standard closing-cost estimate will miss. On a $600,000 apartment that is $6,000 that does not appear in most buyers' models.
Architecture and unit composition
The lot runs 150 feet by 200 feet — 30,875 square feet — and carries three buildings totaling roughly 73,500 square feet, of which about 45,800 is residential. Across 49 apartments that averages to roughly 930 square feet, which is a genuinely generous average for a Bushwick condominium and reflects the loft-style plans the conversion produced.
The residential program runs from loft-style studios through one- and two-bedrooms to duplex penthouses with private roof terraces. High ceilings, oversized windows, exposed brick in a number of units, in-unit laundry, central HVAC and private storage are the recurring features. More than 40 percent of the apartments were marketed with some form of private outdoor space — terraces and patios in the lower buildings, roof terraces at the penthouse level — which is a high share and is the building's most durable competitive advantage in the submarket.
Because the three buildings differ in size, orientation and floor count, there is no reliable line-to-line equivalence here. The variables that separate one apartment from another are which building it sits in, whether it faces Knickerbocker Avenue (a busy commercial street with a C1-3 overlay at the base) or Hart Street (residential and quieter), floor level, the size and orientation of any private outdoor space, and whether a parking space and a storage locker are deeded to the unit.
Building operations
The Knick runs as a resident-governed condominium with a virtual doorman rather than staffed lobby coverage, and professional management. Purchaser review runs through a right of first refusal rather than a cooperative interview.
At 49 apartments the denominator is small, which cuts both ways: common charges cover less staff than a large building's, but a single unbudgeted capital item divides across 49 owners rather than several hundred. The buildings are more than 125 years old carrying a conversion that is now fifteen years old, which is the point at which the conversion-era systems — elevator, roof, boilers, and the facades under their Local Law 11 cycle — begin coming due together. Ask for the reserve balance, the last three years of financial statements, the current capital plan and any assessment history, and ask specifically about the facade cycle: these are 1890s load-bearing brick elevations with restored cornices, and cornice and lintel work on that vintage is not cheap.
The building exceeds 25,000 square feet of floor area, which places it inside the city's energy benchmarking and building-emissions regimes. The original efficiency program should help its Local Law 97 position; ask the managing agent to state that position in writing rather than inferring it from the LEED history.
Policy framework
Management-sourced records current to August 2026 describe the following. Confirm each against the offering plan and current house rules.
Flip tax: 1 percent of gross sale price, payable by the buyer at closing.
Short-term rentals: Not permitted.
Smoking: Not permitted.
Parking: Deeded gated spaces, conveyed separately on an opt-in basis. A marketed space is not a conveyed space; confirm it appears in the deed.
Fees on a sale: A buyer application fee of $750, a closing fee of $350, a move-in/move-out fee of $150, and a refundable $500 move-in/move-out deposit.
Fees on a lease: A tenant application fee of $250, the same $150 move fee and $500 refundable deposit, and a $75 fee on lease renewal.
Pets, minimum down payment, financing ceiling, and sublet term: Not documented in the records available to us. Request the house rules.
Recent sales
The Knick trades as a loft-style amenity condominium and should be benchmarked against purpose-built and converted condominium product in northern Bushwick and Ridgewood on a dollars-per-square-foot basis, not against the neighborhood's small new-construction buildings, whose apartments are meaningfully smaller.
Three things distort a naive comparison. The tax reset is the largest: an abated comparable and an unabated one at the same price are not the same trade, and the correct exercise is True Monthly Carrying Cost across the full hold. The buyer-paid flip tax is the second, and it is invisible in a price-per-foot table — it is one percent of gross price, added to the buy side, on top of the ordinary closing stack. The third is outdoor space and parking: the apartments here with a large terrace or a deeded space carry premiums that do not spread evenly across the building. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
Recent closings at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.
| Date | Unit | Apartment | Price | PPSF | vs. Ask |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 22, 2026 | 3D | 1 BR · 1 BA · 796 sf | $810,000 | $1,018/sf | -4.7% |
| Dec 16, 2025 | 2A | 1 BR · 1 BA · 796 sf | $750,000 | $942/sf | -5.7% |
| Jun 27, 2025 | 2C | 1 BR · 1 BA · 796 sf | $695,000 | $873/sf | +0.0% |
| Oct 5, 2023 | 4M | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,070 sf | $999,000 | $934/sf | +0.4% |
| Jul 25, 2023 | 2D | 1 BR · 1 BA · 796 sf | $750,000 | $942/sf | +8.9% |
| May 24, 2023 | 3F | 1 BR · 1 BA · 750 sf | $782,500 | $1,043/sf | +4.3% |
| Aug 22, 2022 | 3M | 2 BR · 2 BA · 1,060 sf | $985,000 | $929/sf | +9.6% |
| Jul 12, 2022 | 2F | 1 BR · 1 BA · 735 sf | $725,000 | $986/sf | +5.2% |
Market read. Most recent trades (2026) cleared a median $1,018/sf across 1 sale. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-03235-7503) and verified listing data. Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified by The Roebling Team research desk. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.
What to know if you’re buying
Add one percent to your closing costs. The flip tax falls on the buyer here. Confirm it in the current house rules and put it in the model before you make an offer.
Get the current tax bill. The abatement has ended or is ending. Underwrite the unabated number and re-run it against any alternative you are considering — several nearby buildings carry benefits with more runway.
Ask about the facades. 1890s load-bearing brick with restored cornices, fifteen years past conversion, on a 49-unit denominator. The Local Law 11 status and the reserve balance are the two numbers that matter most.
Confirm which building, and confirm the deed. Knickerbocker Avenue and Hart Street exposures live very differently. Parking spaces and storage lockers convey only if they are in the deed.
Request the offering plan. We do not hold one. The plan and Schedule A govern common-interest percentages, and the house rules govern the pet, sublet and financing questions the public record does not answer.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering The Knick, also evaluate:
- 782 Hart Street — the 24-unit 2012 condominium on the adjoining tax lot, immediately next door; the closest direct comparison in the market and the sharpest test of new-construction versus conversion pricing
- 1433 DeKalb Avenue — the 25-unit 2013 elevator building on the same block; the newer, smaller-apartment alternative
- 970 Kent Avenue (The Kent) — the 103-unit prewar loft conversion on the Bedford-Stuyvesant–Clinton Hill industrial edge; the same product logic at larger scale, with full-service staffing and no abatement
- 315 Gates Avenue — the Karl Fischer–designed Bedford-Stuyvesant condominium with garage and roof terrace; comparable amenity package, compact apartments, a similar abatement-expiry story
- Clinton Mews (372 DeKalb Avenue) — heavy-timber industrial conversion to cooperative ownership, 1987–88; the older conversion in a different tenure
- 75 Greene Avenue — a 1930 institutional building adaptively reused as a 22-unit Fort Greene condominium; adaptive-reuse peer at boutique scale
- The Sanctuary (264 Cumberland Street) — 13 condominiums across a former chapel and clergy residence; the multi-building small-conversion comparison
- Austin Nichols House (184 Kent Avenue) — the 1915 Williamsburg warehouse conversion; the format's high end, and a useful ceiling for what conversion product can command
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent.
Considering a move at The Knick?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Knick would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.