The Oosten (429 Kent Avenue)
429 Kent Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11249
Williamsburg, Brooklyn
BBL 3021357508 · BIN 3396741
- Year built
- 2016
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 216
- Floors
- 9
- Landmark
- No
- Flip tax
- None described in the plan materials reviewed
- Financing
- Standard condominium; no board financing minimum documented
- Subletting
- Permitted for conventional leases under standard condominium mechanics. Short-term rentals through Airbnb, VRBO, HomeAway 'or similar' are strictly prohibited by the residential rules, with a $1,000-per-day fine. General fine schedule: $250 first offense, $500 second, $1,000 third and thereafter
- Pied-à-terre
- Permitted (condo)
- Pets
- Dogs (pit bulls excluded), cats, caged birds and fish permitted subject to board rules and the board's reserved right to adopt a no-pet policy. Maximum 2 dogs per unit regardless of unit size. No dog-walking in the courtyard; no dogs on the roof deck; dogs may not be left unaccompanied on terraces or in townhouse gardens; dog walkers must sign in and out and may not bring non-resident dogs into the building
Compiled by The Roebling Research Desk from the building’s offering plan, amendments, and related building documents (primary source dated 2023-09-27). Board policies can change by amendment — confirm at the offer stage.
The Oosten is the one building on the Williamsburg waterfront corridor that was conceived as a piece of European housing rather than as an American tower. Piet Boon, the Dutch designer whose practice runs from furniture to yachts to houses, took his first ground-up American commission here and did not design a tower at all. He designed a block: a low, broad building of roughly one acre wrapped around a large open courtyard, broken into discrete volumes by changes in material — brick piers and punched windows in some stretches, floor-to-ceiling glass articulated by vertical metal fins in others — with the residences reaching outward to the street and inward to the court. think! architecture and design pllc of Brooklyn served as architect of record.
That geometry is the whole argument. Every other building in this profile set sells altitude and a river view. The Oosten sells the opposite: ground-related living at scale, with fifteen townhouses that have their own entrances and garages, duplexes and lofts stacked above them, and a courtyard that functions as the building's living room. Ground-floor residences open directly onto private outdoor space at the courtyard edge; select units were built with private plunge pools; kitchens were specified with the ventilation capacity for wok cooking, an unusually specific piece of design intent for a New York condominium and a fair signal of who the developer expected to buy.
The developer was XIN Development Group International, the American arm of Xinyuan Real Estate, a Beijing-based homebuilder listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The Oosten was its flagship American project and, at the time, one of the largest Chinese-sponsored residential developments in New York. The offering plan is dated March 7, 2014; the sales gallery opened that September; the plan was declared effective on July 20, 2015 with contracts on 100 units — more than 46 percent of the 216 offered, a notably strong effectiveness threshold for a Williamsburg condominium and a genuine market verdict on the design. Occupancy followed in 2016.
The building's later history is the part a buyer needs to understand, and it is documented in the condominium's own amendments rather than in rumor. The sponsor's remaining unsold units were collateral for a loan that matured on April 3, 2023 with an outstanding balance of $34,775,912.62. When it was not repaid, the administrative agent issued a notice of disposition of collateral on June 5, 2023 setting twenty-one units — four townhouses, several lofts and duplexes, a penthouse and a group of upper-floor apartments — for public auction on July 25, 2023. The auction was adjourned four days beforehand, and on July 24, 2023 the sponsor and lender entered a one-year forbearance running to April 3, 2024. Separately, on June 16, 2023 the condominium's own Board of Managers sued the sponsor in Kings County Supreme Court seeking to restrain further sales of unsold units, alleging failure to convey the resident manager's unit and parking spaces under a previously disclosed settlement agreement and unpaid common charges of $102,291.52. The court denied the board's order to show cause on June 29; the sponsor cured the arrears through July 31, 2023, undertook to close on the resident manager's unit and parking spaces, and disclosed that it would cease sales activity until it was current and could perform.
None of that is a defect in the building, and all of it sits behind a resident-controlled board — the sponsor gave up three of five seats and unit owners run the condominium. But it is why The Oosten's sponsor inventory behaved differently from a normal sell-out, and why anyone underwriting here should read the most recent amendments and the current audited financials rather than a 2016-era picture of the building.
Architecture and unit composition
The 216 residences are organized into seven types, and the range is genuinely wide for a building this size: one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments; lofts; duplex homes; duplex penthouses; and fifteen townhouses. The condominium's own unit numbering reflects that variety — TH prefixes for townhouses, D for duplexes, L for lofts, floor-and-line numbers for conventional apartments. A buyer comparing two apartments here is frequently comparing two different housing typologies, which makes generic per-square-foot comparison unreliable.
The courtyard is the organizing device. It brings light and outlook to units that would otherwise face a neighbor, gives the ground-related homes private gardens with a shared green center beyond them, and serves as the building's social space — though there is a landscaped roof deck as well, with a reflecting pool and grills operating from 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. under the house rules. The material palette of brick and metal-finned glass rather than an all-glass curtain wall breaks a large mass into readable pieces and gives The Oosten a street presence closer to a Dutch or German perimeter block than to its Kent Avenue neighbors. Interior specification followed Boon's practice: a restrained, warm-modern material language carried from the lobbies through the amenity spaces and into the apartments, with the common areas treated as part of the same commission rather than farmed out. That coherence is the building's most durable selling point.
Building operations
The Oosten operates with two lobbies and 24-hour concierge coverage, a resident manager housed in a designated unit, an indoor lap pool, a fitness center with spa and saunas, a lounge and library, a children's playroom, the courtyard, the landscaped roof deck, a private parking garage and bicycle storage. Service and delivery traffic is routed to designated elevators; delivery personnel use the front entrance and must be announced and sign in and out.
The house rules are among the most specific in the neighborhood, and they tell you what kind of building this is. Music and loud equipment are barred between 11:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m.; construction, repair work and moves are confined to weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. absent an emergency, with a certificate of insurance required twenty-four hours in advance. At least 80 percent of the floor area of each room other than kitchens, baths, closets and foyers must be covered in rug or equivalent noise-reducing material. Barbecuing is prohibited in units and on their terraces — grilling happens on the roof. Children under sixteen must be supervised in the pool area. Bicycles, scooters, skateboards and hoverboards are barred from hallways, lobbies, the roof and the amenity areas, but permitted in the courtyard for supervised children.
Two rules deserve to be pulled out for buyers. The building is entirely non-smoking in the common areas, including the garage, the courtyard and the roof, and within twenty-five feet of any entrance. And short-term platform rentals are prohibited by name — Airbnb, VRBO, HomeAway "or similar" — with a $1,000-per-day fine, against a general fine schedule of $250, $500 and $1,000 for repeat violations. The Oosten is not an investor-flexible building in the short-term sense, and the board has given itself the tools to keep it that way.
The condominium's fiscal year ends November 30 and it produces audited financial statements; multiple years sit in the building's document file. Given the sponsor arrears disclosed in 2023, the current statements — particularly receivables, the reserve balance and the schedule of future major repairs — are the first documents a purchaser's attorney should request.
Recent sales
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Recent closings at this building, sourced from NYC Department of Finance records. Apartment-level detail (line, condition, asking-price context) verified upon consultation request.
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 24, 2026 | 237 | $1,169,000 |
| Jun 17, 2026 | D327 | $2,195,000 |
| Apr 30, 2026 | 503 | $1,400,000 |
| Apr 29, 2026 | 329 | $1,350,000 |
| Mar 17, 2026 | D319 | $2,461,250 |
| Feb 24, 2026 | 316 | $995,000 |
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 3-02135-7508) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
Decide which building you are buying. A townhouse, a duplex, a loft and a conventional apartment here are four different assets. Comparables must come from your own typology.
Read the most recent amendments. The sponsor's loan default, the 2023 collateral auction that was adjourned, the forbearance to April 2024, and the board's suit over the resident manager's unit and parking spaces are all disclosed in the plan's amendments. Ask how each resolved and get the current audited financials.
This is not a short-term-rental building. Airbnb and its peers are barred by name with a $1,000-per-day fine. If your model depends on short-term income, this is the wrong building.
The pet rules are real and specific. Two dogs maximum, no pit bulls, no dogs in the courtyard or on the roof, dog walkers registered. Confirm compliance before you fall in love with an apartment.
Courtyard and street exposures are different products. The court is the building's best feature and its quietest outlook; Kent Avenue frontage is louder and brighter. Walk both at the hour you would actually be home.
Model the post-421-a tax line. The plan projects carrying costs both ways. Underwrite the un-abated figure.
What to know if you’re selling
Sell the design, and sell it by name. Piet Boon's first American building, a coherent interior and common-space program, and a courtyard block that has no equivalent on this corridor. That is the story that separates The Oosten from the towers.
Price within your typology, not the building. A townhouse comparable is a townhouse comparable. Building-average per-square-foot figures actively mislead here.
Be prepared for the sponsor question. Sophisticated buyers and their attorneys will find the 2023 amendments. Having the resolution, the current financials and the reserve position ready turns a concern into a non-issue.
Lead with the family case where it applies. Private entrances, garages, direct courtyard access and duplex layouts are scarce in Williamsburg condominiums. Families cross-shopping brownstone Brooklyn are a real part of this buyer pool.
Present the house rules as a feature. Non-smoking common areas, a short-term-rental ban, enforced quiet hours and a supervised pool are what an owner-occupant building looks like. Say so.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering The Oosten, also evaluate:
- Austin Nichols House (184 Kent Avenue) — the Cass Gilbert warehouse conversion further north on Kent; the other Williamsburg building where the architecture is the argument
- Schaefer Landing North (440 Kent Avenue) — the waterfront condominium directly across Kent Avenue, built before the 2005 rezoning
- The Gretsch (60 Broadway) — the Southside loft conversion, the closest thing in the area to a period building with volume
- Two Northside Piers (2 Northside Piers) — the full-service Northside tower alternative, with an indoor pool and a river view
- The Edge — South Tower (22 North 6th Street) — the large-format Northside tower; the altitude-and-view case against The Oosten's ground-related case
- One Northside Piers (1 Northside Piers) — the earlier Northside Piers tower
- 80 Metropolitan Avenue — an earlier post-rezoning condominium inland from the waterfront
- Front & York (85 Jay Street) — the full-block, courtyard-centered condominium in DUMBO; the closest Brooklyn analogue in massing strategy
- One Brooklyn Bridge Park (360 Furman Street) — a large-format Brooklyn condominium with a comparable amenity depth in a very different architectural register
Considering a move at The Oosten?
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 Oosten 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.