970 Kent Avenue (The Kent)

The lot is irregular, 292 feet wide on Kent Avenue and roughly 111 feet deep, and the building fills it. Nine stories rise to 126 feet; the top two levels are the added penthouse duplexes, set back with pitched roofs that read as a distinct later intervention from the street.

The profile describes one- and two-bedroom configurations and penthouses, but the building-area average does not establish that most interiors measure 1,000–1,100 square feet; verify each apartment’s measured plan. The consistent features are the ones the factory gave the building: ceiling heights around twelve feet, large multi-pane windows, deep open floor plates and wide-plank flooring in the converted units. A number of apartments carry private outdoor space, and upper-floor units on the west and north elevations take open city and Manhattan views across the low-rise blocks toward the Navy Yard.

Because the plans are open and the building has been through two decades of individual renovations, condition and configuration vary widely from unit to unit. Exposure, floor level, and whether a given apartment has private outdoor space are the three variables that separate one home here from another; there is no reliable line-to-line equivalence.

The Kent runs as a full-service condominium with a doorman, a live-in superintendent and professional management — a heavier service package than most buildings at this price point in Bedford-Stuyvesant, and one that shows up in the common charges. The amenity set is modest but genuinely used: fitness center, children's playroom, central laundry, storage available for rent, and a landscaped interior courtyard with a walking and running track, which is the building's one unusual feature.

At 103 units the building has enough of a denominator to spread capital work, but it is a 1930-vintage industrial structure carrying a 2004 conversion, which is now more than twenty years old. Conversion-era systems — elevators, roofing, the building's mechanical plant, and the facade under its Local Law 11 cycle — may be reaching replacement age; current condition needs recent engineering reports and board materials. Ask for the reserve balance, the last three years of financial statements, the current capital plan and any assessment history, and ask specifically what conversion-era systems have been replaced and which have not.

The building exceeds 25,000 square feet, which places it inside the city's energy benchmarking and building-emissions regimes. Ask the managing agent to state the building's Local Law 97 position in writing.

Management-sourced records current to August 2026 describe a permissive stack, which is the building's competitive edge:

Pets: Allowed.

In-unit washer/dryer: Allowed.

Financing: Up to 90 percent of purchase price.

Subletting: Permitted, with owners able to lease immediately after closing. There is no waiting period, which is rare and is the reason this building draws investor capital.

Guarantors, gifted funds, and parents purchasing for an employed or student child: All permitted.

Storage: Available for rent rather than deeded.

Flip tax: Not documented in the records available to us.

Fees: Management-sourced records list a buyer application processing fee of $750, a credit check fee of $150 per applicant, a move-in/move-out fee of $600, and a closing document preparation fee of $350. A landlord lease fee of $250 is recorded on a monthly basis — a per-month charge and a per-lease charge are very different numbers for an investor, and the basis should be confirmed with the managing agent before underwriting a rental.

Recent sales

Recent closings at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. 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.

Market read. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $1,064/sf (recorded) across 3 sales. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-01925-7501; each condominium apartment is its own tax lot). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. 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.

Get the offering plan and Schedule A, because we do not have them. The public record disagrees with itself on unit count — 103 in Finance records, 104 in Department of Buildings filings — and the current lawful dwelling schedule requires reconciliation of the offering plan and amendments, approved plans, certificate of occupancy and fiscal records. Ask for the plan and all amendments, the current house rules, the last three years of financial statements, the reserve balance and capital plan, and any transfer fee.

Underwrite the current tax bill. There is no benefit burning off here, but future bills still change with assessments and rates. Run the True Monthly Carrying Cost on this apartment and on any abated alternative.

Ask what has been replaced since 2004. Age alone does not establish condition; ask for recent engineering reports and board materials on the elevators, roof, mechanicals and facade.

Walk the transit and the block. The G at Classon Avenue is close, but this is an industrial-edge corridor with active Navy Yard traffic, and the character of the street varies block to block.

If you're considering 970 Kent Avenue, also evaluate:

• Austin Nichols House (184 Kent Avenue) — the 1915 Williamsburg warehouse converted to condominium in 2016; the format's benchmark, at a materially higher price
• Clinton Mews (372 DeKalb Avenue) — heavy-timber industrial building converted to cooperative ownership in 1987–88, four blocks south; the tenure-and-vintage contrast
• 689 Myrtle Avenue (the Chocolate Factory) — the other well-known Bed-Stuy loft conversion; the closest same-neighborhood comparison
• 318 Knickerbocker Avenue (The Knick) — the 49-unit Bushwick conversion of three 1890s buildings; the same logic at boutique scale, with a buyer-paid flip tax
• 315 Gates Avenue — the Karl Fischer–designed Bedford-Stuyvesant condominium with garage and roof terrace; the new-construction alternative at smaller unit sizes
• 227 Taaffe Place — the surviving Kayser mill building one block west, converted to rental apartments; the same complex, 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) — a former chapel and clergy residence converted to 13 Fort Greene condominiums; the small-scale conversion alternative
• 195 Willoughby Avenue (Willoughby Walk) — the large postwar Clinton Hill cooperative opposite Pratt; the co-op alternative at similar price points
• 185 Clinton Avenue (Clinton Hill Co-ops) — the wartime Clinton Hill cooperative campus; larger apartments, cooperative approval, lower carrying cost
• 360 Clinton Avenue — 1928 elevator apartment house on the mansion row, converted to cooperative ownership in 1983–84