Landmark Bed-Stuy townhouse sells for record-setting $6M

Anonymous buyer purchased home at 247 Hancock Street

247 Hancock Street in Brooklyn (Credit: Curbed NY and Halstead)
247 Hancock Street in Brooklyn (Credit: Curbed NY and Halstead)

The historic John C. Kelley mansion in Bedford-Stuyvesant has sold for $6.3 million, a record price for a single-family home in the neighborhood.

The brownstone at 247 Hancock Street almost doubles the previous record sale for the neighborhood of $3.3 million in 2017, according to the Wall Street Journal. It has 10 bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms, and it was built for John Kelley, a water-meter magnate, in 1887. It includes a basement, a bar and a backyard.

The house has been used for wedding receptions and movie shoots over the years, and 19th century president Grover Cleveland was a guest at the home.

Real estate prices in Bed-Stuy have been rising over the years, although this was still a much more expensive sale than usual for the area. The average home price in the neighborhood is typically between $1.5 and $3 million, Ban Leow, the Halstead Property broker who sold the property, told WSJ.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

By signing up, you agree to TheRealDeal Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

Claudia Moran, 76, bought the brownstone 32 years ago and listed the house for $6 million. Several developers offered her more than the asking price, given its location and the more than 16,000 buildable square feet it offered, but she turned them down because she did not want them to tear down the property and build condos.

The property was landmarked in 2015, and Moran found her buyers in the last six months. They are anonymous and purchasing the property through a limited liability company.

“It has to be someone who cares for it as much as I do,” Moran told the Journal. [WSJ]Eddie Small