About Robert E. Kent
Rob Kent moved to Stony Brook 24 years ago and has lived in Head of the Harbor since 2017. During those years, he has walked thousands of miles through the Village and Avalon Park with his old dog, Holly, or with his daughters’ dogs, Ophelia and Arlo, and spent hours paddleboarding and kayaking on Smithtown Bay. Rob currently lives across from the small pond at the intersection of Saddle Road and Rhododendron Road. It’s a location that reminds us of the beauty of Head of the Harbor and inspires a desire to help maintain it as a great place to live.
The small pond at the intersection of Saddle Road and Rhododendron Road is the first bit of nature one encounters after crossing over the Stony Brook into Smithtown and one of the gateways to the Village. Sadly, since the collapse of Harbor Road and the loss of the Stony Brook Mill Pond it has become quite a bit noisier and busier. Many residents’ and neighbors’ lives, including wildlife, have become much more difficult. Our commuters, service trucks, fuel trucks, school buses and emergency vehicles need to negotiate narrow roads not meant for regular two-way traffic. The missing dam and roadway has cutoff direct auto and pedestrian traffic between us and our neighbors, including access to Avalon Park, and Stony Brook Village shops. Most significant is the added time the collapsed Harbor Road causes emergency vehicles to respond to calls for help.
When Mayor Michael Utevsky inquired if Rob would consider running with him as a Village Trustee to assist the Village, and the issues we are facing, he had to say yes. Michael has worked to improve the road, stormwater, and water quality of the Village. To get the best minds working on the issue of the rest of the Village’s needs, he created an Infrastructure Planning Committee to develop long-term strategies for this problem. Rob believes that in addition to public safety and security, local government should be focused on infrastructure maintenance, construction and repair, creating a quality environment for all residents to benefit from and enjoy.
Mr. Kent is supportive of the Village’s efforts to pressure Ward Melville Heritage Organization and the Town of Brookhaven to get the dam rebuilt and Harbor Road reopened, along with continued negotiations with the Town of Smithtown, the State of New York and the County of Suffolk. There is still more work to be done, and Rob looks forward to working with the Board and Village personnel to create a tangible solution.
Over the past 24 years Rob has worked in the real estate business in all phases, including construction, development, and financing. This included preservation of over 180 acres of open spaces in Virginia, building a temporary dam in Lindenhurst to allow for remediation and restoration of a polluted creek, and working with the DEC and the Army Corps of Engineers to build auto and pedestrian bridges over streams in Port Jefferson, and Lindenhurst. Rob plans to use his real estate and finance experience to create a sustainable solution to the repair of Harbor Road and other infrastructure projects of the Village.
Rob graduated from Brown University in 1984 with a BA in Economics and a BA in Organizational Behavior and Management. He graduated from Loyola Law School in 1989 with a Juris Doctorate and earned a master’s degree with Distinction in Real Estate Finance from New York University in 2009, bringing a unique, integrated approach to law, finance and real estate.
Rob is currently a board member of The Real Estate Institute at Stony Brook University and volunteers as Treasurer on the Board of the historic Old Field Club in Setauket, NY.
Mr. Kent was born in Los Angeles, California. He has four children, son, Robert Jr. (UC Berkeley 2018) and daughters Daryn (UC Berkeley 2020; Penn State Dickinson Law School 2026), Darby (Cornell University 2023; Louisiana State University MBA 2025) and Delaney (NYU 2027). Mr. Kent moved from California to New York in 2002 in order to pursue a career in real estate development. Mr. Kent regularly participates in community and church functions and was the Cub Scout Master for Three Village Pack 18 from 2005 until 2007.
Rob cares deeply about his community and desires to use his knowledge to help Head of the Harbor sustain its cultural history, maintain its safety and security, maintain its strong environmental history, and simultaneously preserve its economic stability. Hence the Sustainable Village Party platform.