122 Ashland Place (University Towers)
122 Ashland Place, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
BBL 3020610040 · BIN 3058255
- Year built
- 1958
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 184
- Floors
- 15
- Landmark
- No
- Pets
- Not publicly documented — confirm against current house rules
122 Ashland Place is one of three towers that make up University Towers, and University Towers is the largest block of genuinely for-sale housing on the Fort Greene–Downtown Brooklyn seam. That sentence does more work than it looks like it does. The blocks immediately around it have filled in since 2008 with tall residential buildings that are, almost without exception, rental — held by their developers, marketed by leasing offices, and organized as condominiums only in the paperwork. University Towers is the opposite: a shareholder-owned cooperative of roughly 550 apartments where a buyer purchases shares, sits for a board interview, and holds a proprietary lease.
The buildings date to 1958 and were rentals for their first three decades. Brownstoner's building history places the co-op conversion in 1989 and describes the original development as rental housing associated with Long Island University's Brooklyn campus, two blocks west — an account consistent with the complex's name but not one this profile can trace to a primary source. What the public record does establish is the shape of the thing: three 15-story brick towers set on three very large parcels, each running roughly 1.8 acres, with the buildings placed well back from the street and the remaining ground given to lawns, planting and parking. That is a tower-in-the-park site plan, and it is the reason a 15-story building here feels less dense than an eight-story one on South Oxford Street.
The Mitchell-Lama question is the first one a serious buyer should ask about any large 1950s Brooklyn co-op, and here the answer is clean. University Towers appears on neither HPD's roster of city-supervised Mitchell-Lama developments nor the state-supervised roster. Its neighbor Atlantic Terminal, at 161 South Elliott Place a few blocks southeast, does appear on the city roster and remains an active limited-equity development with a waiting list — which is exactly why the distinction matters. At University Towers there is no income ceiling, no surrender-and-resell mechanism, and no HPD approval in the transaction; apartments sell at negotiated prices to board-approved purchasers.
What buyers actually get for that is a specific and increasingly scarce Brooklyn product: postwar apartment layouts at postwar room sizes, in a building with an elevator, a staffed lobby, laundry, fitness space and on-site parking, at maintenance levels that a 1958 building with no underlying luxury amenity program can sustain. Ceiling heights are modest and the finishes are whatever the last owner installed. The trade is space and carrying cost against period charm, and in a neighborhood whose alternative for-sale stock is either a ten-unit brownstone conversion or a new condominium at new-condominium pricing, that trade finds buyers.
Location does the rest. Fort Greene Park and the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument are three blocks east; BAM, the Mark Morris Dance Center and the Brooklyn Cultural District start two blocks south; the Brooklyn Navy Yard's south gate is a walk north. The subway concentration here — DeKalb Avenue and Lafayette Avenue, with the Atlantic Terminal complex a short walk further — is among the densest in Brooklyn.
Architecture and unit composition
The building is a 15-story brick tower, unornamented in the postwar manner, sited on a landscaped parcel rather than at the sidewalk. Its two siblings at 175 and 191 Willoughby Street are the same height and the same construction year, and Department of Finance records give them 183 units each against 184 here. The three parcels together run to roughly 233,000 square feet of land, which is the single most consequential architectural fact about the complex: it is the open ground, not the buildings, that defines the experience of living here.
Unit composition follows the 1950s middle-income template — studios through three-bedrooms, with closet counts and room proportions that read generously against contemporary construction. Individual apartments vary widely in condition, since forty years of shareholder ownership have produced a full range from original to gut-renovated. Line position, floor and exposure drive light and view; the upper floors on the western and southern elevations pick up Downtown Brooklyn and, on the higher floors, longer skyline views. Because the buildings sit outside any historic district, window replacement and exterior work have not required Landmarks review, which simplifies both the corporation's capital planning and any shareholder alteration.
Building operations
University Towers Apartment Corp. owns and operates all three buildings as a single corporation, which means one board, one budget, one set of house rules and one financial statement across roughly 550 apartments. That scale is the operational story. It supports staffing and amenity levels — on-site security, fitness facilities, laundry rooms, grounds maintenance — that a 10- or 20-unit Fort Greene co-op cannot, and it spreads capital costs across a large share base. The cooperative's own published materials identify FirstService Residential as managing agent.
The parking arrangement is worth understanding before it turns up in a contract. The cooperative describes more than 200 parking spaces available for purchase or rent from shareholders — that is, spaces that trade between residents rather than being allocated by the corporation from a waiting list. A buyer who needs parking should establish early whether a space is included in the transaction, whether it is separately purchased, and how the corporation documents the transfer.
Capital diligence for a 1958 masonry high-rise runs to the usual list: FISP/Local Law 11 façade cycles, elevator modernization, roof, and the building's heating and domestic-water plant. Ask for the last several years of financial statements, the current reserve position, and any assessment history across all three buildings, since the corporation is unitary.
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 transfers 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 16, 2026 | 15K | $671,026.75 |
| Dec 17, 2025 | 3D | $590,000 |
| Sep 30, 2025 | 15B | $976,501.75 |
| Sep 4, 2025 | 15D | $625,000 |
| Jul 30, 2025 | 5L | $949,000 |
| May 30, 2025 | 11L | $974,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-02061-0040) 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
Confirm the co-op's status in writing, then stop worrying about it. University Towers is not on HPD's city-supervised Mitchell-Lama roster or the state roster, and there is no income restriction or resale formula. Nearby Atlantic Terminal at 161 South Elliott Place is a different animal entirely.
Get the house rules and purchase application before you write an offer. Pets, sublets, pied-à-terre use, washer/dryer and financing minimums are not publicly documented here, and in a corporation this size the answers are specific and well established.
Read the financials across all three buildings. One corporation owns 122 Ashland Place, 175 Willoughby Street and 191 Willoughby Street. A capital project at either Willoughby building is your assessment too.
Sort out parking early. Spaces move between shareholders rather than through a corporation waiting list, so a space is a negotiated item, not an amenity you inherit.
Value the site plan. The 1.8-acre parcel is why this building has lawns, setback and light on all four elevations. It is the amenity that the surrounding lot-line towers cannot replicate.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the ownership form. On a block that has filled in with rental towers, "you can actually buy here" is the headline, not a footnote. State plainly that the building is a conventional cooperative with no income restriction.
Answer the Mitchell-Lama question in the listing. Sophisticated Brooklyn buyers ask it about every 1950s co-op. Getting ahead of it removes the single most common source of hesitation on this stock.
Price on renovation state against the whole complex. The correct comparable set is all three University Towers buildings, not the historic district's prewar co-ops. Renovated versus original is the dominant variable.
Sell the ground, not just the apartment. Setback, lawns, on-site parking and cross-ventilation are the case for a postwar tower against a new-construction alternative, and they photograph well.
Have the building package ready. Financial statements, reserve position and any current capital work should be in the deal room before the first showing; a large co-op's paperwork slows deals that were not prepared for it.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 122 Ashland Place, also evaluate:
- 191 Willoughby Street (University Towers) — the sibling tower under the same cooperative corporation; the most direct comparable that exists
- 185 Hall Street (Willoughby Walk) — Clinton Hill's 1959 urban-renewal cooperative; the closest peer in scale, vintage and site plan
- 195 Willoughby Avenue (Willoughby Walk) — the second Willoughby Walk tower, same corporation, same postwar register
- 185 Clinton Avenue (Clinton Hill Co-ops) — the large Clinton Hill co-op campus; the other big for-sale block in the area
- 345 Clinton Avenue (Clinton Hill Apartments) — companion campus building, similar scale and buyer profile
- 110 Livingston Street — Downtown Brooklyn's large converted building; the nearest comparably sized for-sale alternative to the west
- 135 Eastern Parkway (Turner Towers) — Prospect Heights' large prewar co-op; a price-per-room benchmark at scale
- 96 Schermerhorn Street (Boerum Court) — postwar co-op alternative on the Downtown Brooklyn edge
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
Considering a move at University Towers?
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 University Towers 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.