Brooklyn Point (138 Willoughby Street)
138 Willoughby Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
BBL 3001497502 · BIN 3396962
- Year built
- 2019
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 483
- Floors
- 68
- Landmark
- No
- Pets
- Pets permitted (per management-sourced records)
Brooklyn Point is the building that proved Downtown Brooklyn could sell at Manhattan-adjacent prices, and it is also the borough's most instructive lesson in reading ownership structure before reading a floor plan.
Extell Development's tower at 138 Willoughby Street — marketed as 1 City Point — rose 68 stories and 720 feet above the City Point retail complex and was, on completion in 2020, the tallest building in Brooklyn. It held that title only briefly: The Brooklyn Tower at 9 DeKalb Avenue, on the same tax block, passed it shortly afterward. But Brooklyn Point arrived first, and it arrived with a sales program calibrated to a buyer who had, until then, been assumed not to exist in Downtown Brooklyn — the buyer paying new-development Manhattan prices for a Brooklyn address with a Manhattan view.
The design is by Kohn Pedersen Fox, with SLCE Architects as architect of record and interiors by Katherine Newman Design. KPF's façade is the building's signature: a checkered field of double-height beveled panels that reads as texture rather than as a flat curtain wall, resolving into an angled crown that gives the tower a recognizable silhouette from the Manhattan side of the river. It is a more considered exterior than the Downtown Brooklyn development cycle generally produced.
What genuinely distinguishes Brooklyn Point, though, is the amenity program and the way it uses the height. More than 40,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenity space culminates in a rooftop infinity pool at the crown of the tower, reported at opening as the highest residential infinity pool in the Western Hemisphere, alongside a sun deck, outdoor showers and a stargazing observatory. Below it sit a full indoor pool level with steam room and sauna, a regulation-scale basketball court, a fitness center with programmed classes, an entertainment room, a children's playroom, a pet spa, a terrace bar and a fire-pit lounge. Extell built the amenity floor as the product, and it worked.
The building sits directly atop City Point, Brooklyn's largest food, shopping and entertainment complex — the DeKalb Market Hall food hall, a cinema, a Trader Joe's, a Target and the Alamo Drafthouse are all in the podium below. Brooklyn Point was the first for-sale residential building at City Point, and the retail is genuinely integrated rather than merely adjacent: residents reach it without going outside. The location also sits on top of one of the deepest transit clusters in the city, with the B, Q and R at DeKalb Avenue, the A, C and G at Hoyt–Schermerhorn, the A, C, F and R at Jay Street–MetroTech, and the 2, 3, 4 and 5 at Nevins Street and Borough Hall all within a short walk.
The structure is where a buyer has to slow down. Brooklyn Point is not a condominium. It is a leasehold cooperative — the offering plan is titled as one — operating under condominium-style transfer rules, a structure the market calls a cond-op. The tower is divided into vertically stacked condominium units; the residential unit is owned by 138 Willoughby Apartment Corp., and purchasers buy shares in that corporation with a proprietary lease rather than a deeded condominium unit. The corporation's interest in the land is a leasehold. Management-sourced records indicate the ground rent was prepaid by the developer, which removes the escalating-rent risk that damages most land-lease buildings — but it does not remove the leasehold itself, and the term, the renewal mechanics and any purchase option are the first three things a buyer's attorney should read.
The consequences are practical rather than theoretical. Financing a leasehold co-op is a narrower lending market than financing a condominium. Appraisal comparables have to be drawn from within the building or from other leasehold structures. And resale marketing has to explain the structure clearly, because a buyer who discovers it late in diligence usually walks.
Architecture and unit composition
The plan offered 483 residences across 68 floors, running from studios through four-bedroom configurations, with the tower's larger lines and penthouse tier concentrated at the top. City records carry 458 residential units — a normal divergence between a plan's offered count and the assessor's count after combinations and reclassification, and worth reconciling for any specific unit.
Apartment interiors were designed by Katherine Newman Design to a consistent specification across the building rather than tiered by floor, which means the meaningful variable at Brooklyn Point is exposure and height rather than finish level. The building's north and west lines carry the direct Manhattan skyline and East River views that drive pricing; the south and east lines look across Downtown Brooklyn and Fort Greene. As at any tower of this height, comparable analysis must be line-specific.
The offering plan was declared effective in April 2019 on the strength of signed option agreements for 82 Tower Residences — 17 percent of the residences then offered — which is a useful marker of where the market actually was when the building came online, roughly a year before the first closings.
Building operations
Brooklyn Point is managed by an affiliate of the developer rather than by an independent third-party agent. That is common in Extell's for-sale portfolio and it has real consequences: application processing, alteration approvals and questionnaire turnaround all run through an entity related to the sponsor, and prospective purchasers should factor that into both timelines and diligence questions.
Staffing is full-service — 24-hour doorman and concierge, porter and a live-in superintendent. Building services include a package room, refrigerated delivery storage for grocery and meal deliveries, dry-cleaning valet, bicycle storage and a large-capacity laundry room in addition to the in-unit machines. Storage bins are available for purchase. Utilities are separately metered to each residence.
What to know if you’re buying
Read the ground lease first. Term, expiration, rent-reset mechanics, any prepayment and any purchase option are the facts that determine what you are buying. Everything else at Brooklyn Point is a preference; this is the risk.
Confirm the financing before you fall in love with the view. Not every lender writes leasehold cooperative loans, and terms differ from condominium terms. Get a lender comfortable with the structure in place before contract, not after.
Budget the working capital contribution. Two months' common charges, payable at application and non-refundable, is a real number on a large apartment and it does not appear on a generic closing-cost worksheet.
The abatement is finite. A 25-year benefit means the carrying cost you underwrite today is not the carrying cost you will have. Model the post-abatement number.
The amenity program is the reason to be here. Rooftop infinity pool, indoor pool, basketball court, 40,000-plus square feet across the stack — there is nothing else in Downtown Brooklyn at this depth, and it is what holds resale demand.
What to know if you’re selling
Disclose the structure early and explain it well. A buyer who understands the cond-op and the prepaid ground lease from the first showing is a buyer who stays. One who learns it from their attorney in week three usually does not.
Price against the building, then against the block. Same-line comparables inside Brooklyn Point are the anchor; 9 DeKalb Avenue and the wider Downtown Brooklyn condominium set are the competitive check.
Lead with height and exposure. The Manhattan-facing upper lines are the product. Photography and floor position do more work here than finish description.
Expect a condominium-speed process. With no cooperative board approval, transfers move on condo mechanics — but the managing agent is a sponsor affiliate, so build realistic processing time into the schedule.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering Brooklyn Point, also evaluate:
- The Brooklyn Tower (9 DeKalb Avenue) — the 93-story SHoP-designed tower on the same tax block; taller, mixed condominium-and-rental, and the most direct competitor for a Downtown Brooklyn view buyer
- 11 Schermerhorn Street — a Downtown Brooklyn condominium a few blocks south; a lower-rise, lower-price alternative in the same submarket
- The Symon (76 Schermerhorn Street) — boutique Downtown Brooklyn condominium; the small-building counterpoint
- The Brooklyn Grove (10 Nevins Street) — contemporary condominium at the Downtown Brooklyn–Boerum Hill seam
- The Lookout Hill Condominium (199 State Street) — smaller-scale condominium at the edge of Brooklyn Heights
- Front & York (85 Jay Street) — DUMBO's largest condominium; the closest peer for amenity depth and unit count, on fee-owned land
- J Condominium (100 Jay Street) — DUMBO tower with Manhattan and bridge views; a direct pricing benchmark for high-floor Brooklyn exposure
- The Beacon Tower (85 Adams Street) — DUMBO condominium with river and skyline views
- One Clinton (1 Clinton Street) — Marvel's Brooklyn Heights condominium; the design-forward alternative at a smaller scale
- One Brooklyn Bridge Park (360 Furman Street) — the borough's largest condominium conversion; the other Brooklyn building that functions as its own submarket
- 3 Court Square (Skyline Tower) — the Long Island City equivalent: an outer-borough supertall sold at scale with a comparable amenity program, structured as a straightforward condominium
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.
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