185 Hall Street (Willoughby Walk)
185 Hall Street, Brooklyn, NY 11205
Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
BBL 3019050001 · BIN 3054892
- Year built
- 1958
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 287
- Floors
- 16
- Landmark
- No
- Flip tax
- Seller-paid waiver fee of $145 per share - the corporation's by-law right to purchase at market value, waived for a fee; subject to board change. Plus $800 stock transfer administrative fee and NYS stock transfer tax at closing
- Financing
- Lenders generally finance 80-90% per the purchaser package; board must approve the recognition/Aztech agreement. Board-set minimum incomes: studio $40,000, 1BR $50,000, 2BR $60,000, 3BR $70,000
- Subletting
- Hardship only (job relocation, education, illness, or listed for sale six months at market price without a buyer); board approval; two-year maximum; subtenant screened as a purchaser; rent capped at shareholder's carrying charges; sublet fee $4.00 per share per month; HUD Section 213 sublease form
- Pied-à-terre
- Not permitted - shareholders must reside in the apartment they purchase
- Washer / dryer
- Prohibited - plumbing not designed for in-apartment machines
- Pets
- Max two per apartment; annual registration and re-registration with photos, inoculation proof, license, emergency caretaker, $100 annual fee (2002 rules) and homeowner's insurance naming the corporation; 5-foot leash; curbed off co-op property; barred from playground and laundry
Compiled by The Roebling Research Desk from the building’s offering plan, amendments, and related building documents (primary source dated 2017-02 (purchaser package) / 2014-09 (rules and regulations)). Reported and subject to confirmation. Board policies can change by amendment — confirm at the offer stage.
Willoughby Walk is a piece of 1950s urban renewal that its own residents bought out of federal ownership. The site was cleared under one of two Pratt Institute–area renewal projects of the early and mid-1950s; the two 16-story towers went up on the resulting superblock, with construction completed in 1959 according to the offering plan. The project carried an FHA-insured mortgage, and when that arrangement failed, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development took title on October 20, 1972 and ran the property directly for the next five years.
What followed is the part of the story that shapes the building today. A group of residents incorporated Willoughby Walk Apartments Corp., organized a Section 213 cooperative in April 1975, and negotiated the purchase of the project from HUD — $6,109,000, against a $5,978,000 purchase-money mortgage held by HUD itself and roughly $900,000 raised from tenant subscriptions at $10 a share. The plan's own prospectus described Clinton Hill as a neighborhood "undergoing a renaissance" and cast the conversion as a stabilizing act. It very nearly did not happen: the required tenant participation was reduced from 75 percent to 65 percent along the way, the corporation borrowed seed money from Citicorp Community Development to keep the process alive, and the closing did not occur until midnight on September 30, 1977. The first shareholder-elected board met that November.
That origin explains almost everything distinctive about the rulebook. Willoughby Walk is a resident-controlled cooperative that has never been an investment vehicle. Shareholders must live in their apartments. Sublets are granted only on hardship, capped at two years, capped at the shareholder's own carrying charges, and taxed at four dollars per share per month. When an apartment sells, the corporation exercises or waives a purchase right of its own, and the waiver fee — $145 per share in the co-op's purchaser package — is the closing cost sellers most often overlook. In 2014 the board even amended every occupancy agreement to carry a uniform January 1, 2063 end date, renewable in three-year terms, because lenders had balked at what looked on paper like a three-year tenancy.
The physical building rewards the discipline. Willoughby Walk's towers are brick slabs with balconies on eight of the eighteen lines per floor, laid out on landscaped grounds with a gated resident playground and surface parking — an amenity set that boutique Clinton Hill infill does not offer, on a block that sits a block from Pratt Institute and three from Myrtle Avenue.
Architecture and unit composition
185 Hall Street is Building I: sixteen stories, 287 apartments, 18 to a floor except the first, and 987½ rooms in the cooperative's own count. Construction is brick over a reinforced-concrete frame. Windows are aluminum casements closed by rotary mechanisms — a detail the 1973 engineering survey singled out because the sash lacked stiffness at the top, and a category of work that any current owner should ask about, since replacement windows in a building of this vintage are usually a shareholder or corporation project rather than an original condition. Terraces are concrete slabs projecting from lines 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 13, 15 and 16 above the first floor; the same survey documented cracking, corner spalling and drainage pitch across a majority of them in 1973, and terrace-slab and railing maintenance has been a recurring capital theme for buildings of this construction ever since.
The apartment mix is unusually legible for a postwar building because the cooperative publishes it by line. Studios run two rooms with a walk-in kitchenette and dining area. One-bedrooms come in two shapes: a three-room version with a walk-in kitchenette, and a 3½-room version with a proper kitchen-dining area. Two-bedrooms run 4½ rooms with a bath and a half, with the 12 line carrying two full baths, and a five-room version with a full kitchen, breakfast nook and dining area. Three-bedrooms are 5½ rooms with a bath and a half. Every apartment was wired with a 208-volt air-conditioning outlet in the living room and a 120-volt outlet in each bedroom — a genuine convenience in a building where through-wall sleeves, not window units projecting past the façade, are the rule.
Each floor has a compactor room, converted from the original incinerator system. Elevators run on direct-current motors fed by motor-generator sets in the roof machine room; the buildings carry a master television antenna and a lobby-switchboard intercom.
Building operations
Willoughby Walk runs as a hands-on, resident-governed operation with the management office on site at 185 Hall Street, Suite 101. Security officers staff the lobbies, a superintendent and maintenance staff handle the physical plant, and the cooperative provides free Saturday pest-control service to apartments that sign up. Moves and deliveries require a property pass and a $200 refundable deposit, run only on weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., and use the basement entrance.
The division of repair responsibility is spelled out and matters at underwriting. The corporation maintains the heating, plumbing, electrical, gas and intercom systems, window frames, elevators, public areas and grounds. The shareholder is responsible for stoves, refrigerators, floor tile, window glass, terrace doors, sinks, tubs, toilets, cabinets and counters, apartment entrance doors and all decoration — with board approval and a management inspection required for replacements. Small hardware items are repaired by staff on a charge-back for materials.
Shareholders have been required since November 10, 2008 to carry comprehensive liability and property damage insurance naming the corporation as an additional insured, with annual proof. The house rules also carry a graduated violation fee schedule — $100, $200, $300 and up — administered through an internal affairs committee of board members. Financial statements for the corporation are maintained in The Roebling Research Library and support trend-level diligence on carrying-charge growth and capital practice; the current mortgage position, reserve level and any live assessment should be confirmed with management.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| May 11, 2026 | 1607 | $555,000 |
| Apr 20, 2026 | 1710 | $575,000 |
| Mar 10, 2026 | 1401 | $560,000 |
| Feb 13, 2026 | 307 | $550,000 |
| Aug 12, 2025 | 410 | $655,000 |
| Mar 3, 2025 | 511 | $600,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-01905-0001) 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
Plan for a full board process. Application fee, financial documentation, credit and tenant-screening reports, a home visit, a screening-committee interview and a board vote. Assemble the package properly the first time.
You must live here. No pied-à-terre, no investor purchase, and sublets only on documented hardship for a maximum of two years.
Price the terrace. Lines 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, 13, 15 and 16 carry terraces above the first floor and trade differently from the rest of the building. Match your comparables on that one variable before anything else.
Ask about windows, terraces and elevators. Aluminum casements with rotary closers, projecting concrete terrace slabs and DC elevator machinery are the three systems that define the capital conversation in a building of this vintage. Ask what has been done and what is scheduled.
Read the occupancy agreement, not a proprietary lease. This is a Section 213 cooperative: shareholders hold an occupancy agreement, now carrying a uniform January 1, 2063 end date renewable in three-year terms. Your attorney and your lender should both see it early.
What to know if you’re selling
Model the waiver fee into net proceeds. At $145 per share it is the largest seller-side cost in the transaction and the one most often missed in a first pricing conversation.
Qualify the buyer before the board does. Owner-occupancy, income minimums and a home visit mean an unprepared purchaser costs you months. Screen for fit at the offer stage.
Lead with the grounds and the terrace. Landscaped superblock, gated playground, on-site parking and a private outdoor room are what this building has that Clinton Hill's newer boutique inventory does not.
Price per room against the complexes, not the brownstones. The correct set is the neighborhood's large cooperative complexes; converted row-house co-ops on Waverly and Cambridge Place are a different market.
Document the renovation. In a building of repeating lines, a clean, approved alteration history is the most persuasive thing in the deal room.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 185 Hall Street, also evaluate:
- 195 Willoughby Avenue (Willoughby Walk) — the complex's second tower, same corporation and rulebook, different frontage
- 185 Clinton Avenue (Clinton Hill Co-ops, North Campus) — the wartime co-op campus five blocks north; courtyard grounds at far larger scale
- 345 Clinton Avenue (Clinton Hill Co-ops, South Campus) — the same complex inside the Clinton Hill Historic District
- 135 Eastern Parkway (Turner Towers) — prewar Prospect Heights co-op peer priced per room
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 Willoughby Walk?
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 Willoughby Walk 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.