191 Willoughby Street (University Towers)

191 Willoughby Street is a 15-story brick tower of the plain postwar type, sited on an open parcel rather than at the sidewalk. Its neighbors at 175 Willoughby Street and 122 Ashland Place are the same height and vintage; Department of Finance records give 183 units here and at 175 Willoughby, and 184 at Ashland Place. The three parcels together run to roughly 233,000 square feet of land — the reason a 15-story building on this block reads as less dense than a mid-rise on a Fort Greene row-house street.

The apartment mix follows the 1950s middle-income template: studios through three-bedrooms, with room dimensions and closet arrangements to compare directly with specific newer apartments. Condition varies enormously across the building after nearly four decades of shareholder ownership, and condition — not line — is what a buyer is really pricing. Floor and exposure govern light and view, with upper floors on the north and west picking up Downtown Brooklyn and longer skyline. Because the building sits outside any historic district, windows and exterior work proceed without Landmarks review, which simplifies both corporate capital planning and shareholder alterations.

One corporation, University Towers Apartment Corp., owns and runs all three buildings: a single board, a single budget, a single set of house rules, one financial statement covering roughly 550 apartments. The shared budget funds on-site security, fitness facilities, laundry rooms and grounds maintenance; unit count alone does not establish lower maintenance than smaller cooperatives. Review actual share allocations, costs, reserves and capital obligations. The cooperative's own website identifies FirstService Residential as managing agent.

Parking deserves specific attention because it is structured unusually. The cooperative describes more than 200 spaces available for purchase or rent from shareholders — spaces that change hands between residents rather than being assigned by the corporation from a list. Establish before contract whether a space is included, how it is priced, and how the corporation papers the transfer.

For capital diligence, treat this as what it is: a 1958 masonry high-rise. FISP/Local Law 11 façade cycles, elevator modernization, roofing, and the heating and domestic-water plant are the recurring items. Because the corporation is unitary, request financial statements, reserve position and assessment history for the whole complex, not just this building.

Pets, subletting, pied-à-terre, washer/dryer, financing minimums and any flip tax: Not publicly documented. In a corporation of this size these policies are long-settled and specific, and the right source is the managing agent's current purchase application and house rules — not inference from building type. Get each answer in writing before an offer.

Board approval: Standard cooperative process — application package, financial review, interview.

Income and equity restrictions: None. This is a conventional cooperative, not a Mitchell-Lama, HDFC or other limited-equity structure.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.

Market read. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $966/sf (floor-adjusted) across 3 sales. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 0.6% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-02061-0060). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

Settle the Mitchell-Lama question and move on. The building appears on neither the city-supervised nor the state-supervised roster, and there is no income restriction or resale formula. Atlantic Terminal at 161 South Elliott Place is the nearby development that does carry those constraints.

Pull the house rules and purchase application before you bid. Pets, sublets, pied-à-terre use, washer/dryer and financing standards are undocumented publicly and specific in practice.

Underwrite the whole complex. One corporation covers all three towers. A façade or elevator project at 122 Ashland Place lands on your maintenance bill.

Treat parking as a negotiated item. Spaces trade shareholder-to-shareholder, so a space is bought or rented, not inherited with the apartment.

Buy the condition, not the line. After nearly four decades of shareholder ownership the apartments range from original to fully rebuilt, and that range is where the price spread lives.

Say clearly that this is for-sale housing. On a block dominated by rental towers, the ownership form is the differentiator, and buyers scanning the neighborhood assume the opposite.

Pre-empt the Mitchell-Lama question in the listing. State the documented ownership and eligibility framework so prospective buyers can assess whether it meets their needs.

Comp across all three towers. Start with comparable University Towers apartments and include relevant historic-district co-ops, adjusting for condition, layout, floor, exposure, services and carrying costs.

Market the ground. Describe the setback, lawns, apartment ventilation and parking access, and compare those features with specific nearby alternatives.

Prepare the building package first. Financials, reserve position and current capital work should be assembled before the first showing; large co-op paperwork slows unprepared deals.

If you're considering 191 Willoughby Street, also evaluate:

• 122 Ashland Place (University Towers) — the Ashland Place tower under the same cooperative corporation; the closest possible comparable
• 195 Willoughby Avenue (Willoughby Walk) — Clinton Hill's 1959 urban-renewal cooperative tower; the nearest peer in vintage and site plan
• 185 Hall Street (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 block of for-sale housing nearby
• 345 Clinton Avenue (Clinton Hill Apartments) — companion campus building at comparable scale
• 110 Livingston Street — Downtown Brooklyn's large converted building; the closest big for-sale alternative to the west
• 75 Henry Street — Brooklyn Heights' large postwar cooperative; a scale-and-vintage benchmark
• 135 Eastern Parkway (Turner Towers) — Prospect Heights' large prewar co-op; a price-per-room reference at scale