30 Willow Place

The building runs 48 feet 10 inches across its frontage and 60 feet 10 inches deep, five stories, in limestone and brick. It was built as two structures — hence the 30 and 32 addresses — and the seam is still legible in the numbering: one side runs 1, 1A, 1B, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, the other 1 through 9. A combination at 2C–2D appears in recorded instruments, so the fifteen units on the city's rolls may not be fifteen apartments today.

At roughly 930 gross square feet per apartment this is a larger format than the district's smaller walk-ups deliver, and apartments here have shown open plans, wood-beamed ceilings and exposed brick. Because the building sits on the west side of Willow Place, rear and upper apartments look over Columbia Place, the expressway trench and the harbor beyond; front apartments look directly at Colonnade Row — two genuinely different apartments at similar share counts.

Willowtown Apts. Inc. has run this building since 1962, longer than most Brooklyn Heights cooperatives have existed. Fifteen apartments, five walk-up floors, no elevator, no staff of record: the operating base is lean, and maintenance should reflect that relative to the district's serviced tiers. The recurring capital items are façade maintenance, the roof and the windows, allocated under the cooperative’s governing documents. The stated five-story height does not itself trigger FISP, which applies to buildings higher than six stories.

The corporation also owns the neighboring lot at 34 Willow Place, carried as a parking lot. In a district where off-street parking essentially does not exist, that is a real asset — an amenity attached to particular apartments and a line on the balance sheet. Establish early whether a specific apartment carries a parking right and whether it transfers on sale.

Financing: A 20 percent minimum down payment has been reported. Confirm the current requirement in writing — in a fifteen-unit corporation, board policy moves without notice to the public record.

Parking: Governed by the corporation's arrangements for the 34 Willow Place lot rather than by the proprietary lease's standard terms. Get it in writing before assuming a space conveys.

Exterior work: LPC approval is required for all exterior alterations, windows included. Across from the borough's last colonnade row, expect attentive review of windows, ironwork and masonry.

Pets, subletting, pied-à-terre, washer/dryer, and any flip tax: Not documented in the materials reviewed. Board practice controls.

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 (2021) cleared a median $1,063/sf (recorded) across 1 sale. Median listing discount 4.0% 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 3-00259-0047). 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.

Choose your side of the building deliberately. Front apartments face Colonnade Row; rear and upper apartments face the harbor over the expressway trench. Both are desirable and they are not interchangeable.

Resolve the parking question in writing. The corporation owns the lot next door. Whether your apartment carries a space, and on what terms, belongs in the analysis before you price the deal.

A 1962 cooperative narrows some diligence questions, not all. Confirm any sponsor-held or rent-regulated apartments, and review the current budget, audited statements, debt and any assessments.

It is still a five-story walk-up. No elevator, and no subway closer than a ten-minute walk. That is the trade Willowtown asks you to make.

Name the architects and the street. William Field & Son — Alfred Tredway White's architects, the Riverside Buildings one block west — on the block that holds Brooklyn's last colonnade row.

Lead the photography with the view and the gate. The harbor exposure and the Merz-designed entry fence do not exist at any comparable building. Colonnade Row belongs in the first three frames.

Sell 1962. State the date up front; buyers and their attorneys will still review the current budget, audited statements, debt and any assessments.

Price against format, not the block's houses. Willow Place's single-family numbers are irrelevant to a fifteen-unit co-op; the comparable set is the district's larger-format walk-up cooperatives.

If you're considering 30 Willow Place, also evaluate:

• 65 Atlantic Avenue — the 1849 Greek Revival co-op one block south at the district's boundary; smaller format, busier street
• 60 State Street — small contemporary condominium around the corner; the new-construction alternative in Willowtown's orbit
• 132 Joralemon Street — small cooperative at the head of Willow Place
• 151 Joralemon Street — moderate-scale Joralemon corridor co-op
• 9 College Place (Love Lane Mews) — the district's other former-stable enclave; the closest thing to Willow Place's character elsewhere in the Heights
• 149 Willow Street — Willow Street proper, north of Joralemon; the same street name, a different neighborhood
• 200 Hicks Street — larger co-op on the Hicks corridor two blocks east