Good apartment, lazy management
Pros
Nice building with elevator, each unit has outdoor space. Units are pretty big. It is a Great place to live when things are working
Cons
Management is not always most responsive or proactive. Went periods of time with no hot water many times; instead of looking into the actual issue they continued to send the super for a quick fix. Eventually sent a real technician who confirmed the boiler needed to be replaced. Building is not up-kept very well - hallways never sweeped, stairwell door slams shut and has never been fixed, laundry machines get build up and are never cleaned up
Advice to the owners
Look into actual issues instead of quick fixes for everything Respond to your tenants quickly and communicate with them if you are working on an issue so they know what is going on Get a full time super who can actually keep the building in good shape
Nice building, terrible management
Pros
- Nice new place with a perfectly functional and large elevator that was a huge plus during move-in and obviously just through daily living - garbage and recycling is in the basement and we’ll sealed off from any units as units begin on the 2nd floor - the Super, George, is pretty responsive and handy despite not being a live-in super - rent stabilized - great square footage compared to most NYC spots, and within easy walking distance to the J/M/Z and L trains, as well as ample bus stop availability. Neighborhood seems to be on the come up with some newer restaurants, but still stays true to its heavily Puerto Rican community.
Cons
- TERRIBLE MANAGEMENT: My bedroom AC unit did not work upon move-in but as it was February, I didn’t discover this until early April. After 2 separate service requests, 15 calls to HSC Management (the property manager, not the building owner G57 LLC) and 10 attempted calls to Josh Koppel (the president of the management company and the final signature needed on work proposals such as replacing an AC part or unit), 2 voicemails, and 2 emails, I received one response from an employee at Josh’s behest after almost 2 months of trying to get this AC fixed, and it was clear Josh had somebody else call because he didn’t want to talk to me. It now regularly reaches 80 degrees in my bedroom at night, or I have to keep my living room AC running for hours upon hours at a time, absolutely destroying my electric budget. Across the hall neighbor is having the same issue with their unit and similarly, getting HSC to do anything. If you have to rent an HSC property, it’s great as long as nothing ever goes wrong, but this is NYC so ultimately things will. I should’ve heeded the Yelp reviews but it is hard to tell as most managers have subpar reviews. Rent at your own risk, or be willing to submit 311s, DHCR complaints, or just threaten other legal recourse as it seems to be the only thing that gets this company to take action, if at all. - this building has a club/bar/cafe on the first floor that is open until 2 am on Thu/Fri/Sat, although if you search them on Apple Maps these hours aren’t updated. They play some pretty crappy club music and have pretty large speakers that bleed through to my 3rd floor apartment pretty consistently. I’m a recent big-college grad and deep sleeper/night owl, so it doesn’t bother me too much but would certainly drive less accommodating tenants up the wall. I imagine the 4th and 5th floors are pretty well removed from this issue though. Additionally, the club definitely pushes its closing time every now and then, which I’m sure goes against their liquor license but it doesn’t seem to be enforced. Bar patrons can also be incredibly inconsiderate late at night when leaving or standing outside the club’s front doors. -Graham Ave. is pretty loud with car/truck/scooter traffic, and plenty of clapped out Honda’s and Infiniti’s with subwoofers roll by in the night. Again, I’m a deep sleeper so I got used to it, but could certainly bother less tolerant people.
Advice to the owners
Do literally the bare minimum to help your tenants, because somehow they aren’t even doing that right now. Get a new president because Josh Koppel is not only useless and sucks at his job, but he is also a jerk. Building owners should also beware, because I know that my rent-stabilized and nice apartments stayed vacant longer than many other equivalent places during arguably their hottest NYC rental market in decades and the only common denominator I can think of is building management. You will have higher annual vacancy costs with this awful management company.
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