I was surprised reading the other reviews here - most people were so negative.

My experience was positive. I lived in #524 for 2 years.

Views were great - the design of the floorplan was flawed in that it did not capitalize on the views. Closet space was excellent.

Noise was very low. Occaisionally I heard a baby next door and only once did I hear talking on the other side. I think the hearing is much more sensitive in this building since there is so little background noise - e.g. traffic, etc., which you would expect to find in the average manhattan apartment. Sometimes I would get noise from the business center which was right outside my front door but this was not too bad.

Facilities - I thought the facilities were great. Yes I was promised there would be a swimming pool constructed but I do not expect to see it in my lifetime. I found the gym room great for my purposes other than when they closed it for a month a pipe breakage. I used the business center only once. I was always careful about using the computers there since they always got viruses from other careless users. The number of times I came back to my apartment to see other residents watching porn on the pc in the business center.

Quality of fitout - This is pathetic. I would not be surprised if money changed hands to get this through the building inspection. I had bad window leakage in the bedroom to the point that I left buckets there permanently. The staff did their best to fix it but never did in all the time I was there. The base boards had gaps between them and the sheetrock walls - in one bathroom I could fit my hand between them. Not one door in the apartment was straight - most did not close at all. My burglar alarm was the parquet floor - it squeaked and groaned as you walked across it - most blocks were loose and badly fitting. This was strange to me when the kitchen was well fitted out with quality materials and appliances. Having a washer and dryer in the apartment was great - a definite positive.

Heating and cooling - Not an issue. I had vents in all rooms (including bathrooms) and it worked fine.

Staff - I got on well with all the staff in the office. I know some people had issues but I never did. I could not speak more highly of them. The maintenance guys tried hard.

Security - I never had an issue but I noted that you could always walk straight in past the concierge without being stopped. That said I never heard any complaints about breakins or other crime within the building.

Cost - When I first moved in here soon after opening, I had a pretty wide choice of apartments vacant and the cost was very reasonable with the incentive. When I left however, the effective rent had gone up by 50% in 2 years and was likely to go much higher. Initially it was great value. By the end I was questioning value for money compared elsewhere. For this reason I moved out since I bought an apartment in the area that will end up much cheaper over the ownership life.

Parking spaces were on the small side but for what I was driving it was adequate. The day I had borrowed a Ford Expedition was an eye opener. I ended up using 2 parking spots!

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates