Don't live at 33 West End Avenue.

1) Problems are not resolved in this building,
2) The managment company is incompetent,
3) It's not luxury living, but you are charged luxury prices.

Many residents, upon moving in when the building opened in 2007, had a number of things wrong with their apartments. Many of these issues, ranging from small to large, were never resolved. So, many of the original tennants moved out.

It is well known in the building that phone calls do not get returned by the management company, Knickerbocker. The original on-site building manager is no longer with Knickerbocker. However, when my lease expired in April 2008, there still was no building manager. PLUS, there were rumors that only a part-time building manager will be hired--for a "luxury" building.

Let's talk about this "luxury" living. Upon entering a luxury building you would expect to see the concierge stading behind what looks like a concierge desk. Instead, the concierges stand behind a cheap security guard desk--similar to what you would see in a building without a doorman, but with a part-time security guard.

During the winter, there is often no heat for the concierges. So, you will often find them wearing their winter coat, hat and gloves with a small heater at their side. They'll look sicker and sicker by the day, until, one by one, they become too sick to come to work. In the summertime, the heat is blaring at them. They're sweating and perspiring, and you're wondering why you pay high rent to view this show.

There is a shuttle bus driven by a woman who looks and talks like she was pulled off the streets. She cackles loudly and blares her music. The bus is supposed to run every 1/2 hour during commuter time in the morning and late afternoon/early evening. However, this woman leaves early if she wants to, or does not show up at all. Mangement has been "working on it" for quite some time now.

As for the apartments, the cabinetry and fixtures are mid-level Home Depot quality. Some of the apartments have great sound insulation. Some do not! Mine was one of them. Renter beware.

I have nothing but wonderful things to say about the Concierges. Without them, living at 33 would have been total hell. Concierges aside, it's not worth it to live at 33 West End Avenue. If you're going to pay high rent, find a building and management staff who will treat you decently, respond to your issues, and provide a quality living environment.

Manager's Response
From: Manager	Date: 11/21/2008
33 West End has made significant changes in many of it's building management and customer service policies and procedures over the past few months. We have hired a new live in Resident Manager to expertly handle any and all building issues that may arise. Our maintenance operation has been streamlined and made much easier by the highly qualified resident manager and his staff. By using www.buildinglink.com residents can submit any maintenance request online at anytime. Also, we have a completely new leasing and renewal staff on-site 7 days a week that is available to answer your questions and concerns. Please feel free to contact them at 212-969-9211 or visit our Website at www.33westend.com. Sincerely, 33 West End Management

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 04/07/2009
Lies... things are still the same. They suck. Nothing gets fixed around here and the building is slowly sinking because of the horrible foundation. There are cracks in my ceiling, the windows are not airtight anymore as I can feel cold air coming in at certain parts, the heating make a horrible loud clicking noise like it's about to fall apart, the closet doors are warped, AC will not come on for the most part, the advertised "prewired for high-speed" is a lie since I was told by a Verizon tech that the building used old cables in the walls (we had to run a cable through the length of our apartment all exposed), frequently the hot water and heat shuts down because the boiler shuts down and needs to be reset (which the lazy building manager and a specific concierge (JOEL) ignores), and the parquet floors are falling apart ( I have to pull splinters out of my dog's paws all the time!). This is the only "luxury" building that we've seen that doesn't have lights in the living area or the bedroom. A few other problems worth mentioning are: The laundry room as an exposed/open water disposal pipe that makes the whole room smell like mildew ( and is actually not up to code), the card machine for the laundry room makes you insert a 10bill (and only a 10) when you need a card to operate the machines so be prepared to run out for change (no, it doesn't accept cards), there's always at least one dryer and washer each that's out of order. The insulation sucks. I hear dogs barking, and neighbors making noises on either side and on top of me; one of which likes to use his apartment as a workshop so I'll hear a skill-saw and hammering all day and alllllll night, and by night I mean 3 o'clock in the morning. The ONLY good thing is... with the exception of Joel the concierge, ALL the other concierges are amazing; probably some of the nicest, hard-working people in the building. That's why I hate it here because from the mouth of several concierges, Knickerbocker Management underpays them. They're also guilty of bait and switch since they hired two concierges for "full-time" and once they were hired gave them part time paid; and these are the nice people who don't get paid for holidays or overtime even though 9 out of 10 times they're the ones working on holidays and doing overtime. Everyone that lives here knows that the management company sucks and the building manager is a lazy jerk. **exhale** There's probably more but I'm just beat... here's my long list... hope it drives away people that deserves to be treated well.
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/06/2009
I would have to agree with the above response. Nothing has really changed at 33 west end. Management is down right incompetent. I believe they like to state they are a luxury building is only due to the rent they charge short of that not much luxury in this building. There are much better options in the city these days that come in below what they are trying to charge.

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