First off, let me say that this is a well maintained, beautiful building. You will never find bugs, your maintenance needs will be attended to promptly and the staff is amazingly friendly.

However, because of the overall management decisions regarding this building, I am NOT recommending it to anyone. I have lived here for three years. My roommate has lived in this building for six. My first year, the rent was raised about 2.5%. Fair and understandable. The following year, we signed a 2 year lease that raised our rent close to 8%. This year, our rent was raised 18%! The reason given to us was that our apartment was well below market value for Manhattan standards.

It's well known that the real estate scene in New York is borderline criminal. The brokers are in bed with the supers/landlords and they are all in bed with the New York judicial system. In my four and a half years in New York, I have been witness to blatent racism, landlords tricking their rent stabalized tenants into getting kicked out of their apartments so they can re-establish a higher rent and rent hikes in non rent stabalized buildings that are extraordinarly insensitive to long term tenants who expected that their credibility and patronage to a management company might yeild a certain amount of leniency when deciding just how much to raise the rent each year.

The excuse this year was that this building was not renting at its market value. Market value is an easy term to throw around as a landlord, especially in New York City. But with a terrible economy, a housing crisis borderlining on complete disaster for the real estate scene and a jobs market that is in a severe decline, are we expected to believe that a one bedroom (converted to house two people) is really worth 600 dollars more than it has been renting for in the last two years'

Yes, Manhattan is an incredibly populated city and one that houses some of the wealthiest folks in the world, but an 18% rent hike is extraordinary. In most states, this would be down right illegal and I beg new tenants to be aware now that there is no loyalty to long term tenants. If they can move you out, they will and there is no limit to what your rent can go up each year. The New York Housing Commission does not protect tenants in non rent stabalized apartments and this is one of them.

It WAS a nice building and the good news is that I was planning on moving irregardless of the rent hike (my job was taking me to the other coast). But, I wanted to seriously warn new tenants that the management company of this building is suckling pretty hard on the teat of Greed. Couple that with its complete and embarassing sell out to the folks at B&H and for a 2700 dollar, 450 square foot apartment, you can now find yourself waking up every morning to the staff of B&H and their interminable construction jobs that will take place right outside your window. Go Charlil, LLC!!!

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