I lived at the Aspen for the first 5 years the building was built. Apparently (or rumour has it) the owners ran out of money and then quickly tried to fill it up. Needless to say, the apartments (while nice and roomy) had some "problems" in the beginning. On my third night, the shower head in the bathroom came off and almost fell on my head during my shower!

Maintenance is quick, but the men are overworked. There are only 2 for a building that contains about 244 apartments!

Re the office staff: currently, the secretary is really nice, but I was there when the first secretary was employed, Cathy, and she worked like a horse. She was quickly fired when the "current" manager (other one quit), fired her for getting sick and needing time off due to surgery. Nice guy right' (But the REAL scoop was that she found out he was secretly living in the building WITHOUT paying rent, and no, at that time the owners did not authorize this).

The super is a complete a-hole. Racist to the extreme, thinks that all non-Croatians are "white trash". Don't get me started how he handles complaints from tenants who are minorities! And he treats the maintenance crew (all but 2), the front desk personnel like slaves, insulting them and constantly daring them to just "quit". Oh yeah, and as soon as they get a better paying job, they leave, so expect to see new faces often, especially at night. (Security' Hmmm, I've "woken" many poor underpaid front desk folks at 1:00 AM when coming home from dinners)


The manager "hides" in his office daily, letting the poor current secretary deal with tenant problems. Every month you hear a different tenant complaint when paying your rent at the office. The manager is NEVER to be found, yet seems to magically "come out" when the complaining tenant leaves.

There is a concierge/front desk personnel that rotate on shifts. They are employed through a third-party company. They are underpaid, overworked and treated badly by both the management and some of the tenants who for $4,000 per month seem to feel they should "open the door, answer the phone, get their packages, make sure that people do not come in without checking at the front door, - while keeping a smile on their faces!)

Usually there is only 1 person at the desk so obviously in a building this large they cannot do all things at once. They are there only to accept packages, assist those at the front desk, thats' it!!!

Ok, to the building itself. It is nice looking with roomy apartments, and different layouts. The problem is that the area is still surrounded by rough-necks, lots of drugs, lots of screaming, obscene fist-fights at 3:00 AM. Oh yeah, and don't be shocked when police trucks (plural) round-up all the drug dealers at the Metro North Apartments located at 1960-1966 First Avenue (across the street from the entrance of the Aspen). This is why all the exits remain closed after 6PM and to about 8 AM - not safe at all!!!

Then there are the freaking garbage trucks that roll out at 4/5:00 AM and it is so noisy!

Every single neighbor that moved in around the same time I did has moved, I think I was the last one to do so. (I hate moving)

All in all, this building is nice, BUT the prices are too high for the neighborhood, the Manager and Super as complete a-holes (but the current secretary, and front desk staff are nice - give them a break, they are not paid to be doorman or doormats!)

The few tenants that I knew from when I first moved in are those with government subsidized rents (from $400 to $700 in about 40 apartments). And some of them moved out to better places!!!

Do yourself a favor, do not move here, you will regret it!

P.S. Parking is leased by another company not run by the owners and they are snotty, could care less about the tenants and its' all about the Benjamins!

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 11/06/2009
I don't know if you're still a tenant here or not but I've been here since the building was built also and I have never had any problems with any of the things you listed. The security is wonderful for the amount they get paid, the most important part of the day is the morning, thats what gets my day started, and Ricardo (the 7-3 security) is always there with a smile on his face and telling everyone good morning and have a good day. What more do you want? The evening security hasn't been consistent but they try, most of them ask how you are and tell you have a good night. However, something I don't understand is that if you had such a problem with the building for such a long time, especially Ymer since he was here since the building first opened then why would you waste your money on an apartment that you dislike so much? Or was it Brian that finally did it for you and really pissed you off? The parking, as you mentioned is leased by another company, Imperial Parking System I believe... so why penalize everyone else about the parking people not caring about the tenants, they don't have to. I'm sure you don't give a crap about your clients are work either, because I sure don't. As for the drug busts and all of that, yes I have witnessed that also, but wouldn't that be a good thing? Foolish people... arresting people for drugs is a GOOD thing. Anyway I have noticed that the neighborhood is getting better, its on the rise. On 100th street all of those buildings are being renovated, across the street the old deli(s) are getting renovated and we're getting a nicer, bigger deli I believe. The projects across the street, there are rumors that people are getting thrown out of those and they aren't letting other people in; this is because somebody plans on buying the Metro Houses, so I've heard. P.S. You're not the last person here, because I've probably been here longer than you. And also, I don't want to get personal here but I wonder where you're going to "dinner" at 1am. Most kitchens close at 10. But the graveyard shift is a tough one, but whenever I come back the security is awake. (The new guy; the red-head).

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