Very flexible and kind management
Pros
The super John does a great job of managing the entire building--extremely responsive. It was a great building to live at and the neighbors were nice too. Despite being right next to a fire station there's no noise.
Cons
There could have been more done to update the apartment. The appliances and touches felt a bit outdated.
Advice to the owners
Update appliances, improve the building appearance, give John a raise
Definitely not a luxury building, but you could do worse
Pros
- The super is extremely responsive - he’s always come to take a look at any issues I’ve had within a day - Sound isolation between apartments is pretty good - I don’t hear much between apartments, unless there’s construction happening - Pretty good bang for your buck in Park Slope, at least as far as space and in-unit amenities go - The online rent portal is pretty painless to use - The building hallways are pretty roomy - The location is pretty good, and having the building entrance be on 6th St instead of 4th Ave means it’s waaay less hectic than other 4th Ave high rises - 2 elevators means you’re not blocked from taking the elevator if someone’s moving in / out
Cons
- The kitchens in every apartment in this building are a joke - the layouts make no sense, there is effectively no counter space, the fridge is often shoved in an alcove that makes it utterly inaccessible (ie. the door can’t open all the way), the sink is completely square which makes it impossible to clean, the dishwasher is real cheap and barely works (it doesn’t even lock as it’s running, meaning there’s nothing stopping you or someone else from opening the door while it’s running), the sink fixtures are cheap (parts of the faucet just fall off if you’re not careful) - The bathrooms are also terrible. The toilets are square (yes really), but more importantly, they use a bunch of proprietary parts (including toilet seats) that have been discontinued by the manufacturer (including the toilet seat), meaning that if they ever need repairing they have to harvest parts from other working toilets. The sink has no cabinet space, and has a design that insures any water that splashes onto the side will trickle straight down to the floor, which makes it impossible to clean without cleaning the floor. The back of the sink is also not sealed, so water spills onto the floor constantly. The bathroom is also impossible to ventilate - there’s no windows and the only vent in the room is passive and doesn’t really work. - Smells from neighbors leak through the passive vents in the apartment all the time. I can smell my neighbors showers and their cigarettes like they’re standing right next to me. - The front door blocks almost no sound at all from the hallway. - The windows barely open, making it really hard to ventilate this apartment. - The combination AC / heater units sticking out of the wall are extremely loud (apparently as loud as running a vacuum cleaner), prone to breakage, and take up a ton of space in the rooms. - The garbage room gets overfilled constantly - this building is too big to only have 1 small garbage room in the basement. - The in-unit dryer is real finicky and constantly gets clogged - you have to empty the lint trap multiple times over the course of drying just 1 load. Never had this issue with past dryers. - The floor is extremely splinter-y despite this building only being like 8 years old. The wood they used is extremely cheap. - The apartment sometimes just… inexplicably vibrates / shakes. It’s not the subway. There’ve been 311 complaints I think, but building inspectors never found anything wrong. - Advance notice about any work happening in the building is rare - most of the time stuff just happens and you find out the hard way when you wake up to the sounds of a plumber rooting the pipes upstairs at 8am - The super is spread really thin - the owners own at least 5 high-rises and they all have the same super. He has staff, but he’s always showed up in person with staff for any repairs.
Advice to the owners
Hire a super for each of your high rises - 1 is not enough. Renovate the kitchens. Make sure the layouts are actually usable by people who cook.
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