Poorly maintained and managed, roaches everywhere
Pros
Price, quiet safe area. The neighbors in general are nice people. The build itself was built in 1929 and has a lot of charm and potential. Close to Riverdale Ave so if you need to get into the city you can either do a jitney to Spuyten-Duyvil metro north, or take a BX7 to the A train at 207, or traverse the 120 steps to get to/from the 1 train on Broadway at 238th.
Cons
After moving in starting noticing just about everything in the apartment was poorly maintained. Four out of six windows couldn't close properly (including the one on to the fire escape). Peeling paint everywhere, and I've gotten splinters in my feet from walking bare foot (usually just wear socks so I'm not booming noise into my downstairs neighbors apartment). Hot water is super hot, but you have to run it slowly when no-one else is, or it comes out filthy because they don't seem to clean the boiler (though they have shut it down for maintenance four or five times in the last year). Gaps in the flooring (especially around the baseboards), holes in the walls behind oven/cabinets in the kitchen, and one of the closets open to the sub-floor - all of this creates a cockroach sanctuary. I never had a fight with cockroaches before like I've had in this apartment. They come out of the drains. They come out of the sub floor. They come out of the walls. Any time I have approached management (Veritas, who now own Absar) with a question, request or concern (there have not been many) they take a long time to respond, then act like they're listening but blow you off no matter what. Unresponsive to maintenance requests. Super is a great guy, but overwhelmed and overworked by the new management.
Advice to the owners
Properly maintain your property. Replace your property manager. Conduct a building wide extermination effort for roaches, and seal up the routes they have to get into apartments. Clean your boiler.
Building was nice, management not
Pros
Loved living in a old building with original touches like large rooms and cedar closets.
Cons
Management company was not responsive, when we moved out it took 6+ months to receive our security deposit back, with no explanation or communication.
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