The Espoir Luxury Rentals

I lived here for 3 years from 2010 – 2013. It’s a really good building super close to the Lorimer L & G subway.
4 stars for apartment only and great super. –1 star for management company!
The construction is great. Decent size one bedroom with small balcony. The appliances are stainless and all good! Granite counter tops and deep sink. Bathroom is fine with rain showerhead. You can get waser and dryer for an extra fee. We got one and the dryer was terrible never dried properly but washer is fine.
The super, John is super helpful and fixes everything promptly.
The roof deck is awesome and has amazing views of the city. Building can be a little noisy at times with parties. We were lucky to have mature quiet neighbors!
The rental office is ok till you move in they they do nothing to help afterwards. They refer you to the management company who are not so helpful. Jacob is ok when you can get hold of him. You can only text him as his mailbox is always full (deliberately). He is ok though.
They have a pool table in lobby which is ok and a gym in basement which is good. Garage attached to building with Zipcars!

STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS
TLDR
DO NOT RENT APARTMENT 2G IN THIS BUILDING IT IS A HEALTH HAZARD AND UNINHABITABLE DUE TO GAS FUMES LEAKING FROM THE AUTO SHOP NEXT DOOR
I lived in apt 2G at 156 Hope St (The Espoir) for 3.5 years. The first 2 years were fine and we loved the building, but in the summer of 2011 the building hired a contractor to seal the left side of the building due to water leakage from the roof. The construction sealed the auto shop next door to our building, causing gas fumes to leak into our apartment, filling our apartment with poisonous fumes and rendering it uninhabitable.
We tried everything from calling the gas company, 311, filing complaints with the department of health, department of buildings, having firefighters come by, but the management refused to even address the problem with anything more than an email.
Eventually we bought a gas detector and measured the levels in our apartment, you can see a video here;
After more than a year of the problem, and many nights spent at my gf’s place or out of town, we finally decided to move out after we realized they had no intention of fixing the problem. After giving notice that we were moving, the management immediately starting showing the apartment to potential tenants without addressing the issue in any way.
The experience was a nightmare and without a doubt one of the most frustrating experiences of my entire life.
If you want more information about this experience get in touch, I’m happy to tell you more.

I suspect the other reviewer had some bad luck, because I’ve been very happy at the Espoir. I live in a 1 bedroom apartment with a rear-​facing balcony since November 2010. The apartment is quiet, comfortable and a very good value. The appliances in the kitchen are more than adequate and have worked perfectly.
To the contrary of Russ K’s experience, the management has been great from our perspective. John the Super is very responsive and a real nice guy. Jacob has always been responsive also. We did have a leak… but they fixed it within 48 hours and it never came back. We’ve only had a few minor issues… like a door lock not working, or the a/​c acting up. Each and every time the issue was handled promptly and satisfactorily.
I think the construction is solid. Russ K mentions «cheap construction.» While not high end, the construction is hardly cheap… has that guy ever seen some of the newer buildings on the upper east side or murray hill? He also mentions that you can’t hear your neighbors (true for us as well)…which I think is good evidence that the construction is not cheap. I think it’s quite nice, actually, and certainly a good value.
I love this neighborhood. The best restaurants in NYC. Amazing bars. I will never, ever move back to Manhattan. I wish there were a better supermarket, but the Key Food is adequate and very close.
Some other points you may find helpful:
The balconies are great and spacious.
You can get a washer/​dryer. They aren’t the best quality (actually, the problem is that they are too small), but it beats having to drag your laundry to the damn laudromat every weekend.
The building is young, but we’ve only had one noise problem in the year + we’ve been living here, and it was handled by simply banging on the door. Lots of affluent hipster types. Nothing wrong with that. These are my people.
There’s a really nice roofdeck.
$ 200 or so for a parking spot in my building? Unbeatable.
The gym is okay, but don’t count on doing any serious lifting there. It’s quiet, which is really nice, and the TVs work.
I will agree with one thing that Russ K pointed out… the windows are f’ing retarded. I think they were designed by a 6^th grader for a science fair. It’s a minor annoyance in the scheme of things, though.
I wish there was central a/​c instead of the loud wall units. But you can’t get it all.
Look, you can’t find the perfect apartment in NYC. For an apartment around $ 2500, that is spacious, with a balcony, very modern, near to the subway and in a great neighborhood, this place is pretty close. It’s the best value of any place I’ve had in NYC, and I’ve lived in like 8 different apartments over 14 years.