15 Cliff Apartments

Here is a digest of issues I’ve had since moving into this building on September 1^st:
1) On move in day, my keys were not ready at the front desk like I was told they would be. It took them literally two hours to figure out how to get me into my apartment. When I did get in, the living room air conditioning unit wasn’t installed, there was dust everywhere, and there were dirty cups/​dishes in the sink. It was not in move in condition. Also, none of the outlets in the living room worked. It took them a few days to address these issues — my first few nights in my new place were without AC and with a huge hole in the living room.
2) From day one, my washer did not operate. I talked to management upwards of (literally) twenty times. It took over two and a half months for them to fix the unit. Absurd.
3) Both elevators have been shut off more than half a dozen times since I’ve moved in here. Wait until you get home from a fourteen hour day at the office and have to walk up and down twenty flights of stairs. For the last six weeks, one elevator has been out of service so the entire building has to rely on a single lift. Last week, I waited over ten minutes for it, only to see it open stuffed to the gills with a maintenance guy and twenty-​five trash bags. With no service elevator, they shuttle all of the garbage in the resident lift. Sanitary.
4) Shoddy construction throughout: our closet door has fallen off the hinges twice. Last week, the handle just flew clean off for no reason. The toilet paper holder in the bathroom fell off the wall. My heat will work for a day or two, and then die out.
5) A few weeks ago, management called me to say they had assessed a late fee because I hadn’t paid rent on the first of the month. This was strange because I had actually remitted my check two weeks before the 30^th. The leasing office made me do the legwork and send a copy of the cashed check to prove that I had paid. It took two phone calls to resolve. Next month when I logged in to pay rent again — $ 75 late fee assessed. Had to call again to get it taken off.
6) After all of the above issues, we looked into moving out of the building. You can do way better for 4k a month in Manhattan. They said they’d be happy to let me out of my lease if I’d pay them two months of rent. Ridiculous. If you can’t operate a building and do your job properly, people should be able to walk away.
DO NOT MOVE INTO THIS BUILDING. Seriously. I’m sternly warning you. Every other resident who I speak to has some horror story about their apartment/​management. I really wished I had listened.
The units look nice, but they’re not well constructed. The common areas are constantly a mess. And the elevators will disrupt your life in a way you don’t expect.
15 Cliff is just bad. Worst building I’ve lived in in 10+ years in NYC. Old management was bad. New management might actually be worse. The place seems to be declining each month that we live here.
Also, I find it ironic that management sweetly responds to these Unilocal ads because it looks bad to people who are thinking of renting here, but once you sign a lease, they won’t help you in any tangible way.

A new management company has taken over, but that has not resolved any of the ongoing issues. It’s incredibly frustrating being a resident here– There are 2 elevators, one of which has been shut down for over a month. There’s always a line and a long wait to get onto the one working elevator. Staff has entered our apartment multiple times without notification (even when we’ve specifically asked each to time to be notified prior to entrance) and have either damaged things or left other messes/​stains/​debris. We never leave any small valuables in the apartment when we’re out b/​c we don’t know who will be entering our apartment when we’re not there.

We honestly cannot recommend 15Cliff. The apartments are beautiful, even though not really well built, but the place is a mess, and that’s being all too polite. There is an eternal renovation going on for longer that we’ve lived here, and the place just does not seem to be getting better. Scaffolds everywhere, people outside your windows all the time, hallways are filthy, and trying to get someone to fix anything in your apartment is a ludicrously impossible endeavour.
The elevators are in a class of their own. Management managed to destroy one of them because of the excessive and mindless abuse of the construction and renovation works, and it’s been idle for almost a month, not to mention being constantly broken or rapping people in before. Just imagine living in a 30+ stories building with ONE slow elevator. Refuse rooms are always dirty and filled to the top, so we are always prepared to try upper and lower ones just to leave a bag.
The AC in our unit, we simply gave up on trying to convince them to fix when the last guy left it open, never to return. We just waited for the city to became less hot.
There is no good reason to move here, we tried betting that it would get better, but we’ve been paying a hefty price for our decision.

My fiancé and I have lived at 15 Cliff St for about 3 months now and it has been an absolute nightmare. Contractors have entered our apartment about 5 times now without our knowledge or permission. When we questioned management about this we received one of the following responses each time: 1. No answer 2. We’re not aware of this 3. They entered your apartment by accident, sorry for the inconvenience and we will «try» for this to not occur again. Each and everytime there was some sort of mess or damage caused by them which we were responsible for cleaning up. Management will also tell you they can enter at any time even tho we have requested to be present should they need to enter our apartment (our pets get stressed from people they do not know). Our request was of course, not accommodated.
The elevators are a joke. Both breakdown (only 2 elevators & no freight) at least once a week and we walk up to our apartment (on the 19^th floor) every-​time. One was shut down by the city for failing an inspection. They are basically very unsafe to take as multiple people have gotten stuck for hours. Elevators are also very slow in the mornings averaging about 15+minutes of wait time when trying to get to work.
The apartments are newly renovated, which is nice, but the materials are extremely cheap & poorly constructed. We’ve had the kitchen sink flood because the pipes separated.
We read the reviews on Unilocal prior to moving in and thought «how bad could it possibly be». It’s even worse than what people have mentioned. We regret moving into 15 Cliff street & wish we took the reviews seriously prior to move in. You can reference the NYC Buildings office which shows how terrible this building really is:

I have to reiterate what the previous reviews have said and also say — I actually think things are getting worse, not better. I can handle mildly warm water, or random power outages, but here’s what is killing this place. The elevators at this building are awful and no one in the management group seems to care. This has been on-​going since I moved here in May and it’s getting worse. In October of 2015 there were 16 disruptive events where BOTH elevators were off line. A fairly large group of residents have been trapped and tonight, just like two weeks ago, we all had to walk up to get to our apartments because both were again, off line.
This building has potential — the new building management company, Greystar, has got to understand that the residents are their customers and not the building owner. The owners are well aware of the elevator problems but don’t seem to really care or want to have them repaired.
Tonight the FDNY was called to rescue the trapped resident because it would have been until morning before anyone arrived from building services to get the people out!

Having lived in NYC for over 10 years, I know better than to hold any buildings to high living standards. But 15 Cliff really takes minimal living standards to another level.
There were no hot water for 2 – 3 weeks after moving in middle of May. Then we alternated between only hot/​warm water and only cold water (not both) for a couple months. During this entire time, building-​wide water shutdown would and still happen once a week. The 10-​minute wait time for elevator that other reviewers have mentioned is true, though it’s gradually getting better as we passed the peak construction activity (hopefully!) and the contractors no longer occupy one of the two elevators. Oh, for some reason, the building gave each unit new appliances, just not newer air conditioners. So… have already gone through 3 broken air conditioners in the past 3 months. It typically takes asking multiple doormen and days to resolve a service request.
It’s really a shame because the building has so much potential (in terms of apartment size, location, convenience, etc.).

My roommate and I lived here from June 2013 — June 2015. At first it was great — good price, good location, and comfortable. Then, without warning, the construction came in, dust was everywhere, noise was crazy, water pipes were constantly broken (I had to shower at a friend’s for a week because there was only cold water), and the management was impossible to get ahold of.
My biggest issue is that it’s been over 70 days since we moved out, but still haven’t received our deposit back. When we moved out we were told we passed with sweeping colors: in fact, it was so clean that they joked it would be a showcase apartment. I have called at least 10+ times over the course of the last month to try to get back our deposit, but each time management told us they would get back to us or the person in charge was not in.
How difficult is it to get back a deposit?!

My roommates and I lived here on a short term lease from September ’14 to May ’15. The experience was sub-​par at best. As other reviewers have mentioned, lackluster management/​ongoing construction are the root causes. I’ll admit that towards the end of our stay, construction was finishing up so this review is more about continuing disputes with management.
We moved out of the apartment on 5÷31÷15 and were told it passed inspection. It is now 9÷3÷15 and we have still not received our security deposit. Calls with 15 Cliff management only highlight the bureaucracy that is Rose Associates. Also as another reviewer highlighted, management is incredibly unresponsive. All of our emails are ignored and the phone is picked up ¼ times.
The building amenities and doormen are great but management is one of the worst I’ve ever encountered.

I lived at 15 Cliff for a year and it started out great! It was a nice apartment and was reasonably priced. However, around December, unbeknownst to us, new management took over. Without notice, everything started changing — construction on every floor, water and power shut offs, etc. We later found out that management was redoing the entire interior and they told us that we were told of this and it was in our contract (neither of which was true).
In the past, if we ever had problems we could talk to the guy in the leasing office and would ACTUALLY respond to emails. However, the current people in the office do not respond to emails OR calls because they are «too busy». So the only way I could talk to them was to just walk into their office (hours about 9am to 4:30pm) — so I would have to leave work to have any conversations with them (the last being about our security deposit which we FINALLY got). This is horrible customer service and I truly feel bad for anyone paying the upped price for the newer apartments. You are truly being ripped off.
The door men and super are GREAT (most of them) know all the residents names and understand the issues everyone has been having with management — although one of them asked me if I was moving in (when I was moving out). But that was just one instance.
To anyone looking to live here, it is a great location and the apartments are nice; however, management is the worst (people say all management in all buildings in horrible, but at least the other buildings respond to some phone calls/​emails and admit fault — these people DO NOT EVER).
If you like disorganization and being ignored DEFINITELY live here — if not — you can find better elsewhere.

If there was a zero-​star rating… I’d click that. I currently live here but not for long since it is AWEFUL. Drilling day and night. Leasing agents that lie about when the construction will be done. The only good thing about the building is the doormen… they are all nice and helpful. Other than that, this building is awful. Paying for amenities such as a roof deck that has been closed for months is ridiculous. This construction will not be over for a WHILE, so no matter what they tell you like it will be done as soon as you move in… don’t believe them. If you like waking up to wet paint on your door and doorframe without warning so that you can get paint on your suit just as you leave for work… this is the place for you. Or if you like water shut-​offs, then it’s great too. If you like waiting 20 minutes for an elevator, this is also the building for you.

3 months since my original review and it’s only gotten worse. I’m not sure which is worse, the construction in the building, which I believe is cause for my developing a severe sinus infection due to the dust in the elevators, lobby & hallways, OR the construction on this street, which starts at 7:30am in deafening fashion and continues relentlessly until 5 or 6pm. Living here has been the worst experience of my NY residency (8 years). Can’t wait to move.

PROS :
–The doormen were awesome
CONS :
–Does the building have a cleaning service on payroll? I don’t know. The lobby/​elevator area looks like it’s never been swept/​vacuumed. No room for package deliveries, therefore all boxes are held in the lobby– super classy
–The neighborhood is one of the dirtier ones in NYC, there’s scaffolding next door where the homeless camp out
–Very smelly/​dirty Indians living on my floor– I generally held my nose whenever I walked from my apartment to the elevator
–Construction odors/​fumes from outside. Even with closed windows, it was hard to fall asleep because of the smell of the fumes/​chemicals
–Hot water randomly goes off or sink water goes off. Is this a 3^rd world country?
–The photos that you see in the advertisements — the building doesn’t actually look like that. Those are merely designs until construction finishes. Until then, the place is a construction site. You have to watch your head when you leave the elevator to make sure nothing hits you.
CONCLUSIONS :
The building is an ok place to live if you are a 22 — 26 year old college grad working in the city with 1 – 2 other roommates and you are on a budget (and that’s 90% of the building tenants, by the way)

DO NOT MOVE IN HERE! I’ve lived here for a year and a half, and it was a huge mistake renewing my lease, before which my roommates and I were promised that the living conditions would improve with the renovation. «Emergency» water shut downs and cold water at least once every two weeks (water even sometimes runs brown), along with broken elevators that are either out of service or reserved for the construction workers, who often begin work BEFORE 9 am.
When the elevators are working, they have terribly jerky doors that don’t close, and I’ve even had to wait 10 minutes just to get in. Between waiting for elevators and having to go to the gym to shower, I’ve been late for work about a dozen times in the past few months because of building conditions.
Management lacks empathy and professionalism, and are incredibly unaccommodating. I could go on and on about inconveniences brought about by management and construction, but I hope the tone of my review conveys how terrible living here is. It’s absurd to pay so much money to live in these conditions. Incredibly unfair, and I would move out in a heartbeat if I could.

Bad bad bad. Don’t live here unless you want to be in «homeless «living conditions. Continued periods of water shut off, cold water only, inadequate temps of water and pitiable water pressure causing you to not be able to shower in your apartment and use basic facilities. Water shut offs are now sometimes scheduled for most of the business day so if you don’t work away from home and need to shower in morning or late at night chances are you’ll be stranded at home with no water at all. Period of heat service disruption. When you complain, you get stock responses and no explanation why in a «luxury» building facilities are not working properly. Tons of construction that seems to be taking forever and continued «repairs» needed for the boiler over the past few years which is probably too small for a 10 apartment building versus 300 apartment building. I am reaching my wits end and in 2015 in a major metropolitan area cannot count on being able to use basic utilities and have access to necessary services such that I have to go to a gym in order to shower or just go about my day smelly. It shouldn’t be this way. These inconveniences must stop.

If only this thing could have negative stars, would probably give it –5 stars. This is by far the worst living situation I have encountered in my life. At this point the building is literally the equivalent of a construction site. They’re doing construction while residents are still living here. Goes to show the level of consideration Management has. Moreover they couldn’t care less. They cut off electricity and water at their fancy so one must schedule one’s life/​showering etc around the needs of Management! Also just in case you were wondering they never respond to emails! Also turtles would probably be faster than these elevators.

Buggy… BED buggy.
Management’s slow response time has facilitated an infestation in the building. They also don’t communicate rapidly and this all could have been prevented if they responded lawfully.

There are only 2 elevators for enough apartments to have 4. One is often broken. During the days, construction workers use them both to ferry up and down the building while shutting one off from tenants. Really, it’s excessively shitty. But the weekends are ok. At the moment, there is level 10 noise in my apartment… and management is unavailable for the next 4 days… Avoid, I say.

I haven’t had many issues living here save one serious one. Every night, garbage trucks or other machinery wakes me up at hours like 3am and 6am. It is impossible for me to survive without earplugs. The building does nothing about it, and the cops have not been helpful. Note that I face the back of the building and I am on the 4^th floor, so this might not be the case everywhere. Also, I’ve had people stay here who would sleep right through the racket without a problem, so it may not be an issue for everyone. That said, be warned.

Fellow Unilocalers, stay away, go by the reviews here:
Building is OK, management is disrespectful and un-​professional.