15 Park Row

Bottom line: You could certainly do worse than this building, but there is a reason why so many apartments come back on the market after one year.
We moved here because it’s one of the least expensive, no-​fee doorman buildings in FiDi. It’s close to work for us and convenient to the 4÷5÷6 (30 seconds), N/​Q/​R (5 minutes), and A/​C/​E and ½/​3 (10 minutes). Several buses stop right in front of the building. It’s also closer to Tribeca than most of Fidi, so while the area is dead, it’s within 10 minutes walking distance to the restaurants on Greenwich street.
Pros: Inexpensive for the area, good public transport options, large apartments with high ceilings and big windows. Washer /​dryers on most floors. Open kitchens with granite counters. Friendly and helpful doormen — repairs to the dishwasher were made quickly. Whole Foods is a 15 minute walk away. Duane Reade and CVS are a 3 minute walk, and there is a chase atm 30 seconds away,
Cons: It’s an old building and an odd management company.
*The elevators are ungodly slow, all the time. It always takes 5 min + to get down or up. It doesn’t sound like a huge deal, but it drives me and everyone else in the building nuts.
* Our apartment came without any window treatments at all (not even vertical blinds) — the windows are a strange size (6 feet high and 12 feet long), and it would have cost us $ 1,000+ to do anything with it, so we live in pretty much live in full view of the neighbors.
*The heating /​cooling unit is very old and big — we’re either freezing or burning up. It’s metal and pretty beat up, but the building just decided to cover up the jagged, busted edges with blue tape (strange and ugly).
*The pipes in the wall are loud — we always know when the neighbors are taking a shower and it wakes my roommate up.
* The layouts are awkward — we have a 20 foot hallway as the entrance to our apartment, so you really don’t get the benefit of the space
*Whoever was in the apartment before us installed recessed lighting — because it’s different /​non-​standard the building won’t replace the bulbs when they burn out
* There isn’t a reliable drycleaner within delivery distance. I am not picky about this — I’m generally happy if my things come back in one piece, but I’ve had several bad experiences. It’s something that’s pretty important if you’re a working professional.
* Crowded with tourists during the day and dead at night. I don’t like walking around at night.
It doesn’t have the convenience or amenities associated with a luxury building, has a lot of the annoying things associated with living in an older building, is far more expensive than most walk-​ups, and not in a great area. I think almost anyone is better off choosing either to spend a little more and live in a true luxury building, or spend less and live in a walk-​up, than to choose this weird in-​between option.

This building was my first home with my husband so it will always be special to me. Not being swayed emotionally, I think its a good place to live. There was scaffolding up to restructure the façade till May this year. It has been great since its off. I love the big windows and the light in the apartment. The building is clean and well maintained. Maintenance activities takes time sometimes, anywhere between a day to a week. Doormen are nice and friendly. Always brings me a smile when one of them always greets me as «hey princess». Great spot for subway connections. There are about 14 lines in a three block radius. They also never allow food to be delivered to the doorstep. Good when you don’t want menu’s lying on your floor everyday, bad when you don’t want to dress into something presentable to fetch your food. Good laundry service nearby and all you have to do is drop your clothes with the doorman and pick it from him the next day. The washers sometime gobble of coins and not service you. If you are worried about the few quarters you can report it and get it back from the doorman.
I am trying to get a couple of month extension to my lease and have not been successful in getting a response yet from Lucky LLC. This has been my only direct contact with the management so far.

I really love this apartment. High ceilings, lots of kitchen cabinet and counter space, large bathrooms, big windows, etc. It’s also in a great location close to almost every subway you can think of in NYC.
Only downside really is that the doormen and other workers are really not friendly. Many times I find myself saying «Good morning» and they don’t even respond or look up. I don’t want to discredit all of them though. Some are very polite — just saying most really make me feel like I’m not even welcome in my own home when I enter the building. It’s not a good feeling, especially considering the high rent we pay to live there.
I’m just the type of person who usually makes good friends with the security guards at work, or the doormen in my previous buildings (even in my friends’ buildings!) and it’s just a shame that in my own home that I pay a crapload of money for per month, that isn’t the case. Not a good way to start or end your day when you walk in and smile and say hi to the doormen, and they just ignore you or look at you rudely.
I even heard the doormen gossiping together about some tenants the other day — which is SO unprofessional and rude considering it’s a huge building where tenants are walking past you every minute. Don’t talk about people you should be caring for ON the job!
I know it sounds silly, but doormen etiquette is actually important for a building. Even though I love my apartment here and I settled in quite nicely, next year I would move out just for this reason. I hate feeling like I“m not welcome in my own building.
I guess in my case, I might even prefer no doormen at all over rude ass doormen.

Renter beware!
We lived at 15 Park Row from 2004 to 2008. The staff were excellent and responsive, and the building was clean and at a good location. During this time, however, we were never able to contact anyone from Lucky LLC. Washers and dryers were frequently broken on our floor and several floors. We frequently had to use a laundromat. When our first one year lease expired we made several attempts to contact them with no luck (ironically). Several months later and after withholding our rent (because we didn’t know if we had any right to occupy that apartment) we were sent an offer for a 2 year lease. After our 2 year lease expired the same delay in receiving a new lease offer occurred. We only took a 1 year lease because we knew we would have to move back to California after our lease.
In California we tried to get a Verification of Rental History from Lucky LLC in order to purchase a home. Lucky LLC reported that we damaged their unit, paid our rent late many times, and owed them money for unpaid rent. If we were such bad tenants, why did Lucky LLC offer us 2-​year lease renewals twice? We are landlords ourselves, never paid our mortgage late in 10 years, always paid our rent with Lucky LLC, and have excellent credit. The only damage that we could think of is the normal wear and tear that occurs after 4 years of occupancy. If Lucky LLC cared what their unit looked like during and after our occupancy, one would think they would visit us or at the very least contact us on a periodic basis.
During our 4 years in the building we were never once offered to have our apartment painted, our floors polished, or our appliances repaired. 4 years is a lengthy period of time to stay in a studio apartment. Never once did Lucky LLC contact us in our 4 year stay at 15 Park Row. To this day, Lucky LLC had not returned one phone call.
As a result we are not able to purchase our home and our failure to get a home loan (thanks to Lucky LLC’s damaging report) will reflect negatively on our credit history and scores for several years. This «management» company is UNSCRUPULOUS and WILL DAMAGE YOUR RENTAL HISTORY, and possibly your credit history, in order to EXTORT monies or KEEP YOUR SECURITY DEPOSIT. Our next door neighbor spent $ 1500 to paint her entire apartment and hired a cleaning crew when she left her apartment. Lucky LLC never returned her deposit until 6 months later and only after our neighbor hired a lawyer to sue Lucky LLC.
Renter beware!