Lenox Terrace Leasing

Don’t even think about moving here — unless you like malfunctioning appliances or you are a VIP tenant. The community is quite nice but, at the end of the day, you need your refrigerator and your toilet to work, don’t you? I’ve been putting with it for 5 years but I can’t anymore. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere.

Lenox Terrace markets itself as offering «respectability without sterility and security without conformity.» In reality, the experience falls far short of remarkable.
The building habitually reeks of marijuana, particularly at night and very early in the morning. It permeates the lobby and hallways, overwhelms the elevators, and if you’re particularly unlucky, your unit. Not good if you have allergies, sinus issues, breathing problems, small children, or plainly do not like to be constantly exposed to marijuana smoke. I complained numerous times to management who refused to acknowledge the issue, beyond a bs investigation that did not include inspecting my unit or the offending neighbor’s during the hours that the smoking occured. As a result, I spent a long winter with the windows open all night, every night in freezing temperatures.
The hallway walls sport «whipped cream» swirl texturing that was all the rage in the 1950’s, and has never been updated, other than bad patch repairs of cracking and peeling sections. There are no windows in the hallways to provide natural light or ventilation, and they thus tend to hold in various smells. The hallway stairwells are similarly devoid of windows, dark, and painted an industrial dark gray color that has not been refreshed in years; they frequently stink of marijuana despite being patrolled by building security.
While there is pleasant landscaping out front and at the entry points of the building, a number of tenants use their terraces as storage spaces for tires and other random junk. Though the terraces are a main selling point for the building, they’re largely unusable because of the number of tenants who use it to smoke. It’s also not uncommon to find cigarette butts, trash, glass and other items that have landed on your terrace after being discarded from other units.
The building provides rubber food service carts for transportating groceries and other parcels from the front entrance to units. The maintenance staff uses grocery carts, which are pushed from building to building. The only facility with normal, decent carts, is the laundry room, which has high-​efficiency washers, commercial driers, and one dedicated folding table, and is otherwise unremarkable.
The units are pretty standard. You might have a stainless steel refrigerator a small dishwasher, a digital stainless steel oven, and some granite in the kitchen and bathroom. You’ll also likely have laminate flooring (even if the unit had parquet floors when you viewed it) with a lot of padding underneath, in some cases covering mysterious dips in the floor, and which can tend to separate from the wall as you walk on it. The front door, radiators, and other fixtures will have been painted over several times throughout the years to the point that the paint is thick, and cracks in sheets. The walls will be painted a white matte color that scuffs very easily. The front door lock might be beat up and decrepit after years of use, but the management won’t do more than the bare minimum of replacing the cylinder after the previous tenant. The walls between units seems to be fairly thick, but noise from upstairs tenants, including pets running about, footsteps, and moving furniture, can be fairly clearly heard.
The doormen are quite friendly and pleasant for the most part, and will learn the names and faces of tenants and personally greet them each day. They seem to have history with the building, as opposed to some buildings, where the door staff frequently change. The «package room» service is a plus, allowing tenants to receive deliveries at their convenience, without having to readjust their service. The hallways and stairwells are patrolled at night by building «security» agents who open and exit at each floor, slamming the metal entry doors with abandon at all hours. Loud parties are occasional, and are generally shut down by security at 1:00am.
Dealing with the management office can be a fair to unpleasant experience. The «leasing» office located at 484 Malcolm X Blvd/​Lenox Ave can open as much as an hour late, which can make it difficult to visit before heading to work or when trying to get a permit for a weekend furniture delivery. But it is equipped with nice seating, and your visits to and interactions with that office will likely be few.
There are 3 grocery stores within short walking distance, of various quality and offerings. Sylvias, Red Rooster, Cove, Corner Social and a handful of other quality sit-​down restaurants and bars can be reached by a 5 minute walk to 125^th Street. The restaurants immediately outside of Lenox Terrance are largely unremarkable.
If you can afford to pay the prices Lenox Terrace is asking for units, I would strongly advise considering other options in and around Harlem, before deciding to rent here.

I lived here for about a year and didn’t have issues. It was overall a good experience. Neighborhood is not great but I chose to be there for nearby work at the hospital.
Nice buildings, my unit was nice, and the staff are all right.

I honestly don’t think one can find a worse leasing company. After three months of trying to get an apartment here, I finally realized I was much better going down the street to The Riverton. I can’t believe it takes the company 2 weeks to approve you and schedule a move in. They don’t have a sense of urgency nor a regard for their tenants. The staff is unresponsive and though new people were being brought in, I think the culture isn’t one I would want to associate with.

I am going to write an update detailing my entire experience at Lenox because it was so bad, I don’t want any other person to go through the experience I went through that very day.
A business manager at Lennox Terrace sent me a message, stating how they «find it highly unusual for anyone to be received in such a manner– maybe you were having a bad day.» Let me just make it clear. For the record, I was not having a bad day. In fact, I was extremely excited to see a potential apartment that just might be my new place that I call home. Life is too beautiful to hold a grudge, so when I feel like there is mistreatment in an establishment, I am not going to hold my tongue.
Before my apartment viewing, my first interaction with Karen did not include a handshake or any type of acknowledgement — Karen walked straight to the elevator without hesitation and I found that quite odd. Granted, the offices were closing at 2 PM and it was around 1:50 pm so maybe she was in a rush? Either way, that was not acceptable.
As we approached the apartment, I felt a judgy-​type of vibe, where showing the apartment was almost a chore rather than a service. When she was done showing as we were approaching the elevator, she even said «come on, hurry-​up lets go.» Just rude and unpleasant.
If you think I was exaggerating, the kind doorman was a witness to the first encounter. So potential Lenox Terrace folks, be aware of the customer service, and more importantly, Karen.

This is my apartment hunting review, I will do another for move in, and then my experience once living there. I also read these reviews and was pretty horrified. I actually have a property management background, so I am picky about apartments and the leasing office. The apartments are affordable and a decent size, I looked at three studios. The first was decent, I fell in love with the second because of the stainless steel and the lighter floors, but did not necc like the positioning of the bathroom. The third was the winner. It was the biggest, with a bigger kitchen, and although it had white appliances (brand new by the way) and the standard hardwood floors, I did not mind for the bigger kitchen and closets. I did not notice any strange smells, signs of rodents, or unusual dirt. Also, the leasing office staff was very nice, and helpful, not only the day I visited, but in following up. I am going to sign the lease Saturday and I move in next week. The other reviews can be a little misleading, but I did heed them in going to see the apartment.

Visited here today in search of a new apartment.
Great thing I read these «bipolar» and clearly motivated reviews that have to be taken with a bowl of salt.
I met with Karen in management who was a top notch professional and sold me on the entire living experience at Lenox Terrace.
I will be moving here! Hands down worth the money!

This place is over rated. I live there for 5 years. Here is my review
Pros
1 The size of the apartment is a little bigger that avg in the neighborhood
2. The doormen are excellent, very polite
3. You don’t have to worry about your mail or packages
Cons
1 The place is infested with roach and rats. The exterminator only come once weekly and you have to put your name on a list
2. The employee at the management office is very impolite and rude. the lack of respect displayed towards the tenant is so ghastly that most tenants try to avoid any dealings with them
3. Tenant turn around is very high. Every year a couple of people move out
4.The laundry room is expensive. There is only 3 big machine in the 470 building on lenox ave. Most of the time they are broken and it take days to get fix. You are better off going across the street to do your laundry
5. There is always one or two dead roach in the laundry room
6. The security is overrated. My car was broken into while park on the premises. The glass was broken and I have to fix it myself
7. The apt is not clean on a daily basis. The hallways are covered with carpets and sometimes its so dirty you can smell it while walking on it.
8 Every year they raise the rent on you by a ridiculous amount. I mean they would raise it anywhere from one to two hundred dollars extra.
9. It can take days to get repair done on your apartment.
10. They will take your security deposit when you move out and claim damages to the apartment so make sure you take pictures when you move out.

Living conditions are fine, location is great, but dealing with Management is HORRIBLE! Never have I encountered such a lazy group of individuals. Noisy Junkie in the hall, long-​tem problem, Management knows about it… does absolutely nothing. When you call to log a complaint, they tell you to «put it in writing». That’s the job of Management, why would I do your job? You call downtown to complain, they’ll take your rent check, but not a complaint. «We haven’t heard from the General Manager». Well, that’s why I’m calling downtown… because obviously Shelly can’t do her job. Lazy, uneducated, unmotivated management.

The sad thing is that it’s the «management» that makes this place suck so bad. 1^st off, tenants are required to send a physical check or money order for rent. No cash. No auto debit to your bank account. No drop boxes (even though the buildings are all doorman buildings, there’s a leasing office on site, and they have drop boxes for the annual window guard slips). NOPE gotta send in that check to a PO Box. EXCEPT they don’t always check the PO Box every day, and even on days they do go retrieve the mail, they don’t always get the rent payments posted to tenants’ accounts right away. SO if they don’t have rent posted to your account by the 10^th of the month, they assess you a 5% late fee. I used to use online bill pay through my bank to pay my rent but in March 2013, I had the check sent on ³⁄₂₅ but Lenox Terrace didn’t post the rent until after April 10^th so they assessed me a fee. I refuse to pay it… still fighting it all these months later on principle.
So in April, I went to the bank, got a bank check, went to the post office and sent it certified mail. I tracked it and the check was signed for on ⁴⁄₂₉. When I called to find out why the late fee had not been removed from my account on 5/​9, I was told that NO they didn’t have my May rent yet and I had until tomorrow to pay or I’d get ANOTHER late fee. I had to fax the proof that the rent check for May was received and miraculously, after submitting it, they advised that yes my rent was received and posted on ⁴⁄₂₉. Very interesting since 20 minutes prior they had no record of my rent, and then suddenly they had it posted. THIS IS THEIR TRICK! Some of the apartments are rent stabilized so after the initial lease is up, if you re-​sign the lease on a stabilized unit, they can only raise rent so much. So by playing these tricks, they get the rent increase PLUS an additional 5% on late fees. They ADMITTED verbally that most people just pay the fee and don’t fight it. WELL I am not paying it.
Separately, their office personnel are usually very polite but overall very incompetent. I called to make an appointment to have a repairman come out and look at my A/​C. It runs CONSTANTLY, never shuts off. I have a STUDIO apartment and having run my A/​C 8 days out of 30, my Con Ed bill was $ 240!!! When I called, I was very specific on what the problem was and made arrangements to take a half day off from work to be here when the repairman arrives. He comes in… I explain again the problem, and his response is «Oh. Well, I don’t know anything about fixing air conditioners.»
SERIOUSLY??? So he calls the super who calls someone else, and an A/​C repairman should be here sometime by 5. So looks like i’m taking the whole day off from work. It’s 4:20 pm and no one has been here. I call the office, and they have no idea what’s going on. Meanwhile, I had ONE vacation day left for the rest of the year, and it’s gone. No more time off. An A/​C that doesn’t work. An apartment management company that is full of incompetence. Going to be a long HOT summer.

4 Years after posting my excitement about living here, I have to withdraw my comments.
I’ll be short and sweet here.
1. Bed Bugs and negligence on management’s side. Huge issue affecting multiple floors and at least 2 dozen tenants.
2. Mice & Roaches
3. Apartments are in terrible condition and you can tell they have been just painted over during the life time of the apartment.
4. RECENT OCCURRENCES OF SHOOTINGS FROM GANG RELATED VIOLENCE:
THIS IS A BIG ONE. ONE SHOOTING LITERALLY ON THE CORNER IS ONE TO MANY.
There have been 3 Shootings over the last 2 months on the 132^nd street and 5^th avenue corner. In the summers you can literally here semi automatic gun shots from our balcony. On New Years eve at around 1:30AM (2016) We could here gun shots. 2 years ago, 129^th Street was closed from 5^th Ave to Adam Clayton Powell for 3 months. My wife was coming around the corner on 132^nd street. As she came into the drive way with our 5 month old son in the stroller, there was a shooting on 132^nd street !
5. Constant Fire trucks through 132^nd street and Police cars (The sound is also magnified because of the amount of space between the buildings and the streets).
6. NEIGHBORS: Be ware of your neighbors. My neighbor below me was sacrificing animals and leaving there dead carcasses on his balcony below. The smell was so bad, we called the OLNICK office (management) and they still didn’t do anything about it other than serve the neighbor a letter asking to clean his balcony. Still smells.
7. Water Quality: I’ve been through 4 shower heads since moving here because the hot water comes out brown and sludge. It’s nasty.
The list is long. I’ll stop there. My recommendation is don’t move here. spend a little extra cash and move below 125^th. Stay away from projects because that causes many issues or if you really want to move to E. Harlem, find a brownstone to move into. Dish out more dough and get a nice place.
If you decide to ignore the posts on Unilocal and rent, Make sure you walk the apartment and take photos and notate everything. Before I moved in I let management know all the issues with the apartment that needed to be fixed before moving in. ON MY MOVE IN DAY I had 3 workers working on the apartment. Nothing had been done, and I could’t move in with all my friends on the street and my truck for almost 2 hours.
Check your oven to be sure you do not have any uninvited guests living BEHIND or in your oven. Look under the oven hood, right below the burners. Check all your cupboards and REMOVE your draws. When we were moving in my drawers and mechanisms were all covered with roach droppings and i found dead roaches in side the plastic covers above the hinges on the fridge. Also look for mold. The corking where the ceiling meets the cabinets in my apartment is being to deteriorate. We can start to see black on the ceiling and behind the corking. If you get a unit with a balcony, be sure they’ve stripped and painted the concrete floor and repainted the ceiling. They never did ours, the paint is falling off.
One of the main reasons we have not called management to make any more changes or fix the issues, because of the Bed Bug issues. The same facility workers are also accessing these apartments. We just do not trust anyone in our apartment to make repairs.
Good Luck !
Stephen

I really THOUGHT I wanted to live here given that the apartment is really nice. However management was horrendous! I think it may be because I am in a biracial relationship because they treated me and my boyfriend quite poorly, while they treated the black-​black and white-​white couples fine. I was very disappointed to say the least, so I will continue to search for an apartment elsewhere.

The pest terminator from the apartment guys applied some pesticide and now I don’t see a single roach in the apartment. Don’t have any problems with the apartment now so giving it five stars.