Urbana Properties

I was looking for a few things in my next apartment:
1) Location, location, location.
I’m notoriously bad at waking up on time for work, and this place is five minutes from my office. This is a perfect place for responsible professionals who need an apartment convenient to Midtown. It’s close to just about everything.
If you check the Walkscore of this address, you’ll see that it’s a perfect 100. It’s two blocks from the 59^th St. super-​station (4,5,6,N, R, and Q lines), and just four blocks away from the E/​M line at 53^rd and Lexington.
I’m a runner, so being five blocks from Central Park is a huge plus for me. For those concerned with shopping, it’s five minutes from just about every store on Fifth Avenue. And for the gourmets, a Whole Foods is scheduled to open a block away next month.
2) A gym in the building.
I didn’t have one in my last building and it drove me crazy. This building has not just a gym, but a full fitness center with a pool and locker rooms! Nothing feels as good as a nice swim after a long summer day at the office or out in the city. The gym is staffed by a lifeguard, who also keeps the gym in order. They have been very friendly, professional, and responsive in my dealings with them.
3) A responsive and friendly management company. Trust me, these guys are good. It took less than two week to go from filling out an application to getting a countersigned lease. They answered all of our questions regarding the lease immediately and did a great job welcoming us to the building. The pet policy here is sensible — by application only — and the building does its best to minimize noise complaints in the evenings.
4) A well-​maintained building, with responsive doormen, porters, and superintendent. These guys run the place like a Swiss watch. I was impressed from the moment I moved in. Absolutely no complaints (in fact, only compliments!).
5) A room of my own.
For those of you who are just moving to the city, do a search for «The Fall of Temporary Apartment Walls,» a Times special on how the Department of Buildings has gone out of its way to make life difficult for young renters by essentially prohibiting «flex» and pressurized walls except for in certain situations. It’s increasingly difficult to find elevator/​doorman buildings that allow these, as most management companies have taken the inflexible approach of «no walls allowed» as opposed to actually thinking through the solution creatively.
I’m happy to say that Urbana is not one of those companies. They advertise three of the five units available in this building as «convertible» 2 bedroom units, and they do the conversion themselves and register the alteration with the Department of Buildings (in other words, everything is legal!). The second bedrooms created by these conversions — which are truly bedrooms, with doors and floor-​to-​ceiling walls — are more than livable compared to some of the less-​than-​perfect solutions in other buildings.
Even better, if the wall is not up, the building will put it up for you (for a fee, of course) and take care of the necessary paperwork with the city government.
6) A nice apartment that I can call home.
My last apartment was in a horrendously managed, poorly maintained building that had terrible elevators, no gym, and was in an inconvenient location. This building is in a fantastic location, has great elevators, a full fitness center, and a great staff. My actual apartment has a marble foyer, new parquet flooring, three air conditioners, and two real bedrooms with two separate bathrooms. What a treat.
Hope this has been helpful. I know I love it here.
PS: Yes, it’s expensive. You get what you pay for in this city. Welcome to New York.