Tenant Reviews for 2 GOLD STREET

Great luxury building

Pros: Nice rooftop, Mgmt quick to resolve problems Cons: Limited guests on roof, no grills Advice to landlord: Leasing office needs some more veteran people working. Switching apartments wasn’t very smooth

I'm a journeyman building service worker. Since the mid 80s I've worked in several NYC residential buildings as a doorman, concierge, elevator operator, porter, etc. It occurred to me working summer vacation relief man in a nice residential bldg would be a good way to replace the income I will soon be losing (I'm a sub teacher). I applied online to some property managers, and last week I got a call from a Mr. Baretto of TF Cornerstone. Mr. Baretto was impressed with my resume, which appeared to offer exactly what he was looking for: a presentable, well-spoken, well-experienced man who might be able to handle a super-challenging lobby. Most co-op apartment buildings on the Upper East Side will have anywhere from 25 to 100 apartment units. In 2003 I worked at a co-op with 25 duplex apartments and a penthouse. 535 Park Ave. had 2 lobby men - one at the door, the other in the elevator - for 16 hours a day taking care of those 25 apartments. 2 Gold Street also employs 2 men in the lobby for 16 hours a day--to service 839 apartment units! Last week Mr. Baretto made an appointment for me to meet with the resident bldg mgr, a competent looking fellow named Mr. Butta. Fortunately for me Mr. Butta was detained and did not show up till 11:10am. This gave me a chance to ask Daniel the concierge some questions. The 1st question I asked was why he was working alone in this ENORMOUS, 51 story complex. This bright and personable young man informed me that Cornerstone had recently gotten rid of one of the lobby jobs, so every morning between 4am and 12 noon ONE MAN takes care of all 839 apartments plus some well-traveled public areas, e.g., the roof and party rooms. I asked how long he had been there. "Less than 2 years." Never in my several decades of bldg service had I seen a man with less than 2 years experience working the coveted 8am - 4pm shift. That job was always done by the senior man on the staff. "Wow, that's amazing you got this shift so quickly!" I said. "I started in the package room, and recently started doing this job," he said smiling weakly. Later I had a chance to chat briefly with a bldg porter cleaning the lobby. He told me the staff had only recently been allowed to join NYC's bdlg service union, Local 32BJ. That and the ridiculous workload explained the quick turnover of lobby staff. Under the Union contract, guys like Daniel with under 2 years on the job are entitled to only 75% of the minimum wage. Daniel will have to survive a full 42 months before he is entitled to the $25 per hour minimum wage demanded by the Union contract. Lots of luck, union brother. At long last Mr. Butta arrived and looked me up and down, undoubtedly wondering how big a schmuck I had to be to be applying for a nightmare job like this at my age. We discussed briefly my past experience and then he brought up some of the unique challenges attendant working this over-priced monument to cynical, greedy NYC landlords. To his credit he frankly admitted the bldg was populated by a lot of young people with drug and alcohol problems and minimal respect for their neighbors. He asked me if I thought I could handle that sort of grief while giving out 500-1000 packages every evening, screening visitors, giving out keys and documents, announcing a 100-200 food deliveries, and numerous other tasks. "I think so," I said disingenuously, wondering if they would also need me to shove a broom up my --- so I could sweep the @#$%ing floor while I was doing everything else. Then Mr. Butta called over Daniel the concierge, whose many duties apparently included interviewing newcomers like me. We chatted about how intense things got in the lobby most evenings. I did my best to feign interest. Mercifully the interviews ended, and I left 2 Gold Street shaking my head in amazement. I smiled remembering that it was cutthroat, scumbag managing agents like these that caused me to go to college 20 years ago, not that that seems to have mattered that much. Anticipating that this would be a horrible bldg job if I took it, I sent Mr. Baretto an email early that morning, hours before meeting with Mr. Butta. I informed Mr. Baretto that because i am what the Union contract calls an "experienced man," and as this was an open position and not a summer relief job, I would be entitled to begin work at 100% of the minimum wage. I never heard from Mr. Baretto or Mr. Butta again. You stand warned.

2 Gold has a great location, beautiful roof deck, courteous doormen, and relatively modern floor-to-ceiling glass units. Having said all of that, I would never recommend anyone live in this building. The leasing office staff is courteous and helpful through the application process, and then the experience changes dramatically when the contract is inked. It is a challenge to access the management company and when you do manage to reach someone, it is exceedingly difficult to find anyone with the authority to discuss your matter. We needed to move to a different state midway through our lease period and TFCornerstone did everything in their power to make it as difficult and costly as possible.

Cannot recommend - walls are thin, neighbors are loud, overpriced for what it is.

My husband and I lived here for 2 years, and it is by far the nicest building I have lived at in NYC. It's a pretty new building, the apartment is good sized, the kitchen has a pass through window to the living room so you don't feel trapped, I was never cold or hot (meaning insulation was excellent and the heater/AC works well), heat is free, if you have a maintenance issue they fix it within a day, granite or quartz kitchen and bathroom countertops, real hardwood floors, packages are easy to pick up, elevators are relatively quick, you have a 24/7 full sized gym that is rarely crowded, roof top deck, indoor pool, and easy access to all the Fulton Street subway lines. No, there's not as much fun nightlife in FiDi as in the Village, but there's a pretty darn good bar across the street, Stout, and there's plenty of places to eat and drink in the vicinity. When it comes to loud neighbors, yes, you are stuck with the luck of the draw, but we never had major issues. If you want total quiet, go to Jersey. Overall, had we not left the city, we wouldn't have left this building.

After a couple of years at this building we've finally decided to move out. Location: Great. Transportation: close to various subway trains, walking distance to Wall Street, Fulton Street, and Cortland Street stations (easy access to 4/5, 2/3, n/r trains). Lots of taxis in the front of the building. Restaurants: There are some decent choices but not great. Safety: this is very close to ground zero, federal reserve and wall street, so you would see police and safety is not an issue. building offers 24hr doorman who do recognize tenants and stops delivery guys from walking straight in. If you ask me as a tenant if there is one thing I can keep and cancel everything else, I would say keep my favorite doorman concierge team. They make me feel so at home. Amenities: gorgeous rooftop, in-door pool, free 24hr gym, childrens playroom, laundry room, courtyard space, game room, and a valet/cleaners service. 6 elevators on 1 wing and 3 on the other. Building is rent stablized. Pets are okay Cons: 1. lousy neighbors. Tenants are mainly students, which may interfere with your enjoyment of the unit. For instance, my neighbors smoked weed regularly throughout the week and the smell reeks through the door.. I had to spray febreeze often just to regulate our living standards. Also, some kids next door held house parties often - on weeknights! I don't want to be grumpy, but considering that I had to work the next morning, it's quite inconsiderate. I had to call the doormans downstairs to get them to quiet down. But there are things you cannot control and must be mindful of. 2. Prior to Sandy, the leasing office was not the friendliest and thus there were many complaints. however, post-sandy there was a change in attitude - people are more responsive and trying harder to be helpful. However with that said, I have read and heard people complain, so experiences vary. 3. This building is in Zone A - so if you google 2 GOld, you will read about the effects of hurricanes. Though they made repairs and upgrades, you have to brace yourself for possible storm impact. Post Sandy we were evacuated for 4 months. This also explains the reason why there are so many vacant units (and not all of them posted on the 2gold website). There are alot of tenants moving out (according to the doormen, the nice ones) because the rents are rising and TFC is unwilling to negotiate or cut deals for those who stuck around EVEN after Sandy. 4. TFC Senior Mgmt does not care for your well-being, which makes sense because they are in the business of making money. Logically, as long as you can afford the rent, they do not care who you are. Once you move in, they have no regard whether you stay or extend - preferably they want you to move out so they can raise prices and charge more for new tenants. 5. strong stench of pet urine outside the front door. This is, again something you cannot control. nobody can. There are lousy tenants who do not care for everyone else's living standards and let their dogs pee anywhere or do not clean up. hence, they defaced a nice building as such - whenever you walk by or get off the taxi, you are greeted with this smell. not to say you cannot endure it, but something you should consider when you have guests visiting. 6. Thin walls. 7. Rent pricier than other comparable buildings in the neighborhood (i've lived at 90 West, 10 Hanover, and 45 Wall) BUT you do get nicer amenities. But if saving money while enjoying the city is your motive, you might want to reconsider this building. Hope this helps everyone. Experiences vary, but mine was generally positive except for some bad neighbors (rude kids who share/split 2 bedrooms amongst 3-4 people and have no regard for others living next door). If you do decide to move into the building, please be kind to the doorman - they are great people and really take care of your safety.

Staff is great but the management people is awful and uncivilized. And, as previously described full of irresponsible, haughty and rude people.

This is one of the nicer buildings in the financial district. The sonomous reputation of housing young professionals and grad students is spot on, but it makes for a good atmosphere if that is the crowd you are looking for. The ameneties are great especially the roofdeck in the spring/summer. There are a few doormen that could use a quick trip to charm school, I'm sure they deal with a lot from the over 1,000 tenants but being rude is no excuse and shouldn't be tolerated by building management. Unfortunately they are the beginning and end of everyones day and it is one of the reasons why I am not returning to the building.

I moved to 2 Gold Street in March 2012, paying $2950 for a one bedroom apartment and moved out in November following Hurricane Sandy. The flat itself was good, with lots of storage space, big windows and fairly new fittings. The gym was ok and had a decent range of equipment, the pool was usually quiet but opening times were limited during the day. The block has a decent roof terrace and other common areas, which again were generally quiet. There were adequate laundry facilities. There are however numerous problems with 2 Gold, the first being the terrible management there. Following Sandy they were truly awful, had no business continuity and were unable to assist with any adequate solution to the problem of making me homeless. The best they could offer was to make available another apartment in one of their other properties at an increased rent. In effect they were trying to profit out of the situation. The staff were unhelpful, refused to assist with any moving costs and left me to cope alone. Any current tenant who moves back in when it reopens in March need their head examining as the management showed that they cannot deal with major problems when they occur. The second problem is the construction noise coming from the hotel build on Pearl Street, which is ongoing until late this year. This started the week I moved in, contardicting what i had been told by the lease office, prior to signing the lease, that nothing was being constructed in what was then a parking lot. The noise starts early in the morning, Monday to Friday and continues until after dusk. A third, more minor problem, existed with some of the other tenants (or their guests), who were sometimes unable to find a trash can for their rubbish and used to use the floor to dispose of it...it's not that hard to find one... I was happy to move out of 2 Gold and although the block has its positives, they are far outweighed by the negative.

It's a really loud building, full of irresponsible people in their 20's and college students. I had a neighbor who played an electric guitar with an amplifier and I called up the doorman to complain but it didn't make any difference. I talked to the neighbor but he slammed shut the door in my face! Also there's a construction going on next to the building, making a constant loud noise starting early morning like 8am while a lot of people still sleep! The leasing office said it'll be just for a few months, but it's still going on, and I heard it won't be done till a couple more years. The management really sucks. Their building got flooded, and the oil in their boiler in the basement spilled over and the entire building smelled like fuel and tenants couldn't live there. But the management didn't do anything about it but to hide what happened. They didn't communicate with tenants at all about the problem or future solutions and didn't help tenants at all about the housing, making everyone displaced and float around for several months! I really do NOT recommend this building and the management.