Tenant Reviews for 8 SPRUCE STREET

Have stayed for 9 years

Pros: Always clean with superb porters and doormen. Immediately responsive to any requests. Cons: Amenities are way too expensive — more expensive than an Equinox membership. Advice to landlord: Rents are too high compared to other comparable buildings.

NY lux living

Pros: Architecture; amenities; friendly staff; efficient problem solving; gym; tanning area; great location Cons: Random cupboard spaces; not enough beds in tanning area Advice to landlord: Continue maintaining building in top shape!

Run far, far away from this building. It slowly sapped away my will to live. No wonder the windows don't open more than a tiny crack. APARTMENTS: Many of them have wonderful views, of course. Given the density of the neighborhood, though, you're just as likely to be looking into someone else's window. The units make the most of the space, but they are cramped for the price. The finishes and materials are fine, which fooled me into thinking that the construction quality was better than it actually is. The appliances are of poor quality. In less expensive apartments, they use shoddy Haier brand appliances. The fridges make a lot of noise, and the dishwasher in my unit never completed a cycle. Maintenance never fixed the dishwasher in two years. There is mold in the building's filthy ventilation system. Living there, I always felt fatigued and unwell. Despite frequent and thorough cleaning, when I moved into my new place, I had to clean off a layer of grime from all of my furniture and belongings. There are also smokers of tobacco, pot, and I'll assume other substances, throughout the building and management doesn't do anything but send out periodic emails reminding people that it's against the rules. Thanks, guys. THE BUILDING: The best feature is the covered driveway. Birch Coffee downstairs is also perfectly nice. Otherwise, the amenities are flashy but impractical for daily use. They're undersized for a building of around 900 apartments and have an uneasy, disjointed layout. Management also pulled a switcheroo not long after I moved in and tacked on a hefty additional fee to use them. Then the opening hours were reduced and they now close at 10PM on weeknights. Maintenance is lousy. The carpets in the hallways are stained. On my floor, hallway lights were out for weeks at a time. The amenities, if you use them, are dirty. For example, the pool tables are clearly never cleaned and have hair and dust embedded in them. The dry cleaner is awful; they destroy clothes and accept no responsibility for it. See my other review. STAFF: The doormen are generally very nice, but they are the only good people who work there. I had the same experience as Anna A. regarding Lily. She's particularly incompetent and miserable to deal with all around. Truly, her laziness and incompetence are spectacular. I really, really hate moving and had hoped to trade up to a larger unit, hopefully without the toxic ventilation problems. I was ready to grit my teeth and ignore the rest of the building's shortcomings. She made this impossible. I hope you never meet Lily, she is the -----'s own imbecilic spawn. When you move out, they will try to cheat you on the security deposit, as noted by the other reviewers. I had to repeatedly call to have it returned, which they didn't do until well after the 60 days specified in their own lease terms. To add insult to injury, over $300 was taken out for the notorious floor repairs which I'd been assured by the maintenance man upon move-out were not a problem. LOCATION: Transit is great and it's convenient to the Financial District. It doesn't really feel like a coherent neighborhood, though. The whole area is overrun with crowds coming off of the Brooklyn Bridge and ambling down to the Seaport or over to the WTC. Park Row is now a busy depot for tour buses. Nothing against tourists, but it's feeling like Times Square these days. One hotel after another has been opening in the area, so it's not really geared to long-term residents. UNEXPECTED BONUS: The incredibly pretentious emails from the building's "Luxury Attaché" eventually became a cherished hate-read. What's the latest hot restaurant that the Times wrote up? Where does Condé Nast Traveller think I should I stay in Gstaad this winter? I never tired of guessing if this was for real, a commentary on the pretensions of my former neighbors, or some kind of bizarre mental exercise.

The building is nice (from the outside) and is very conveniently located, but that's the end of the pros. I lived there for over two years and my lease end date could not have come fast enough. Management is absolutely atrocious. For about 8 months my apartment became nothing more than a $4k+ storage unit due to construction across the street and management was less than helpful in providing any sort of accommodation/compensation for the situation. With the exception of a couple doormen/concierges, the majority are extremely rude and unhelpful. In addition, I moved into a "new" apartment that had all sorts of problems which they told me not to worry about and now they want to nickel and dime me for charges for those exact problems that existed when I moved in. They were going to conveniently make deductions from my security deposit without notifying me or explaining to me what those deductions were for. I do not recommend that anyone pay the exorbitant rents for the poor management and subpar service.