It's been a while since we turned to the GripeWire, but some emails about the Toll Brothers' Northside Piers reminded us that some things don't always work out as promised. So, we go to the Northside Piers Special Edition GripeWire:
1) Some of the glitches at the Toll Brother marquee Brooklyn project may be driving some new resident a little crazy. One tipster writes: "Heard from a friend who bought at Northside Piers, where roughly a third of purchasers have moved in, that despite spending a lot of money on a 2BR there for what was supposed to be a luxury apartment that they design of the place has some blatant flaws that just show the people who designed it did not give much thought to how the apartments would be lived in. First, in an apartment with floor to ceiling windows, they put structural columns so close to the windows that certain apartments are having a tough time installing shades and are forced to pay for much more expensive shades to fit the narrow spaces. Also, the air and heating units are in odd locations that make no sense for placing furniture in the common areas and bedrooms.
Also, apparently most egregious are the kitchens. The sales office model was huge showing a number of cabinets with wide drawers and wide cabinets but in fact, in nearly all of the apartments they are in fact very small and narrow and there is hardly any space. Apparently the cabinets in some apartments do not even fit regular size plates, the drawers do not fit regular sized cutlery organizers, and the cabinets have room for only a few pots and pans (let alone room for groceries). Guess they expect people to order Fresh Direct everyday rather than store stuff. Seems pretty weak for a place looking for $850-950 per square foot and advertising Manhattan apartment-like luxury. Apparently a number of purchasers have complained and are asking Toll Brothers to remedy the situation but I am not sure what the response has been to date. I wonder if they will learn their lesson for building No. 2.
2) Another tipster writes to tell us of a new board that's been set up for buyers to discuss and list out problems: "I've started a forum for owners/buyers at Northside Piers. It's a place for us to say nice things about the Toll Brothers and their organization (zing!). Got the idea after talking to the folks behind the North8 blog. On top of their own experiences, they've also heard from a plumber that there may be some 'plumbing issues' at Northside Piers. So, I figured it was time to get a community going. I've checked for one and have not found one yet. Also, I do everything the New York Times says is a trend." A couple of weeks ago, Joyce Cohen checked in on the status of buyers at the Aqua, another new Williamsburg condo where buyers were writing online about delays and problems
· The Aqua Blues [Huntgrunt]
· The Long Wait [NYT]
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