The ownership and conversion drama at the Apthorp has been well documented, as have residents' sometimes outrageous flip attempts. But what is it like to actually live there in the post-conversion era? One StreetEasy poster is allegedly a resident of one of the classic building's renovated units and discusses the experience thoroughly in a post. The good news: the renovated apartments are "spectacular," and some of the staff members get positive shout-outs, too.
The bad news isn't as easy to summarize in a sentence. The Apthorp mole writes:
About a month after we moved in, a complete year-long renovation started on the apartment above ours, resulting most weekdays in noise starting at 8am (work is not supposed to begin at the Apthorp until 9am) and continuing straight through until 5pm. Imagine noise so loud you literally cannot hear someone on the phone.
In addition to this noise, there are so many apartments being renovated at the Apthorp that you can never get an elevator. Construction workers, tired of waiting for the service elevator, take the main passenger elevator. Naturally, the doormen do nothing to stop or discourage this. There is dirt everywhere, and the language that you will hear every day in the central courtyard is truly disgusting.Other topics have been covered by others at length, and they are all true: you can fill up a water glass with brown sludge that comes out of your kitchen sink, you can go without heat for over a week before the building will fix it. Yes, at Christmas and New Years, we had NO HEAT – NONE – for nine days. At no point did anyone tell us they were working on this problem, most likely because they were not, and there was no follow up at all. Ramos, the head engineer, was never able to fix anything we called him about. And when they tell you something will be fixed – a loose front door handle, for example – you will never hear from the building staff again. It is not uncommon to walk through the courtyard and find a resident screaming in exasperation at one of the building maintenance staff. And you empathize, because again, you cannot believe that the maintenance fees we pay cannot afford a higher quality staff. The building manager lives in a free, multi-million dollar apartment and draws a salary of nearly a quarter of a million dollars a year. Why are we not able to get someone who actually can manage this building and its staff, set an example, and make the experience of living at the Apthorp everything the marketing materials assure us it will be?The Apthorp looks to sell its renovated units for about $2,100-$2,400 a square foot. They claim parity to well-known Upper East Side buildings that get these amounts. The problem is, while the units themselves are beautiful, the building in which they exist is poorly managed. If I knew then what I know today, I would not pay more than half what I did. Half.
Not entirely a surprise, given everything that's gone on at the Apthorp in recent years. Any other building owners or renters have a different take?
· The REAL Apthorp Experience [StreetEasy]
· Apthorp coverage [Curbed]
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