Stuyvesant Town residents are aware that their landlord and management company, Tishman Speyer, periodically coordinates contrived stories about how idyllic life on the complex is to cover up their obvious mismanagement of the residential property.Last June The New York Times ran a profile piece on a young couple who, after living with roaches in the nearby East Village, found a happy ending story in Stuyvesant Town. They were elated with their spacious apartment complete with dishwasher and a semi pet-friendly environment. What's curious about this article is that, of all of the new, young couples living in Stuyvesant Town who could have been interviewed, The New York Times chose to interview Joey Arak, the publisher of curbed.com, a real estate website which Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village advertise with each month.
It's probably no coincidence that little of Tishman Speyer's recent press about Stuyvesant Town's financial trouble makes it on to curbed.com.
Tishman Speyer's latest PR stunt involves an article published in last week's Daily News that makes Stuyvesant Town sound like Frank Capra's Bedford Falls. Tishman Speyer would like nothing more than for people living outside of Stuyvesant Town to think their tenants are happily fawning over things like manicured lawns and maypoles and those who complain are just taking advantage of rent stabilized apartments. Aside from attempting to create trouble between rent stabilized and market rate tenants where none exists, the Daily News article fails to mention any of Stuyvesant Town's quality of life issues.
Residents of the 110 building complex must endure continuous construction work. The 14th Street Loop has been closed off for several weeks because it is being repaved even though it was repaved a few years ago. The project is already two weeks behind schedule. The 20th Street Loop was also subjected to the same needless renovation in August which involved complicated, bound fencing that could have proved deadly for tenants needing emergency services. Currently there is a building on Avenue C undergoing major construction work, at times late at night, and management has not informed their residents of what is being done to their building.
The heart of Stuyvesant Town, known as the Oval, is also privy to delayed construction projects. Four amenities including Oval Kids, Oval Film, Oval Lounge and Oval Study are exclusive only to those who wish to pay a yearly fee of $250 in addition to a monthly charge of $25. Even Stuyvesant Town's website has a hard time making these amenities sound exciting and in a troubled economy they fail to show the value of joining. The Oval Amenities were suppose to open October 1st though a representative now says they will open "...around the 10th." The one amenity that did open on schedule, Oval Concierge via Abigail Michaels, introduced themselves to the community by revealing their clients' email addresses right after they suggested their staff cater to the predominately white community .
Then there is the process of renovating apartments that have recently become destabilized. Construction work begins early in the morning and lasts for nearly a month, subjecting both market rate and stabilized tenants to constant noise which will not end until all of the apartments are modernized years down the road.
Other Quality of Life Issues: Improvements are constantly being made to the apartment buildings when none are needed. Construction dumpsters are emptied nightly at 3AM. Washers and dryers are being replaced with nearly identical models that provide no benefit to the tenants.Tenants can rent storage units in their buildings but the units are often blocked with garbage and recycling. Bicycles are stolen from the carriage rooms because for some strange reason that is the one area where the ubiquitous security cameras are not installed. Tishman Speyer's staff routinely drive their golf carts on city streets and have been continually photographed violating laws when they are not muttering homophobic slurs and hitting children. In an effort to fill vacant apartments Tishman Speyer has offered an undisclosed amount of apartments to N.Y.U. and The New School forcing their "luxury" tenants to cohabitate with college kids. Pressure walls that allowed residents to create an additional bedroom were discontinued when they violated building codes by preventing sufficient amounts of air and light into the apartments while also being a fire hazard. It will soon be mandatory that Stuyvesant Town residents use electronic ID cards to enter their buildings which would allow Tishman Speyer to track their comings and goings, information that residents fear will be used against them in court to prove their apartments are not their primary residences.
The Daily News piece is also noteworthy because it fails to mention the financial hardship Stuyvesant Town has become to their investors due in large part to Tishman Speyer's lack of residential management experience. Articles appearing in The Wall Street Journal, Barron's and the New York Post indicate that Tishman Speyer has burned though their $400 million cash reserve meant to tide them over until the complex becomes profitable. The articles note that lengthy legal battles attempting to evict tenants, a grandiose landscaping endeavor, and the inability of Tishman Speyer to pass off the projects-look-a-like apartments as luxury buildings have been expensive sink holes in the road to profitability for the management company.
Online reviews of the property are not favorable either. ApartmentRatings.com gives Stuyvesant Town a 29% overall rating. A recent Stuyvesant Town market rate tenant writes "We have recently just moved out of 'Stuy Town' in hopes for a better place to live. This place was upsetting and a huge disappointment. After one week of moving into the apartment there were roaches all over the kitchen...the noise is a problem, the walls are paper thin... the management will give you a run around about EVERYTHING." Another reviewer writes "ST is great if you... like having your bikes stolen from within the convenient bike room... like construction to start and never end... like double digit rent increases... like the look of projects." One reviewer on Yelp.com says "The owner is on the lookout to kick people out. In their zeal they are taking the innocent with them. You constantly have the feeling you're being watched."
New York City has no shortage of luxury apartments, real luxury apartments, with doormen and amenities people want in buildings that don't look like projects. By catering to a younger, market rate crowd that will most likely not reside in the complex for more than a year or two while alienating the long-term residents of the complex by dragging them to court and forcing them to live with college kids, Tishman Speyer is creating a transient community with no loyalty to them or the neighborhood.
Unless Tishman Speyer is willing to work with the community instead of against it, the future of Stuyvesant Town looks bleak.
Jerry, Bud, and the gang must not be too smart. If you are going to cause all sorts of noise and inconvenience, such as renovating apts., emptying dumpsters at 3 am, repaving roads yet again, and constantly muddying the sidewalks, ALL of your tenants are going to have to deal with the ramifications.
So the ones that you'd like to stay (the market raters) are going to blow out of here after just one year, because, after paying over $4000 a month to live in a dump, they just don't want to deal with your bullshit anymore. This will give you even more vacancies, but, unfortunately, not the type that you were looking for.
The ones that you'd like to leave (RS'ers) have no intention of going anywhere. While we see your little "projects" as an inconvenience to us while they are happening, for us, they are just a blip in the road and we plan to remain here for the duration.
So where does that leave you T-S? Valuable tenants fleeing in droves, unvaluable tenants sticking around forever. Umm, I think you might want to re-look at that balance sheet.
Touche, Luxie, touche! Imagine an accent mark over the"e".
I'm sending a link to this post to the editor of the Daily News. Great job once again.
The new movie "How to lose friends and alienate people" is a loose autobiography of the Speyer family.
There is nothing that Mother and I enjoy more than spending a pleasant summer Sunday afternoon under the Oval elms reading the latest installment of the Father Gilbert Mysteries. Alas. It has not been so pleasant as of late, at least when "nature calls." What, may I ask, do Mssrs. Speyer intend to do about replacing the marvelous outdoor "facilities" that were demolished to erect OvalKids? They were so convenient and always clean, unlike the monstrosities, those unspeakable "portable potties," that have taken their place.
Great Great post !
I have been reading your website for a while but this is the first time I have commented. I undertsand that it makes light of things here but a lot of the issues you write about are real and for the most part right on point. It's also helpful to know that based on the comments I am not the only one dissatisfied with my apartment.
I am paying a market rate rent in Stuy Town and I regret the day I signed my lease. The leasing office was my best friend while I debated moving here but once I signed my lease and moved in I have to beg the management office to return my calls. I have scheduled appointments to have things taken care of in my apartment and they have missed several appointments. Appointments that I had taken time off of work so I could be there.
My upstairs neighbors must be operating a nightclub because they party on the weekends sometimes until 5 in the morning. I have complained to management and they insist security must enter my apartment to experience the noise themselves. I hesitantly let them in to hear the noise but the parties go on. I have followed up with management and they say my need for quiet neighbors are "unrealistic". I wish they put that in their glossy welcome package.
As a long time resident of ST I find some of the college residents are a pain in the ass with their self-entitled attitudes and loud parties. Management will do very little to handle tenant to tenant noise issues other than maybe sending a letter or two.
I had to deal with a few frat boys who would have weekend parties in their bedroom. I could hear their music all the way in my living room. Security came over many times and logged the noise complaints but management couldn't care less especially since they pay a higher rent.
My solution was to give it back to them. I turned my killer tower speakers at the wall and blasted those punks with music for hours and days at a time. It took a few months but the bastards quieted down and when their 1 year lease was up they moved out.
Some people in life only understand force; they cannot be negotiated with; similar to punching a bully in the face that bully is unlikely to bother you again!
Has anyone tried calling the cops when these assholes are partying in the wee small hours? They are actually breaking the law.
Yeah, I've called security and I've called the cops. What really works is if you wake up at 7 the next morning and blast your music.
Oh, and when they leave all of their garbage in front of your trash compactor, just put it right back in front of their door so that they can smell the stale Budweiser when they finally venture out into the world.