116 John Street,

Manhattan, NY 10038

I am writing this review as a previous tenant of 116 John Street. I do not normally leave reviews unless it pertains to serious matters and I wanted to share my thoughts for a prospective tenant to be cognizant of when thinking of making 116 John your home. The good, the bad, and the evil.

The Good - 116 John Street is a beautiful apartment building located in the heart of FiDi bordering the Seaport district with great amenities, doormen/women, and apartment complexes. The crowd is generally young professionals with mixed in families, elderly couples, and everything in between. The apartments are spacious, have a lot of natural light, and the staff is attentive. Packages and mail are easy to gather.

The Bad -
1. Rent - Rent is raised disproportionately to market so do expect that if you sign a lease, your rent should be raised significantly. For example, after a year, my rent was raised $500 and thereafter when not signing, was put on the market for $1K more than the year before.
2. Sonder - The building is also home to a short-term apartment rental company, Sonder, who share most amenities and lobby access.
1. Sonder residents tend to be mostly international tourists who tend to clog the lobby. They are located on different floors than residents and use a different elevator set
2. Gym - Sonder residents have access to the gym. If a leasing agent tells you differently, do not believe them.
3. Laundry - Sonder residents do not have access
4. Rooftop - Sonder residents do have access
5. Elevators - the elevators used to be EXTREMELY slow to the point where you could be waiting 2-5 minutes for an elevator. They have since improved but the elevators tend to break down often.
The Evil -
1. Management - Silverstein properties to be more specific. Classic selfish, rude, and greedy property managers. I will elaborate on a couple scenarios below. These may be more unique in nature but should give you a good flavor of what could happen.
2. Rent Payments - there were 2 circumstances where there were “erroneous accounting” issues with rent and the security deposit so make sure to double check your invoices so you are not overcharged
3. Gym - Upon signing the lease and for multiple months thereafter, the gym was free to residents. The gym had mostly all the equipment that your average person would use, exclusive of a squat rack and bench press. Nonetheless, the gym was in great working condition and kept residents happy and active. Management decided to completely refurnish the gym with brand new equipment, mostly all the same equipment that was there prior but brand new. As per the property supervisor, they also wanted to have the aesthetic of an all black gym to “look nicer”. Totally understandable and fine. A week or 2 after the gym was completed, management decided to start charging residents $50 a month to utilize the gym, without prior notification that this may have been on the horizon to give them a heads up. As a point of reference, the gym was $0 for at least 8 years. As an daily user of the gym, I can tell you that everyone was obviously unhappy with this decision and the running theory is that management is trying to recoup their investment for the gym equipment by charging residents a monthly fee. Most residents did not end up getting the membership.
1. Residents can read between the lines and it was a lack of professionalism and under limited notice that ticked people off
4. Roof - The roof is open to all residents and Sonder residents as I stated above. However, management fails to explicitly state the rules of the road for the rooftop anywhere, which leads to ambiguity and arbitrary enforcement, leaving the resident powerless and at victim of whatever ridiculous rules management wants to bring up from time to time.
1. In my particular case, I had a couple friends over to enjoy the sunshine on the rooftop during the available hours of the day. No other residents were using the rooftop and we were up there for an hour and a half enjoying a few alcoholic beverages. 2 months later when vacating the premise, we received our notice of Security Deposit deductions, with the standard utility fee and a $500 charge for an “unauthorized gathering on the rooftop”. Absolutely ludicrous...
2. This is beyond egregious for various reasons, some of which I described above but for further detail
1. There is no mention in the lease of any “private events” or “unauthorized gatherings” on the rooftop thus validating my point on arbitrary enforcements by management.
2. I have personally witnessed many residents utilizing the rooftop with friends and family with alcoholic beverages. Were they charged $500 as well? I’m not sure...
3. Management handled this situation very poorly, were extremely cold and rude via email, and unresponsive. The lack of notice prior to receiving the deductions in the Security Deposit was insufficient. The fact that the rooftop cannot be used with friends is egregious.

I hope the above was useful bait to leverage as you ponder if 116 John Street is the right home for you.

I can say that I did enjoy my living experience at 116 John but there were various experiences outlined above that left a bad taste in my mouth and other residents.

The lack of leadership, experience, and guidance from management can lead to things like this.

If you do end up signing a lease, be careful, remain vigilant, and always remember to check your rent invoices!

None at all

I lived in 116 John Street for almost a year and a half and loved it. The gym in the basement was great and the rooftop was fun when the weather is warm. The apartments themselves will be very fresh as they were converted from being a commercial building recently.

Neighborhood is quiet, but some may like that…

Give it more of a “community” feel

Overall, we liked the cleanliness, management, response speed, and location.

We ended up getting a 30% rent increase which caused us to move out. Construction next to the building was loud and made it hard to work from home or sleep sometimes, and made leaving/entering building a bit harder.

management is great, everyone who works here is great, super clean

windows do not insulate

Lovely staff, great common spaces

Nothing major to report here

Doorman and elevator

Management was rude

affordable-ish for the area but the price comes with its quirks like closets being in the hallway. the area is super safe and the door people are truly 24/7. Great appliances and AMAZING rooftop

this is a FiDi con but there is NO light. In fact, one of the rooms doesn’t even have a window nor does the living space. Price should be lower bc of that but location = $$$.

If you know your legal rights you’ll live happily and stress free if you don’t then prepare for a bunch of misconstrued facts and finger pointing despite whether you’re right or wrong in this building the only respectful people are the main front desk, maintenance staff, Super, and doorman everyone else is always frustrated and doesn’t want to be bothered

Sonder is an airbnb copycat operating as a hotel from floors 2-14 and they dont pay rent to the building owner either but they collect rent from the short and long term tenants in cash upfront which is selfish and unprofessional. Silverstein Properties blames Sonder and Sonder blames Silverstein Properties it’s a circle of confusion just know the roots are with Michael Levy “The Landlord” if you need to accomplish something write or call and ask to speak to him if you really want to get anything accomplished otherwise forget about it

“Michael Levy” do your job please, that’s all we’re asking nothing more nothing less. Get involved with what is going on in YOUR BUILDING

Beautiful clean building, great location. The front desk staff knows you by name, and maintenance is prompt. I’ve never had a pest issue, noise, or cleanliness issue. Gym is decent and longue is beautiful. Would suggest anyone live here.

Roof being closed for several months for construction is not ideal, and construction next door can be noisy at times.

Nice finishes in the unit. Nice staff

Small floorplans/units, gym and rooftop are not great, just good.

The staff is awesome.

Short term rentals by a company called Sonder

Get rid of Sonder!

Landmarked building, nice apartment interiors, quiet at night, nice laundry room, great location

Elevators are always down, small roof deck without bbq, it’s an absolute maze needing to take 3 different elevators to access roof, concierges mostly seem grumpy, sound transfers through air vents from other apartments,

Please fix the elevators

As someone who recently moved to this building during the COVID pandemic, I am truly enjoying living here! As soon as I walk in, I love being greeted by the kind workers! My one bedroom space is very clean, spacious enough for a NYC building(especially the kitchen space) and the amenities are very nice! I enjoy studying in the lounge, relaxing at the rooftop on the weekend & working out in the gym!

Can’t really complain tbh, i love this building!

Keep up the great work!

Price, Staff, Roof Deck

Odd layouts, no real ovens, dark apartments

Good overall experience

They were really accommodating and moving in and out was seamless. Doormen were so friendly. Shared laundry and rarely any issues with that. Gym was decent. Rooms were clean and lots of natural light

3/4 into the lease the management company sold 14 floors to Sonder (an AirBnb like company) and that included our floor. We unfortunately had to move out at the end of our lease but our remaining time there we were dealing with people in and out of the building and treating the floors like a literal hotel (leaving food out in the hallway, etc.)

Please don’t turn the rest of this beautiful building over to Sonder. Be more communicative with your actual tenants.

High ceilings. Nice doormen / women

You live in a hotel. Metro loft only cares about the short term guests. Not tenants. People can rent by the night and have access to all the amenities. Everyone living here wants to leave. Landlord doesn’t even have to disclose it.. horrible company

They don’t even tell us if these guests have to follow any Covid protocol. It’s horrible

Care about your tenants. Get rid of Sonders or at least offer some transparency with your tenants. We’ve been begging for more communication and understanding

Super friendly staff, maintenance was very responsive and kind. Amenities were great and proximity to the subway is amazing.

Cheap appliances often didn’t work well, and there were frequent drainage issues in both bathrooms that maintenance couldn’t even fix. The apartments are also super dark because of the tall buildings surrounding.

Invest in better appliances if you’re charging so much for rent!

The doormen are wonderful, know you by name, give feeling of community

To get to the laundry room occupants on many floors have to take 2 elevators-in such a large building having a second laundry room would be nice

Quiet, clean, updated

Construction outside building

Nice lobby and front desk staff. Nice rooftop and great location.

Had issues with appliances and had to submit maintenance requests constantly. Room shared a wall with the back of the elevator so I heard them all throughout the day.