401 West 56 Street,

Manhattan, NY 10019

Doorman, nice workers, big windows

Cockroaches, often messy lobby, no ventilation in bathroom, elevator would randomly stop working. Crazy price for the location/ size of units/ state of apartments

Be more communicative

Proximity to Columbus circle is great and access to the park / subway lines

1. Neighbors are extremely loud and you can hear everything - if you try to reach out to management they will be of no help
2. There were 2 mice I spotted throughout the year I lived here
3. Getting your full security deposit back is nearly impossible - they will dock you for things that they are at fault for
4. No matter how much you clean your unit it will never be truly clean because of how poorly maintained the building is
5. Front desk is always changing - some folks are kind and nice others can be very rude
5. If no other options are available this is ok but honestly not worth it if you have the funds to live elsewhere

Super usually responds quickly to issues, doormen are nice

Roaches in the summer, not many laundry machines

Location and front desk staff are the only good things about this building. I loved the doormen/women! Units get a lot of light also

Where to begin.. the owner, super, and management at this building are AWFUL. Greedy, petty, and terribly managed. When I moved into the building, my apartment was filthy. Absolutely disgusting. The kitchen was covered in oil, dirt, and the bathroom had gunk and hairs all over it. They said someone would come to clean and they never did. Our oven never worked throughout the entire time I lived there and the dishwasher would leak all over the floor ruining the wooden floor, and this happened even after countless maintenance requests. The super is nice and helpful until you tell them you’re moving out and he becomes incredibly rude and ignores communication to him. The unit was covered in roaches all summer and there are mice in the basement. The unit and entire building smells musty and like something is decaying. Management is greedy and awful, it took a month and a half of constantly calling the office after I moved out to get my security deposit. They would lie and say they will send it out and then wouldn’t send it. I had to say I would get my lawyer involved before they finally sent it and they ended up taking $700 out in damages. There is absolutely no way this made sense, and no damages were done to the apartment at all when we left?? We left the apartment sparkling when we left which was the complete opposite of how it was when we moved in. All this to say.. I read these review and ignored when when I first looked at this building.. please don’t ignore them. Avoid this place at all costs!! Management are scammers and the super is petty and rude. Awful even for NYC landlord standards

I absolutely adore the front desk staff.

The units are largely quite nice.

This building would be so wonderful to live in. Unfortunately, the landlord Steve seems to enjoy being in direct opposition with his tenants.

I know people only write reviews to complain, so it's hard to know which to take seriously. I will therefore try to stick to things that are objectively true:

1. Steve has a reputation in the building as being vile. Not just a "typical landlord," or just a pain in the butt, but -- and I'm directly quoting recent conversations with other tenants -- "creepy," "awful," "horrible," and "cruel."

2. A couple of my neighbors have a restraining order against him. I don't know what for.

3. In spring of this year, when NYC landlords were cancelling "COVID credits," this landlord was no exception. Steve cancelled mine outright. We even signed a lease rider stating that he would only raise rates from the "net effective" amount, but he ignored it in full and in total with no detectible remorse. My rent went up 40%. There was no attempt to negotiate. Half of the building is moving out right now, and this is mostly why.

4. If you are not experiencing any current issues, you won't see Steve, and Fred (the super) will be both attentive and affable. But if you happen to find yourself on Steve's bad side -- like, say, if you're simply trying to hold him to a signed agreement -- Fred will treat you like the meanest, pettiest mean girl you knew in middle school, and with just as much maturity and skill. He will ice you out, ignore your requests, and gaslight you. He'll escalate situations, then blame you for the escalation. Sadly, neither man appears capable of much else. Steve in particular seems to fancy himself aN iNtEllEcTuaL who's "very good" at resolving disputes. In point of fact, he is a very stupid man who has mistaken his whiteness, maleness, and power over others' living situations for skill and ability. So to the contrary, he exacerbates every issue I've seen him come in contact with. Even the smallest issues could be turned against you and blown out of proportion very quickly. To live here is to live in constant fear of his next unpredictable whim.

4. Many, many tenants have constant issues with roaches in the building, particularly those on lower floors, though I personally did not. An exterminator visits on a regular basis for this reason.

5. In my apartment, I am currently being treated to the sounds of raunchy sex starting at around 8am and continuing past midnight every day of the week. I suspect adult film shoots, though that is unconfirmed. Furniture (lighting and film equipment?) is being dragged against bare floors above my head, heavy items are dropped, and I hear a near continuous stream of embarrassing vocalizations and banging. The building has ignored repeated and patient requests for intervention, despite recordings I have presented them. This pattern of noise was present with the previous tenant above me, and now with the new tenant above me. If there is in fact some similar industry ties between the two back-to-back tenants, one might feasibly wonder what the financial stake the landlord might have in the situation. Admittedly this is all conjecture. But as management and the super absolutely refuses to mediate the situation or respond to patient and repeated requests, conjecture is unfortunately all I have.

I have lived in this city for 15 years. All New York City landlords are some degree of jerk, of course. But this one seems to think he isn't, and somehow that makes it worse. Steve's commitment to his own delusions about his own abilities for negotiation makes him meaner and more soulless than any other I have encountered, by quite a lot. His behavior continues to regularly shock me.

Please: if you are reading this, please, please live literally anywhere else but here.

Please hire someone else to interface with tenants. Steve is thuggish, cold, and turns small disputes into large ones. He is by all accounts bad at his job -- unless what you're after is to harass and bully innocent people out of their homes.

And if that is what you're after: well, then you deserve every word of this review as well.

Nice location, doorman

Noise (I can hear everything), Elevator stops so easily

Heat, doorman, location

Sometimes construction. Elevator is often broken

Replace the elevator

Spacious
Good light
Not loud
Super generally fixes stuff

1st floor can get mice and cockroach although only 1 or 2

Location is nice and generally safe

Serious rodent and roach problem

Friendly doormen/women, wonderful sound insulation (you don’t hear your neighbors), laundry in the building.

Bathrooms have problems, there are roaches throughout the building (but they’re in every New York apartment).

The location is great.

The building is ugly and the management rather greedy.

Keep realistic rent for the overall value.

Friendly security guards, safe and in a convenient area

Bad water pressure and had a problem with pests

Doormen/women are great

Management company is rude, unresponsive, untrustworthy. Cockroaches were an issue