458 West 52 Street,

Manhattan, NY 10019

Only thing good was the location.

This building is a nightmare and I left as soon as my lease was up.

Filthy:
My apartment was not cleaned properly when I moved in. On the day my lease started, I arrived to find workers, at 2pm, still painting and trying to fix things, as I was moving in. Terrible. The kitchen was left filthy. The windows were not cleaned - I had to clean the outside of the windows myself.
The basement laundry room is a disgrace.
- 3 working washing machines, which leak water across the filthy floor, plus 4 drying machines
- Coin operated washing and drying machines but with a coin machine that was out of service for the last 4 months of my tenancy (May-August 2023) meaning you had to go to the laundrette down the block to get quarters.
- A stench of trash from the trash bins and trash room on the same basement level as the laundry room, making every trip down there disgusting.
- Rats on the same basement level - in the summer you hear them in the trash room down the hall from the laundry room. Disgusting.

Poor security:
A street door that does not close properly, resulting in young kids sometimes coming in to the small hallway to "hotbox" and smoke weed. You would come back in the evening and have to climb over 3-4 teenage guys smoking weed in your hall, who did not live in the building. When I called the super about it, he said there was nothing he could do, and to call the cops.
The second entry door left broken and without a lock for 2 months (July-August 2023).

Extremely noisy:
1. The building is very poorly built and noise from other tenants in the apartments above is extremely loud.
2. There is a homeless shelter on the same street that has daily issues with its clients, shouting, fighting, drinking on the street, often by the apartment building. Constant ambulances attending sick clients at the shelter too. It has a hugely negative impact on the living standards of the W 52nd St block between 9th and 10th Ave.
3. Homeless people gather at the steps of the school next door to 458 W 52nd and hang out there for hours each night, shouting, arguing, playing music until well past midnight. It is a nightmare in terms of noise for any street-facing apartments.

Terrible management agency: Livingston Management
Management agency still has not returned my deposit, 40 days after my tenancy ended, despite repeated emails and calls requesting them to do so and reminding them that the law states it must be returned within 14 days of the tenancy ending.

Emails to ask for the door to be fixed, the laundry room coin machine to be refilled or fixed, the washing machines to be fixed, the noise issues with tenants to be addressed all were simply ignored. They just don't bother responding. Speaking with other tenants, this was something they had experienced also. Every tenant you met in the hall or laundry room would just complain about how bad it was.

Fire your management agency and get a reputable, professional agency. Fix the doors to make the building secure. Completely refurbish the disgusting basement area and laundry room. Address the rat problem. Work with the homeless shelter down the street to raise concerns about clients gathering outside the apartment building and making noise.

conveniently located between 9th and 10th avenue
cool floor plan with steps leading to a slightly higher level

issues with mice
old appliances that break —- it usually takes the super a couple of days to come and fix them (he is not live-in)

it’s inside, so that’s better than outside. the layouts of the apartments are architecturally interesting. pets allowed. central ac (when it works). elevator.

grossly overpriced rent for the neighborhood (like a good 30% over comparable units in a four block radius). non-existent pest control. i mean, they send the dude but he’s as useful as legs on a snake. i have spent the entirety of quarantine fighting to get rid of mice. not like “oh you live in nyc, of course there are mice.” i’m talking wake up in the middle of the night and there’s a mouse sitting on your nightstand watching you. mice that you can hear scrambling in the walls at all times, and frequently squeaking and fighting. mice that are so voluminous your dogs, who were both bred for vermin destruction, are exhausted and have also given up on getting out ahead of the situation. security doors are often broken or left open. package theft. incompetent super who frequently winds up making whatever they’re “fixing” somehow worse.

i don’t think this is the business for you.

Elevator and open apartments

Hallways were not super clean