Pros:
Building workers- lobby, maintenance, cleaning, and garbage crew- are very helpful and hardworking; always willing to help someone out. The easy access to the 4th floor gym is amazing, and for a gym within a luxury building, it is one of the better built gyms I've seen in terms of size and equipment available. Amazing city views on the upper levels. They allow dogs/cats in the units. Walls (at least in my unit) are not thin; I almost never hear my neighbors or the residents above or below me. Accessible location to great restaurants, multiple trains, and Prospect Park. The building offers some units through the NYC Housing Lottery program, so if you qualify and get 1 of these units through the lottery, your rent is stabilized through the city- this is how I was able to get my apartment here. All units have large ceiling height windows which allow for a lot of natural sunlight. There is a pool on the very top floor; however, it is SUPER small and it is VERY windy up there.
Cons:
Cost: the price point (for those paying full price) is not worth it. The lobby is often busy with traffic, people coming in/out, deliveries, people moving in/out constantly, and when you get out of the building, the traffic continues on both on the sidewalk and on the road. While the location offers great access, it comes with a HUGE downside (which to me weighs more than the pros), it is extremely congested, loud, and noisy in this area. The Barclay center is located directly behind the building and often has multiple concerts or sporting events going on all week long. The crowds of people and cars in the few blocks that surround this building becoming seriously congested, and if you live on a lower level, you will hear it all. Not only that, but both the NYPD and FDNY have stations right down the block, and at ALL hours of the day and night you are hearing sirens going off and the fire truck honking excessively through the snail moving traffic. To add to the outdoor noise, the building management has finally leased out their commercial spaces on the lower levels, which includes a LifeTime Fitness that is still under construction. The excessive noise from this project starts at 7AM - 5PM, 7 days a week. Of the 12 months I have lived here, I have not gone a day without listening to the drilling, hammering, breaking, and building of whatever is going on with this project. If you work from home, this is your worst nightmare. I am sure the noise levels don't affect floors 12+, but any unit below that likely hears everything from the outdoors plus this gym project. Next, on top of the high rent, the amenities are also a separate expense, which already seems absurd. Most luxury buildings elsewhere, this cost is built into the rent; it is not a separate fee, and all residents have access to the amenities. Here, you're going to pay $95 for "amenity access" and an additional $25 for the bike storage access space (which only covers ONE bike space, and they do audit to ensure you only have 1 bike there). Next, the heating/cooling units are really subpar- they make a ton of noise if you have to use them. Depending on what floor you live on, and who your neighbors are, the trash room most likely will be a nightmare. Many of the residents here do behave very entitled, and often leave their trash lying around in the room, even though there is a simple trash chute that is extremely easy to use; many people are too lazy to bother recycling, so they often will dump random garbage into the bins that CLEARLY say "recycling only." At least 6 out of 7 days a week, I walk into the trash room on my floor, and find it to be a HUGE mess (garbage leaking, garbage bags broken with trash hanging out, boxes not folded or packed down, and recycle bins over flowing with regular trash, not recycling). The garbage crew comes daily, sometimes 2x a day and they clean up thoroughly, and yet, the residents still DO NOT care. Many of the floors smell like marijuana. A lot of barking dogs on various floors, and dog poop and pee all over the nearby sidewalks. Many residents do not curb their dogs, despite various complaints and notices from management. Management appears very useless most days honestly; they do not always approve requests to use an amenity in a timely manner, or reply to emails in a timely manner. Management likes to micromanage the amenities by requiring reservations for almost all aspects of the building; to include the pool (only 1 outside guest is allowed per unit/resident). It also seems they do not manage the lobby and other building staff very well either, as many workers have started and left so frequently in the 1 year I've been here. There are several offices spaces which are really poorly designed: not enough nearby plugs, not enough small-room areas (mostly conference rooms, which usually 1 person will reserve just for themselves). Small office desks/tables get taken up very quickly if you arrive too late in the morning. I lived in NYC all my life (born and raised here) and have lived in neighborhoods all over the place: Queens, the Bronx, uptown, midtown, and downtown Manhattan. This was my first experience living in Brooklyn (so my next statement does not apply to all areas of BK). While this area of Atlantic Ave offers great restaurants and night life, I feel it has become over the top here; attracting a culture of people that don't truly represent New York, and instead represent some illusion of what NYC "luxury" looks like. Unfortunately, Brooklyn Crossing is not it. The high rise is over the top, and over-rated. The quality of craftsmanship in the building and in the units is subpar, although they want you to believe it is all "luxury" material; it is NOT- no real wood floors, kitchen cabinet doors eventually become loose and worn, washer/dryer are tiny and don't wash clothes well, hand-held shower wand begins leaking on random areas of the tubing, kitchen faucet knobs fall off and require fixing, and there isn't much overhead lighting throughout the apartment. I have lived here for 1 year and will NOT be renewing my lease- it is just not worth it. What you pay in rent here, is what you would pay for a mortgage on a $500K home in upstate NY; trust me, because that's my next move out of this apartment. My mortgage payment will be exactly what I've been paying here- except I will have land, ownership, more space, nature, and no noise. Living in this apartment showed me that if I can afford an overpriced luxury unit, I can afford a house and get more for my money. Sorry BKLYN Crossing, this place is NOT worth the hype or the money.
Advice to owner:
Amenities should be included in rent; bike storage should NOT be a separate expense, and be included at no additional charge; there should be rent credits provided for those living on lower level units who are directly affected by the noise created by the Lifetime Fitness project (it is NOT enough to just send an "heads-up" email about the noise), it was extremely loud and disruptive in the mornings, and went on into the mid-evenings, and on weekends it continued on; the stress of the noise from that project drove me nuts. Vet unit residents more carefully. The cost of rent does not match the service or "luxury" provided in the building. Hire a solid crew of workers, pay them WELL, and provide them with adequate time off; there are too many employees starting and quitting or being terminated in such a short time frame, no one can keep up.