New Management’s PR Firm Responds

Recently, residents have taken up this opportunity to voice their issues with the building. Primarily, the slowness of new management to address the problems that have plagued this place since…well, its inception.

This past week, residents of 110 Green were given a notice advising them that the roof would be closed until further notice. As the weather starts to warm up and rooftop sunsets seem more appealing, this was met with some mixed reactions. Here’s an excerpt of the official response from the building’s management to a post from a resident about recurring leaks:

“We empathize with your frustrations and know that leaks have been a problem since new ownership took over 110 Green Street. When we came to the building a few months ago, we immediately began researching the problems that needed to be addressed and have lined up a contractor to fix the issues we’ve inherited. Ownership also hired a designer to upgrade the common areas and amenity spaces, including the roof, which will be re-opening as a furnished terrace. All of this is an ongoing process that we aim to complete as quickly and thoroughly as possible; we very much appreciate everyone’s patience thus far and anticipate repairs and renovations to be finished by the end of June.”

Ugh. After the long winter we just had, making us wait a month into summer until we can use the roof seems pretty brutal. Thoughts?

 

New Management!

Should we be rejoicing? Or is this a case of better the devil you know? Time will tell. If you’ve had any experience with the new management, or any insight to offer, comment here.

We received the following email today:

———

Dear Resident,

We have made a decision to sell our apartment building at 110 Green Street. Please note that this should have no effect on you.

As of yesterday the building has been sold, your lease and security deposit will be transferred to the new owner, and business will go on as usual.

All Future Rental Payments should go to the below:

110 Green Street Venture Owner LLC

150 East 42^nd Street-Mezzanine

New York, New York 10017 

 

 

All Management inquiries or notices directed to the landlord should be sent below:

HHRMC, LLC

PO Box 189

Lawrence, New York 11519

Tel. (212) 260-0500

 

It was a please working with you!

———-

N.B: “working” with us?

The Great Elevator Debacle of 2012

Image courtesy of Viridian Brooklyn on Tumblr

Residents of the A building in the Viridian haven’t had access to an elevator for somewhere near the past 2 weeks. As a result, the lobby is packed with strollers, leftover moving boxes and whatever residents aren’t able/willing to bring up flights of stairs.

As of yesterday evening, the doorman’s desk looked like a very large store-room/kindergarten.

Though we’ve posted about the elevator issues before, it should be noted that this time around, it’s the other side of the building that’s elevator-impaired.

Comments from someone who recently took up residence in the building:

I moved in on Sept 1st and we had to carry all of our stuff up the stairs. While I enjoyed meeting some of you and your kind commiseration, it is really unacceptable for the elevator to be out for 2 weeks at a time when people are moving. I had read this blog and knew that management was going to be a pain in the ass, but the laundry list of issues with the apartment is really farcical. What’s the deal with no toilet paper holders and half of a shower door? Our apartment was supposed to be cleaned and instead we found old food in the fridge and paint on the ground. My bedroom door handle was completely broken. The list goes on and on. Has the Better Business Bureau been contacted about management? This blog is a start but has anyone discussed forming an official tenant’s association to combat this awfully run company? I’m all for action so let me know if there’s anything I can do.

The following reply was also given:

In the past 2 weeks, I’ve seen the elevator repairmen (from Nouveau Elevator Repair and Economy Elevator) come to building at least 3 times so they are trying to fix the problem and I don’t it’s the management’s fault on this issue.

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Viridian Gets Another Bashing on New York Shitty

Fittingly, New York Shitty recently showcased an..erm…shitty situation in the inside garden of our darling apartment building.

The image above was captured by a Viridian resident who has set up a Tumblr page to showcase all the issues in the building. The blog, entitled “VIRIDIAN : 110 GREEN ST. The truth behind the turd rolled in glitter: SHITTY MANAGEMENT” is much applauded – what better way to reflect on the absolutely terrible way this “luxury” building is being managed than with photographic evidence. We’ll be checking back regularly and highlighting some particularly good catches. We suggest you keep it bookmarked too.

In the meantime, the other reason that the image above is fantastic is because one of our neighbors saw it fit not to clean up after their dog’s episode. To some extend, we here at viridian gripes understand that shitty management begets shitty neighbors (in this case, literally). However WHO LETS THEIR DOG SHIT INSIDE AND DOESN’T CLEAN IT UP? If you’ve ever spoken to the maintenance crew in the building, you’ll find that they’re really lovely gentleman, and it pains me to see someone having such utter disregard for them (and the rest of us) to allow this to happen.

On a separate note, New York Shitty also reported on the shit-show that went down over 4th July on our roof. Here’s an excerpt about that for anyone who missed the memo.

It should be noted this person also informed me that following the fireworks/beer tossing incident on July 4th (which resulted in a police helicopter buzzing the area and generally scaring the bejezzus out of folks), the management of this building issued a memo informing tenants of the rules regarding use of the roof (as seen at the beginning of this post) and that surveillance cameras were installed so as to catch anyone using it without permission. These were promptly rendered non-functional.

Yes sir, it would appear the Viridian has some rather serious problems. Those of you wishing to have a staycation, have the odd $137.00 to burn and wish to see this shit show firsthand might be interested to know a resident of the Viridian is renting her penthouse apartment via airbnb. Otherwise I recommend checking out “G’s” documentation of the train wreck that is 110 Green Street”. It’s something else.*

*Not to suggest I am surprised that the “quality” of construction at this luxury building has become an issue.

 

You asked for it: The Viridian Gripe Poll

What’s that? A LAUNDRY ROOM?!

If you’ve walked past, or into, the garage this week, you’ll notice that a small area has been cleared and walls have gone up. I confirmed with Patricia at the front desk, and what’s being built is indeed a laundry room.

Huzzah?

We’re fairly certain that apartments that have managed to get the high-end washer/dryers installed will retain them, and no doubt they’ll be relegated to the penthouses/apartments on the upper floors. For everyone else (your writers included), you will receive the luxury of being able to launder your own clothes to your own liking without having to deal with a sub-par machine, sending laundry out to get ruined, or running your clothes right there to the corner like everyone else*

No word yet on when the room will be completed and the units will finally be moved in. But we can be hopeful that within the next few weeks/months, The Viridian will actually be a luxury apartment building WITH LAUNDRY SERVICES AVAILABLE.

On the other hand, there’s the added fear that machines will break and management will blame misuse and abuse, similar to the way they treat the other amenities. What do you think? Have your say in the comments below.

 

*To our lovely friends and neighbors: this is completely tongue-in-cheek. We’re lucky to have a fantastic 24-hour laundry on the corner of our street. It doesn’t fail to make us laugh that we’re forced to use it, even though we were advertised an apartment containing a washer/dryer, moved in under that pretense, and found that we either had machines that didn’t work completely or our machines suddenly disappeared prior to moving in.

 

Elevator Issues

From our inbox:

The elevator has been broken like once a week. It does not work for few days, works for few hours, and breaks down again.

This time, it is broken from 7/16/2012 like 10am, and as of now, 7/17/2012 3:10pm, it is still broken.

I am not sure how to express this anger, frustration because we have kids and it is extremely difficult to carry strollers, we decided to move here, BECAUSE THERE IS ELEVATOR!!! I have back problem, and we have two kids, so we HAD no choice but to move to elevator building, and if it’s broken so often, how the hell they can increase the rent? For what?

Of course we emailed management, asking to compensate for the inconvenience. All tenants are paying premium for the gym, pool,. roof, doorman, and ELEVATOR. IF the features are compromised, don’t they have to compensate for the inconvenience?????

Does anyone know where to file a complain how poorly this matter (elevator maintenace) is handled??

Thanx a lot for having this place to let this anger go, hopefully So many of the residents agree with my opinion…

 

Rooftop Shenanigans

Hey Neighbors,

You might have noticed a few messages placed under the doors in every apartment. One was about clearing the bikes from the garage and bike stand so they could expand storage. We were told that this was because people had left bikes there as they moved in and out of the apartment, and the management want to clear the area of all bikes that don’t have an owner. I don’t know about you, but people out there want bikes, and bike parts. Leaving behind a bike would just be silly.

The second note was about clearing our grills off the roof. The little grill village that appeared at the start of summer up there was kind of awesome, and yes – it does look messy, but part of the attraction of the roof is the ability to grill. Which directly relates to my next point – the note that asked us not to visit the roof after dusk.

After the 4th July craziness, there were a number of stupid parties on the roof. I really hope that the people hosting these parties read this, because seriously – your parties were stupid. There’s no reason at all for you to invite 300 people to a common area of your building only to have residents overhead complaints such as “I have to pee!!! I’m going to pee on the roof!”. Seriously. Just because the management of the Viridian doesn’t care enough to tell the doorman to report visitors (or seems to have a horrible time remembering how crazy things can get each summer) doesn’t mean that you can be irresponsible with your guests. Nobody likes to find smashed beercans in elevators or left by the pool. Nobody.

Which is ostensibly why residents were told that guests cannot go on the roof, and there is no access after dusk. Because the management don’t know how to deal with things getting out of hand in a normal, pleasant manner, and people treat the building like a large college campus, they have no choice but to fight back with stupid schoolteacher tactics. We at viridian gripes place the blame squarely with the management, but those who know better can avoid ruining it for everyone else by not having stupid parties on the roof.

So now that we have our grills in our empty laundry rooms or outside our front doors, what can we do?

1) We can still grill.

It’s not like management has decided to ban guests from the apartment whatsoever. If you want to have a few friends over and have a quiet party on the roof, do it. Just don’t be a dick about it and bring a boombox or rope off an area for yourself. It’s common turf, people

2) We can still visit the roof after dusk

The doors aren’t locked. The only way they can shake the giblets out of the irresponsible residents is to threaten everyone

3) We can still have parties

Your apartment is a pretty nice place to entertain guests. Why not have a martini and listen to the new Sinatra indoors?

Oh, and by the way – thanks to the couch-surfers and ball-stealers, the games room is off limits unless you check in and out. I for one think it’s a great idea – dedicated space when I need it? Check. Guarantee that the pool table will have all the necessary equipment? Check. Wanting to go in there only to find people watching movies as if it’s their own living room? No thanks.

Your thoughts?

New (belated post) on new (belated) stuff: floor waxing, rodent extermination and more…

Floor Waxing

Those who are out and about in the evenings will notice that Victor, the Viridian’s full-time (but not live-in) super, has been in the building until late waxing the lobby’s floors. Slightly inconvenient for some on the East side of the A block who had to travel to the other elevators, but everything looks so pretty and shiny, don’t you agree?

As a result of all the movement, some of the unused furniture in the indoor garden has made its way to the lobby. While they are a stylistic contrast, they do serve a purpose for people waiting for cabs and things.

Poop Bin!

A new poop bin has found its way to Manhattan avenue. It works if people use it. While we’ve seen less poop in bags around the block (literally the worst thing ever – POOP IN BAGS WON’T DEGRADE, PEOPLE!) there’s still somewhat of a poop problem in the area. We’re not sure how to report street poop bag droppers – ideas, anyone?

Extermination

Following some comments about rodents, exterminators did enter the building at some point in the last few weeks, but we weren’t told about it until something was posted on the message boards the day before. There were also exterminators that came through last week, but we were told by those on the first floor that they didn’t hear about it because the signs were only posted in the elevator (the message board by the A block mailboxes was moved while the floor was being waxed). Did an exterminator visit you? Let us know in the comments.

As always, if you have a gripe, email us at viridiangripes@gmail.com and we’ll do our best collectively to try to resolve it. Or at least gripe about it until we feel better.

Electric Bills

Something that’s been raised via e-mail and in the comments is how our electric bills are calculated. Those who were here last year might remember receiving a $10,000+ bill from ConEdison in the mail noting that if electricity wasn’t paid, it would be switched off. (alarm bells) This was curious as QLC is officially the utility supplier for the building, and as we all know, our charge is added on to our monthly rent. But this opens up the question about how exactly it’s being metered:

The lease specifically states that we are to get our own conEd account. Our submetered electric bill ranged from $80 to $270 throughout the year. We very rarely ran the AC in the summer and never ran the heat in the winter. As a comparison, our last apartment that had all electric appliances ran $30-$50/month. I complained to Simon and eventually got him to send a technician from QLC to inspect. They never came back with the results. We researched this a bit, and it’s actually illegal for them to submeter without telling us, and having to pay QLC’s service charge.

Thoughts? Let us know in the comments.

Update: another such bill from ConEd was distributed among residents a few days ago, noting that the landlord would be instructed to cut off electricity if it was not paid. This implies that the management company, 110 Green Street Apartments LLC, is in debt to ConEd. We did not follow up on the issue, but if anyone did, please feel free to let us know what you may have found out.