Anyone having luck negotiating with Glenwood?

glenwood is tough....they advertise like crazy, have a good rep for management and are attrative to lots of prospective tennants

I figured. I'm in FiDi though and there is a lot of competition down there right now. Advertised rates are below what I'm paying. I guess we'll see. In the meantime I'll check out the competition.

best building in FiDi in my opinion is 2 water street. they have onsite leasing agents, and is stunning. walk in and get a tour of available apartments.

Thanks eastsideb!

not cheap...but good value and free to look!

http://www.newyorkplaza.com/

lol do you guys do bar mitzvahs?

E.S.B. - do you work with Pan Am as one of their preferred brokers?

i don't understand your comment alex

I'm a Glenwood tenant in Tribeca. They offered to renew the monthly rent established in 2007 without an increase. I explained that I didn't have an intent to renew at that price and sent them some market comps. Didn't hear back from them.

If I pursued it maybe something could be worked out, but I don't have an interest in staying in Tribeca. By December Glenwood may be far more willing to negotiate given the number of people I've seen moving out. I don't think that's a criticism of the building itself, just that they are (or at least were) too far above market for the area.

Thank you Yozhik. May I ask where you decided to move to? I like the quality of the Glenwood buildings and the staff have been really great so I'm worried about making a move and being worse off. Don't want to wind up living in a college dorm (like some of the share buildings in the area)

steve yes, i work with pan am. but as this building has their own onsite leasing staff i have just given an unsolicited opinion. it is a wonderful building. and i have no gain in saying so

rios, the building info i gave you does not allow conversions, hence no frat share scenarios. they do allow shares of course for true two beds, but price usually prohibits real youngsters.

I'm a resident at Glenwood in FiDi. We were able to negotiate our rent to stay the same (they actually tried to increase it in April). After a great number of phone calls and unreturned messages they agreed to leave it the same as in 2008. Although, don't know what its like in other building but they are getting worse: they turn off the heat when its 50 degrees outside (the inside it totally freezing). They claim that the rule is 55F, but believe me, they do it every chance they get! and then they also turn it off at night (noone would know since they're sleeping but I woke up once and it wasn't pretty). There has been a great number of complaints in entire buildign and nothign was done. So think hard before you decide to move there...

Will they proactively drop rents? No. Will they raise the rent? Probably not.
Don't know what you mean about "getting ahead of your renewal letter", if that means looking for a new place - just in case - I say go for it. If it means you approaching them to negotiate earlier be prepared for them not to budge and realize that you just showed them your hand earlier then you had to.
It's my feeling that their strategy is that for every 10 tenants who say "lower my rent or I'll leave".
about 6 are bluffing for a lower rent, another 3 are sincere about moving then back down and renew at the last minute and 1 actually does move. So instead of lowering rents for all 10 tenants, they have one vacant apartment that they offer incentives to new incoming tenants only. All this is just my opinion of course and you might have some wiggle room to compensate if you have a larger unit with many rooms. But don't wait too long for them to "come around". Be prepared to move and if you decide to do so - schedule the freight elevator as soon as you can because incoming tenants and incoming tenants come first while outgoing comes last.

EZrenter -- thanks for the input. Makes sense on all fronts.

30 apartments moving out of my UES doorman building come Sept 1 (or in the next week). I see plenty of moving trucks on my block on a daily basis. Hopefully I can use that to lower my rent in the fall, when my lease comes due.

EZrenter, good analysis. Best just to say "toodles" and give your reason, if too-high rent is the reason. You're then not gambling, they are. You just need to be ready to follow through: I've already viewed my target building and viewed just about all the 1- and 2-bedroom configurations and would be happy with any of them, though since I work at home 2-bedroom is my preference. But I could be happy in any of them, and I make enough for them, and I like the new nabe, so what is it, a few grand to move?

If the difference were $100 a month it might not be worth moving, but $1,200 a month and resetting the rent downward for the future is well worth a few days' inconvenience.

There is a website advertising on the NY Times that has all Glenwood listings. I'm assuming the listings are pretty accurate, so you may want to use their current rates to negotiate. http://searchluxuryaptsbyowner.com/

that kind of advertising is what makes them tougher to negotiate. they are really heavy internet advertisers and count on their good rep to get new tennants if old ones won't pay the rent.

RioS,

I'm starting my apartment search this weekend. I'm also looking toward the Union Square/Gramercy area for a place, so that might not be what you are looking for. Generally speaking, I've heard good things about Related and Archstone, but have no experience with them and don't know how competitive they are in pricing right now. Also, I think your satisfaction with management companies also depends on how important amenities are to you. For instance, having a swimming pool or large lounge area is nice but it's not something I really need or use that much, but others may consider that key.

If you decide to do the apartment search, I highly recommend locating a well-trusted broker from your friends. A good broker can show you no-fees and because they want to build a long-term relationship can advise you on the quality of various management companies. That's the approach I've taken and it works quite well for me so far.

related is great and you can negotiate pretty hard with them. they are my landlords and proactively reduced my rent 25% from last year. and i know the concessions for incoming tennants are great as well i havent had the same kind of sucess with archstone, but that is limited to a couple of buildings

RioS,

I'd also suggest that you've got two to three months before you really need to make a decision whether to stay. A lot can change in that time, such as Glenwood offering better incentives for existing tenants or rents in general falling even further as landlords struggle to fill vacant units.

(esb, if Glenwood had offered me a 25% discount I might have stayed another year. oh well, their loss)

well, i am in the business. i knew exactly what related was renting units for in my building. and i have rented a number of their units in my building and a couple of others. but even beyond that, i know they offered my neighbors proactive discounts, just don't know if they were as good as mine

Rios, The_gentrifier suggested "a website advertising on the NY Times that has all Glenwood listings" I'd definitly guess this as a representation of listings and not all of them. It is my feeling that they may have many, many more available and are marketing "samples" so not to embolden new and existing tenants in rent negotiations if the prospector knows they are vacancy-heavy. . Once you get your foot on the door to view an apartment in a particular building, I would not be surprised if they start giving you the old "If this is not to your liking there's another floor higher, or one with a terrace, or one with a river view" etc.

EZrenter,

I think you're most definitely right. I know that my apartment isn't listed at all, but also the few listings they offer just doesn't correlate with the number of people I see moving out versus moving in each week.