Is The St Mark (115 East 9th St) Stodgy

Runs like a Swiss watch. Heavy-handed on rules enforcement, but to very good effect. Great door staff. Corridors are overdue for renovation, but scheduled to be done soon. I believe maintenance is quite low.

alanhart what kind of rules? I heard that visitors need to be escorted out by a resident. This seems a little anal. And say... Would someone be looked down on if they came in 4am drunk on a friday? Does this building feel like the Village? thanks for any info.

It's truly awful.

avenueb - can you say more, what do you mean by awful?

I never lived in this building, but have waked by it many times. It seems very nice. However, there is an Irish bar next door on 9th Street that seems to be a college hangout... I'm not sure if you care about this, but I would walk by at night and gauge for yourself. Also, 3rd Ave. can be very noisy with buses, etc., so you might want to take that into consideration if you are looking at a unit facing 3rd Ave. The area itself is wonderful. Convenient to everything. I'm also 90% positive this is the building Joey Ramone (RIP) lived in.

Does anyone know the vibe in this building>?

The apartments are dreadful little boxes. The building has no character or charm. You'll wake up to puke out on the streets every morning. The vibe is "old Greenwich villlage." And by old, I don't mean "back when it was cool," if you know what I mean.

Joey Ramone did live there.

This is a nice building. Have a friend who lives there. The maintenance is a little high and most apartments have balconies which is nice. Apartments are spacious (They have a 2 bed/2 bath) with a nice layout. 3rd Avenue is very noisy and there is a NYU dorm across the street. The bar next door is rowdy but they have been working to have the people stay in front of the bar...it's not insane by any means! The hallways do need a makeover. I know they do not allow open houses. Only viewings by appointment because they don't want people roaming the building, but guests can come and go as they please. There is no requirement to escort them out.

Thanks aveb, babsie, appreciate your comments.

Alan, what does "heavy-handed on rules enforcement" mean? surely there's a story there ..

ali r.
{downtown broker}

Nothing exciting ... just strict adherence to move-in/move-out and the like. I suspect they don't have a let-it-all-hang-out sublet policy, etc.

It was such a nice neighborhood before NYU started spreading like tuberculosis. Now the coop has to do what it has to do.

rented here but was not happy due to loud hallway noise heard in apartment, street noise from bar and riff raff crowd from bar and st marks. homeless and drunks seem to like the bench outside. and lots of old timers in building alnong with slow crowded elevators. much happier with new digs. Oh, and I was on 12th floor and street noise was obvious but tolerable. APartments here have typically sold below others in the surrounding area for these reasons.

Stodgy as opposed to what? Stewart House?

Good pt 30rs. Stewart House IMO just doesn't belong in the village. They should move it. Could same be said of st mark?

Some history: back in the mid 1980's, the 2 br's (and the St Mark is about as 2 br heavy as any building of it's ilk in the Village... East or West; and when I say "ilk" I mean like the "impressionist" buildings, 77 E 12th, etc as opposed to Brevoorts, Stewart house, 2 Fifth, etc) were going for just above or below $200,000 when you couldn't get any other 2br's in any of the other FS buildings in the Village for anywhere near that. I remember in the first half of 1986 Rochelle Bass from Bellmarc sold like 300 of them (yes I'm exaggerating) and so did a every other broker with 2 br clients who really couldn't afford 2 br's. Then the market crashed and you ended up with a bunch of marginal buyers just having bought en masse in the building. My guess is that the Board made a conscious decision that they needed to do something to stem being known as the dumping ground for marginal 2 br buyers. As a result, they didn't make any ridiculous rules, but they made it well known that they were going to be "tight" because I think they saw the alternative as potentially becoming a "problem" building, as opposed to simply one with low prices because of what was considered a marginal location (back then, 3rd Ave "wasn't the Village" - it's amazing how perceptions change) and high maintenance (it's amazing how perceptions change). The high maintenance perception was probably unfounded, but due to the buyer's being marginal financially and prices being so low, the mtc SEEMED high relative to the prices, even though it wasn't really high for a 2 br/2 bath apartment in a FS building.

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David Goldsmith
DG Neary Realty

Great to know! Thanks. The 2BRS are large, often with nice views so I consider trading up to a larger space ...lbut always wondered about this building's reputation