Mercedes House

I live here and I love it. I locked in a great rate on a 1 BR apartment with a 2-year lease. I work long hours so don't care that the amenities aren't finished yet. If you care about nice, new fixtures and beautiful finishes more so than immediate access to amenities, then it's a great trade. I love that I'm paying under $3K for a 1BR with a washer/dryer in unit and a garbage disposal (the latter of which I have yet to find in NYC apts) with a nice, sunny view of Clinton Park. And I never hear construction, it probably helps that's I'm facing 11th avenue, however. I couldn't be happier.

and you can have free breakfast/lunch/drinks by stopping into the MD dealership everyday!! Thats worth a couple hundred a month right there

This building started out as a good idea, but everything was rushed.

Note: The walls are extremely thin! you can hear everything from all of your neighbors; including regular conversations, babies, music, TV.

Lots of things break down, lots of fruit flies, the staff isnt very motivated to fix problems (you'll have to invest a LOT of your own time to fix basic problems).

Honestly the thinness of the walls is the greatest problem.

Not worth the money, but not even practical to live here, honestly. I am starting to regret signing a 2 year lease.

This building started out as a good idea, but everything was rushed.

Note: The walls are extremely thin! you can hear everything from all of your neighbors; including regular conversations, babies, music, TV.

Lots of things break down, lots of fruit flies, the staff isnt very motivated to fix problems (you'll have to invest a LOT of your own time to fix basic problems).

Honestly the thinness of the walls is the greatest problem.

Not worth the money, but not even practical to live here, honestly. I am starting to regret signing a 2 year lease.

Looking to take over someone's lease who wants out of the Mecedes house....any size considered.
I have excellent credit etc txt or call 646-265-6191
Thanks.

Dont you worrh about the ultra-thin walls?

Guestguest, bet you toom that 2 year lease to avoid a brokers fee didnt you?

All That Glitters is Not Gold

Mercedes House started out as a great idea.  The design is very cool (I mean, who wouldn't want to live within the letter 'Z'?).  The location and views are great too (Hell's Kitchen is well on it's way to be the next… well.. something).  The park opposite will give you a place to enjoy and insure that views of the Hudson will not become obstructed with future construction.  And who can't think of 10th and 9th avenue food venues?  Ahhh, let the calories mount!  (They already have).  Plus, Mercedes House looks great from the opposite of the river:  like a glittering jewel, brought to us by the letter (you guessed it), Z.  (The architecture of the Mercedes House building resembles that letter, in case you didn't know).

However, this building is proof that even great ideas can be executed very poorly and result in anything but a good thing (I wonder how the architects feel..).

I've lived here about a year.  The apartments have high ceilings and spacious designs.  The units with the balconies (2 per floor) enjoy more outdoor space then the apartments themselves--in New York City no less!  What all residents also enjoy are prefabricated walls with no sound insulation.  A normal conversation can be heard clearly through the bedroom walls, which units share.  So can other… noises.  I know far more intimate details about my neighbor's … hobbies, than I care to know.  I also hear their alarm clocks, phone conversations, and of course disagreements.  Word.  For.  Word.  The same goes for the front doors, which appear to be heavy steel doors, but are in actuality hollow and many don't close properly.  That leads to hallway noises, sure, but leads to apartment noises flooding the hallways, and back into other apartments (like mine).  All this is to say that you get zero privacy and no sleep at night (can you imagine if your neighbors had a screaming baby?).  I shudder in sleep deprived horror…  For a building positioned (and certainly priced) as a luxury building, this is a polar opposite experience.

You also get rats.  Lots of rats.  Sure, you can set glue traps, snap traps, and other fun toys around the place, and they'll work, but they're in the walls too.  So, adding to the pleasure orchestra of your neighbors, you add the scratching and scurrying of little furry creatures with sharp claws and teeth, making what I can only presume are city-nests (and sewers) within your walls.

Then their are the fruit flies.  

Then there are the outlets that don't work.

Then there are the windows that don't close properly.

Then there's the too-frequent water leaks (they often seem to the fault of the neighbor directly above you).

There is construction (jack-hammering) which start around 7 AM.  

All these are problems, which by very definition are things that are solvable.  That's where management is supposed to come in.  They didn't design the building.  They didn't build it.  They didn't make the cost-cutting decisions.  They manage what they inherit and try to make everyone's life better and to resolve problems.  Except in Mercedes House.  Here, we are treated with the attitude of undeserved privilege.  'Ineffective', 'rude', and 'unwilling to communicate' are descriptors that immediately come to mind.  There's even the lore of some residents being yelled at when reporting a problem or concern.

That's my story.  But, don't take my word for it, check out other reviews (there's Yelp, among others).  To get the full story, both good and bad, you'll have to click on 'filtered reviews'.

Brought to you by the letter, Z

but you didnt have to pay a fee, so it was worth it right?

Illegal. Hotel. Investigate THAT. Dozens of tenants renting their apartments out on a nightly basis. Do you want to live in a building where people are coming and going with suitcases? Unknown strangers having access to your entire building? Management allows this! They are aware and allow it! I am breaking my lease and getting out of this hellhole. Absolutely despicable building and management.

Does anyone have updates? Has it got better?

No. I can't imagine that it ever will. Nothing can help how the building was built. The management is bad but the building was put together way too fast. I don't think anything can change that. Disaster.

Any improvement ?

Im sorry for the renters at Mercedez house. They seem very mad and angry... perhaps even bitter. THis is NYC. If you can hear your neighbors that is because this is a city and that is what happens in a city.. perhaps Tuscaloosa Alabama is more suitable for you.

Perhaps, you should know that the majority of tenants who complain about the noise issue are complaining because it's not normal how thin the walls are! Do you understand? Apartment living is apartment living. New York, Alabama, Whatever! We understand that. We aren't talking about normal apartment noise. We are talking about walls so thin that a neighbors cell phone ringing sounds like it is 1 inch away from you. That's not normal, and I have rented at nice buildings for years and can STILL sit here and say, it's not normal. So, thank you for your snarky advice but you should know a little more detail before you jump to being disrespectful toward anybody. This building is horrible!

guesthere1
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Perhaps, you should know that the majority of tenants who complain about the noise issue are complaining because it's not normal how thin the walls are! Do you understand? Apartment living is apartment living. New York, Alabama, Whatever! We understand that. We aren't talking about normal apartment noise. We are talking about walls so thin that a neighbors cell phone ringing sounds like it is 1 inch away from you. That's not normal, and I have rented at nice buildings for years and can STILL sit here and say, it's not normal. So, thank you for your snarky advice but you should know a little more detail before you jump to being disrespectful toward anybody. This building is horrible!

But it was no fee! ANd they offered free rent!

Now DEAL WITH IT!

Has it gotten any better here ?

>But it was no fee! ANd they offered free rent!

Are any NEW buildings being built (or have been built in the past few years) that have a fee?

I've been here for a year and haven't seen any of the issues I've read about online.

I've never seen any rodents or flies. Our neighbors can be heard at times, but no louder than you'd expect by living a foot away from someone in Manhattan. Construction has long-since ceased and I don't hear any construction noise (outside of the seemingly infinite number of car dealerships renovating on 11th).

The staff has been helpful and attentive. The door-staff greet us by name and I've not had to wait more than a couple hours for the few service requests I've made in the past 12 months.

The amenities opened a couple months after I signed my lease and have been wonderful (looking back I wish I took advantage of them more often!)

However, management did increase the rent ~8% for this the next year... and we're feeling cramped in our studio so we're looking for more space elsewhere.

All these people must not live in this building. I moved in July 2012 and think its a great building. I have no rats, no fruit flies, (never even seen a single bug actually) and don't have problems with management. I really think these are competing buildings writing all these bad reviews. The doormen are awesome and super helpful and the one time I had a problem and needed maintenance, the super followed me directly upstairs to fix it himself. The building is no fee and the lease contract included a year free at the gym for me and my husband. The gym is SO nice (has an indoor and outdoor pool and free classes, and a spa) and totally worth living here in itself. I don't hear much from the hallways except the trash chute noise sometimes. I hear some noise from the unit behind my living room sometimes, they have crazy loud parties and screaming children. But, those people are 80/20 low income residents and I swear they have 10 people crammed in that apartment. My rent also went up 8% in my renewal letter I just got, and I'm probably going to move for a better view/more space/to get away from the 80/20 people that are likely to live there until they die. Other than the occasional noise from them, this building is awesome. I think the walls are insulated compared to other places I've lived and I can jump on the floor and not feel like I'm being annoying to the people under me. I know someone lives above me and I've never once heard anything from upstairs. Great building, and a nice washer/dryer/dishwasher/ice maker/garbage disposal/hardwoods/ac and heat= awesome.

I live here. It is by far the worst new construction I have experienced. After a month, a leak developed in my bathroom above my tub. It doesn't take a genius to assume that it's coming from the bathtub drainage line above mine. Gross, right? I have been complaining for four months, and after I threatened to withhold rent, they finally called a plumber in. I mean, this is 'normal' and 'acceptable' in an apartment that costs $5000 per month? Oh, and the problem has still not been fixed. I understand I may have been unlucky, and other people might be totally content with the building; but heaven forbid anything goes wrong... Please, please, please; don't be fooled like I was. Rent somewhere else!