101 West End

Surprised there haven’t been more comments but I guess no-one wants to be identified while living here. The building has been a perfectly good place to live for the last few years. However it’s undergone quite a few changes of ownership, Tishman Speyer, Archstone, Equity Residential and more recently Dermot Group in conjunction with a Dutch pension fund PGGM.

Equity seriously underinvested in the building, nothing was ever upgraded and repairs were only done when things got desperate and even then they were done on a minimal budget.

Now the building is over 20 years old the cost cutting is starting to show. Elevators break down, the hot water fails, the bathroom vents don’t work and wind whistles at the windows.

The new management of the building has grand plans. An entire floor of apartments is being sacrificed for communal facilities such as a viewing room and work has already begun on refurbishing the lobby which will take almost a year to complete. One bed apartments are being converted to two beds and two beds to three, which makes them more claustrophobic but allows Dermot to demand more rent.

While the work is going on there is noise and disruption during the day. It’s a concrete building so noise easily travels 20 floors or more. They may be working on an apartment 20 floors above you one month or the one next to you the next. The elevators are being used by the construction workers who seem happy to crowd in with you with their tools. And they are breaking down more frequently, I suspect because of overloading or overuse.

In order to implement its plan Dermot needs to move existing residents out and they make no secret that they’ll be increasing rents to force people out. Rents on the refurbished apartments are going up by $1500 to $2000 which seems excessive, especially while the construction work is being carried out and there are no new communal facilities. There is more discussion than ever between residents in the elevators comparing notes on how they’re being badly treated by the new management and the noise they’re enduring.

Another potential cloud on the horizon is the sale, a year ago, of the neighbouring ABC studios buildings to developer Silverstein properties in a deal worth over $1bn. It surely won’t be long until building work begins on the site and a super-tall residential building is constructed. This would mean more noise and disruption for a year or two and the blocking of views from the north side of the building.

Given all these problems and Dermot’s desire to drive out existing residents it won’t be long until the only long-term residents are the affordable housing/low-income residents who pay much lower rents and have guaranteed tenancy agreements. Who knows if they’ll find new tenants willing to pay the sky high rents to live in a 20 year old building when there are many newer buildings around, but they will have to if they’re to make a return on their investment.

it was a great building when it first went up. things change apparently