The Albert

Why does it seem that there are always so many apartments for sale in this building?

It's a bit of starter apartment kind of building, and I think parents can buy for kids. Great location and has some nice prewar characteristics, but some of the apartments can be kind of lousy - many studios with sleeping lofts or odd layouts, poor views of air shafts etc. It's the kind of place where you'd prefer to rent rather than own.

"some apartments can be kind of lousy"...I saw no fewer than 4 apartments for sale in this building over a five month period...maybe more than 4. Everyone was bizarre. One had not a single closet. Another faced an airshaft with all two of its windows. A third was a rabbit warren on three levels of impossibly shaped odd room. This cobbled together amalgamation of buildings looks nice from the outside and has a very nice lobby and is in a prime neighborhood. Inside, I frankly don't understand how any of these apartments find buyers they are so strange and aesthetically hostile.

"A third was a rabbit warren on three levels of impossibly shaped odd room. This cobbled together amalgamation of buildings looks nice from the outside and has a very nice lobby and is in a prime neighborhood."

I know exactly which apartment you are referring to. I have no idea how that sold, but apparently it did.

I also agree with your (and buster2056's) other comments about the Albert.

Any current views on the Albert?

It's a converted hotel and feels like it. The units I saw had narrow rooms and very odd protruberances that I would assume were structural beams. One unit had interior walls/columns that, I swear, must have been 4' thick.

You do seem to get a lot of space for the money, but it's often space that's lacking in light and/or "normal" functionality.

Current views are the same as 2 years ago unless the layouts have changed somehow. AAA location with many apartment compromises and maintenance inching toward the higher end of things in the area.

If you don't have dogs but like the location, I'm a big fan of 111 Fourth Avenue. The 14' ceilings are truly stunning, and the studios are bigger than many one-bedrooms.

As compromised as some apartment layouts are at 111 Fourth, the ones I've seen facing the avenue have breathtaking enormous windows and soaring ceilings in the main rooms. I'd choose 111 4th over the Albert all other things being equal. But the spiral-stairs-up-to-the-low-ceiling-lofted-bedroom thing is not appealing to me and the 111 apartments I was looking at all had this along with 3'x4' kitchens.

Has anyone heard of reports of moisture or other issues with the exposed brick I see in a lot of the Albert apartments? I have heard some horror stories from friends in other buildings (efflorescence, abundance of centipedes, no soundproofing, etc.) so was curious. Thanks