Meridia Main Station Apartments — Attraction in Bound Brook

Whoever is running the place is definitely trying to dig themselves out of a hole with the reviews as of November 2018. Note how many 5 star reviewers have only one review. Definitely not a great place. Details of my stay below.

5/23/2017 Update. First off, my apartment flooded again, the exact same as this past November. It was the exact same problem, and it was due to flaws in maintenance. 3 floods in one lease. Also, Grey Star, the property management company, is being replaced.

Internet- There is community internet, and it is really slow, but it is a connection. Fios and Cable are both in the building. Window screens-There are no screens on the windows. This is a real problem during times that you would like a fresh breeze. Fire Alarm- Midnight fire alarms. This has happened at least 2 times in my stay here, one time where the third floor was pretty well filled with smoke. Fire alarms also get tested constantly Proximity to train- These trains are really, really loud, and shake the building. They come at all hours. However, if you take the train for work, we are really close, only about 400 yards to the station. Traffic- Before you live here, LOOK AT THE TRAFFIC BUILD-UP FROM 430 to 600 PM every day. Because of the way the roundabout backs up to the bridge, you are going to have to sit in a lot of traffic every day trying to get home. I definitely can't stress the traffic flow problems enough here. Noise from neighbors- This is a drywall, hardwood floor building. You will be able to hear your neighbors. Especially from upstairs. Parking- Parking here is bad. If you have parking in the garage, you will be in good shape, most of the time. The outside parking is not great. The parking in the park is ok, but you have to walk across main street to get inside. The parking over by the old storage lot is just downright ridiculous. The parking lot is just a gravel area, there are no spaces, no security, and there is no crosswalk. Visitor parking is in the storage lot. Washers and dryers-The community washers and dryers are much less so. It is 2 dollars to wash and 2 dollars to dry, so 4 bucks for a small load. Management- I have liked most of the community managers, but they are never here for long though. EVERYTHING has to be done in writing, because you do not know if that person or that management team will be there later. I am on my fourth different way of billing as a result. Fees involved with breaking a lease- Here at Meridia, I was quoted three months rent to break my lease, minimum. That was over $5000! Pets- This is a pet friendly complex, or at least a dog friendly one. 10/5/16 Update. Management has been replaced, again. This makes 4 completely different sets of management in the 6 months I have lived here. Temps do most of the leasing and management. Do not expect to see the same face anytime there is an issue. Everything is "we are working on that". Also, I was assigned a parking spot, but the management that assigned it to me was replaced so fast they didn't record it properly. I had to show my lease to get it recorded. The best example of Graystar''s incompetence is that they have been managing this building for 3 months, and have not yet figured out parking for the tenants.

9/11/2016 Update. It has currently been raining in my apartment for over 24 hours. Management has not returned communication, despite several emails, phone calls, and attempts to visit the office. This is the new management company, Greystar Seriously, do not live here. Management will sell you a song and dance that is not real.

6/1/2016: The apartment that I moved into reeked of curry. My air conditioner broke and they took over 4 weeks to fix it. The output line on my water heater broke, causing flooding. The emergency phone number said the soonest they could get someone out there is the next afternoon. I was expected to clean up the water in my apartment. The company that owns this building does not care. The only luxury part of this building...

May 2025 edit: THE MERIDIA MAKES FAKE REVIEWS FOR ALL THEIR COMPLEXES. I ATTACHED TWO PHOTOS. Since posting one has been deleted.

TLDR at the bottom.

On our moving in day, they forgot we were moving in so we came w/ our moving van & had to wait for the employee to finish giving his tour to other people.

When we moved in, they told us that it would be a 3-4 month waiting list for the indoor parking, we were never told if we were put on that list or not. We lived here for 2 years and we did not get indoor parking. They forgot that we wanted to be on this list.

They forgot to give us our mailbox keys and we had to ask them for it.

The paid parking lot often smells like sewage because of whatever facility is next door to the lot and teens who don’t live in the building will pull into the paid lot to smoke weed, throw trash on the ground + leave. (Neither are their fault, but something to be aware of)

People who don’t have a spot in the paid lot can + will park there. If they park in your spot after 10pm, you’re out of luck. You can complain to management/maintenance through the portal and you’ll get an automated response of “we’ll call the tow truck” but it never actually happens. I pay $70 a month to park there, but as long as some schmuck parks in an open, free spot they can park there for free? Seems a little unfair.

Laundry rooms are mostly functional, but every few months will break entirely. As of time of writing, the laundry rooms have been “working” for the last few months, but if you look carefully the dryer doors have water on them. Which means they aren’t drying all the water properly. So they’re more so steaming the clothes than drying them. The washers smell bad almost all the time.

Residents let their animals urinate in the garage, stairwells and escalators. It’s disgusting.

The elevator closest to the traffic circle will start smoking every few months, sometimes at 2am. I can’t tell you how many times the alarm has gone off and we have to evacuate the building. The last few times we just poked our head out and if we didn’t see heavy smoke or a fire, we just stay in our unit. I don’t know why they don’t just replace the motor in the elevator. I understand that it’s expensive, but they can’t keep just putting a bandaid repair job on it every few months every time it breaks. Probably a corporate decision to not replace it, but either way leaving a fire hazard like that around is insane.

People smoke cigarettes + weed even though they’re not supposed to.

If you get locked out of your unit, it’s $150 to get back in. That’s absurdly expensive.

When we renewed our lease, the rent went up by $400 but then they backtracked & raised by $200 instead. Probably to compete with the newer apartments around but it’s absurd for an older apt building to be matching prices to newer apartment buildings. When they sent us a new lease if we wanted to renew for the second time, they raised the price again. But now they’re also charging $25/month for utilities they originally gave to us for free. I guess they can’t raise the rent too much (probably illegal to raise the rent too high), so they’re giving us another fee to pay for.

I paid our last month’s rent in full on the first and second days of the month and they tried telling me that I didn’t pay it in time and I had to pay the $75 late fee. BUT I DID. I don’t know why they said I was late. It doesn’t take all that much to look at the renter’s portal to see that I paid it. There is no reason that should happen AT ALL.

They also tried telling us that we didn’t put in a 30 days notice but we actually put in a 60 days notice. It also would not be that hard to look in the renter’s portal to see that we put it in a notice of termination more than 60 days before lease end AND we sent them an email.

TLDR - The management is disorganized, will ghost you, or forget about you. They will try their best to charge the most out of you (rent, fees, etc). They use money towards new furniture instead of fixing...

Management leaves a lot to be desired. They pick and choose what to deal with and when. There are 4 different #s to call but never to reach anyone directly. Even the emails that come back from management you cannot reply to, you have to know each individuals email address yourself.

Myself and other single females in the building do not like communicating with current management and find it extremely frustrating not to be given the name or number of the general manager or anyone in corporate. Other residents have agreed that asking for guest parking passes, or a parking pass for your second car, or a spare key (that you have to pay for) is ridiculous. The manager acts like he is doing you a favor versus doing his job and asking for anything is like pulling teeth. You will often get an "I will think about it and call you" (when you are in office in person and deserve an immediate answer/resolution) or an "Ill see what I can do" followed by no follow up/no call/no email. Other females have often attested to feeling like females who "flirt back" get the help and the ones with simple questions or inquiries get these flip remarks.

Management seems to forget that the residents are the customers and for the time being, the Meridia is their home. They are more concerned about these reviews than the actual issues happening on site. There are more responses to these reviews than there are to your emails.

Parking indoor or outdoor is not free. Indoor is not any safer than outdoor since someone stole my motorcycle from my parking space in the indoor garage recently, despite "upgrades" to the security cameras and gate.

Guests have to park in the queens bridge lot, by the bridge. Which is not only inconvenient but is not safe for you or for a car...and they require you to hunt down a parking pass for your guests. If you plan to have a guest on the weekend you have to pick up the pass during limited office hours and if you didn't plan for company you either have to pray they don't get towed or drive somewhere you can park their car and bring company back.

Although you have to scan a key fob to get in and out of the building it's easy to follow people in and we have had people chilling in the lobby and on our patios who do not live here. I have reported a man smoking in my bedroom window at 2am, scaring the life out of me and despite cameras on the patio was told that unless I knew who it was there was nothing to be done. And while I empathize with the homeless community here I have been shocked to see a homeless young man sleeping in our lobby on more than one occasion.

There are frequent issues with the fire alarms going off, at least twice a year for the past 3 years we have had to evacuate in the middle of the winter due to small fires from residents chucking cigarettes down the trash chute etc. We also had an intense drier fire due to the fact that no one ever inspected the driers or vents (in the 3 years I have been here) and the communication around when some of us come get back into our apartments or the accommodations they were able to offer was virtually non-existent.

I have also had issues with maintenance being scheduled for one day and coming into my apartment on another day. With no notice or approval.

If you have any other option, do not move to the meridia. I pay the equivalent of a mortgage and my rent is always paid directly on the 1st and none of that will matter if and when you have any issues here. If you are a single female don't even bother as this place will cause you nothing but stress.

Side note not directly related to the meridia: The area is not great. Random guys will slow their cars down to check you out at night and one slowly drove up and followed me as I walked my dog back inside the building late at night. The appearance of security does not make this a great place to live. The community of homeless addicts is also disproportionate to the size of this small town. Something to consider if you are...