Journal Squared — Attraction in Jersey City

I have been living in Journal squared for 3 years. There is a reason why I have stayed this long. There are many positives about the building, location, staff, etc. However, after reading some of these reviews, I felt the need to address a few of them.

Green Goddess, I am not a bot, I am not paid to write this. You are trolling.

Positives, ALL of the staff is friendly. Belen, Mark, Kishana, Jay, Juan, German, Sam, Cruz, Ms. S, Tquan, Mellissa (Both of them), and many others I am forgetting are extremely courteous, professional, and go WAY above and beyond anything I personally would ever do. Not because I dont want to, its due to how a large number of residents talk, treat, and demand from the staff.

Lets look at the demographic of the buildings. the building is majority foreign students that are here. I have seen it with my own "bot" eyes people going to the front desk and telling the desk what they need to do, demanding what should happen. A lot (Not all) seem to come with this sense of entitlement because it is a luxury building. People need to remember, the front desk DOES NOT make the rules. They enforce them. Quite frankly, they bend over backwards, cater to people, and bend the rules to make residents happy. To say that they are racist is insane. The entire staff here are minorities from all over the world. So, If someone is racist to you, it is considered hate and can be punishable by law. So, if you are living in a place where people are racist, do something about it. Thats grounds to kill your lease and can be fought in court. So, MOVE.

Management is always extremely responsive. Some of the reviewers talk about management coming to clean your dishwasher. Unless your dishwasher is broken, by would you expect them to come clean it? This is not a hotel. Wrong expectation.

Some people need to understand the point of a deposit. The deposit is to cover damages that YOU did to the apartment. When they send back the deposit, there is a detailed itemized report on what needs to be fixed and how much it costs. How do I know this? I moved between the buildings and got this exact letter. I didnt get my full deposit back nor did I expect since I left damages.

Have there been packages stolen in the past? YES. However, when it happened (Long time ago) the person(s) were removed from the company extremely fast. However, all of the leasing documents clearly say that they will only accept packages for lease holders. Many people who live in these buildings arent actually on the lease. So, they will get a package, and rightfully so, the package room sends it back. You can be upset with that, but that is clearly outlined in documentation that we ALL receive when we move in.

So, all in all, is this complex perfect? Absolutely not. Are they working to fix whatever they can? Yes. I have lived here long enough to see tons of improvements. Do the elevators suck? Yes. No hiding that. However, that is a design thing that the front desk nor the building management have any way to fix it or even designed it. Does it sometimes take some time to get packages? Yes. However, when you received hundreds of packages on a daily basis, it can take some time to properly sort the packages and scan them in. So, to expect to get your package 2 minutes after Amazon says it was delivered is unreasonable and people need to reset their expectations......again. Is the staff Racist & Rude? Absolutely not. I have seen many times where people are being rude to them, but vice versa, no. Blunt? Yes. Blunt is not bad. Blunt just means they are not adding fluff or sugar coating. When you have lines of people getting packages, food delivery people coming in every 10secs, you sometimes dont have time for the fluff. SO, being blunt DOES NOT equal being rude. So, biggest issue, RUDE & ENTITLED residents that expect respect but do not know how to give respect. As I said, I am not a bot. I am a resident here in JS2 and welcome an open discussion. We can discuss on Cobu, or even meet for a drink in one of the many beautifully, clean, well...

After 5 months of living here I think I can finally write a fair review. Not that I write reviews often but feel others should be warned of this place.

Let’s start with the fact that my rent for a 1 bedroom is $3300. With this price you would expect some basic amenities and service but you would be wrong.

Not only are packages extremely slow to be scanned (sometimes taking upwards of 2 days), and even when they are scanned you are sometimes told you can’t pick them up yet, but the front desk staff also rarely picks up the phone and in general makes you feel unwelcome and like an inconvenience in your own overpriced apartment building.

Almost all of the amenities in tower 1 are also false advertising. The building has been undergoing renovations since I moved in. There is no outdoor lounge or barbecues or scenic view. There is only a construction site and uninviting dirty pool patrolled by moody teenagers who make you sign in each time you set foot on the premises. Even if the situation was more inviting, the pool is surrounded by an active construction site and doesn’t even get sun because of the layout of the buildings. There are some patio areas that would be nice but all of the doors to access them are locked and management refuses to open them for some unknown reason. There is only one patio that is accessible with a fob and it is the worst one with no view. The gym is the best part of the amenity situation even though it is cleaned with harsh chemicals every morning that make it hard to breath during a workout. Most of the cleaners don’t speak English as management here appears to try to cut costs and corners wherever possible so the cleaning staff does not understand if you try to ask them to stop spraying bleach in your face in the middle of a 9am workout. Management also displays extreme favoritism with tenants who use the gym area. While I was scolded for allowing my 8 month old baby to sit in her stroller during my workout, other tenants regularly bring their kids without issue.

Now let’s move onto the actual apartments, which look beautiful in the pictures but are a living nightmare. The walls are paper thin and the floors are made of cheap laminate that peels and pops when you walk over it. The floor situation is almost forgivable (there are so many worse things about this building it’s hard to focus on the floors) m but the paper thin walls mean you can and will hear everything from your neighbors. And worse, you will also smell everything. One of my neighbors currently has 4 cats and dogs, smokes weed regularly, and burns a suffocating amount of incense daily and the stench infiltrates my apartment at an alarming rate. I have complained about this issue about 100 times at this point, both to management and front desk staff, and still nothing has been done. I have an 8 month old baby, so the smell is not only an inconvenience but also a health risk for her. It’s clear from the way they’ve handled this situation that Management does not care about your well-being. The only options offered to me have been to pay the same amount or more for a worse apartment OR to pay a full months rent to break my lease in order to deal with a problem that was not created by me. This is how I know KRE group is run by extremely greedy and horrible individuals. To not take any actions over a situation where one tenant is breaking several building rules (we are supposed to have max 2 pets, no smoking) and to make me suffer or pay for it is a disgusting non-response.

There are other things wrong with this apartment complex, like how it is impossible to use the ‘party room’ for something innocuous like a child’s birthday party as management only allows a max of 10 people in the room, but I don’t have the energy to keep going on.

As it stands I am going to continue asking to break my lease. But if you are reading this, DO NOT MOVE HERE. Especially if you have children. KRE Group DOES NOT CARE. And they will go out of their way to make sure...

So, Journal Squared is made of 2 (Soon to be 3) buildings. Skyscrapers looking over Jersey City. I have had the pleasure of living in both of the buildings over the past few years. The buildings are new and with anything new, there are kinks that have to be worked out. Overall, I enjoy living here. Lets point out the Pros and Cons.

Pros -

Building is kept very clean. They clean all of the amenities and common areas several times a day. They do a super good job at this.

Gym. The gym is rather large. Larger than the Blink Fitness Gym that is close by. Well maintained. Rock wall if you choose to use it.

Staff. The Staff is amazing. Most of the concierge are amazing. The usual overnight guy is a little weird selling pies, but is generally nice. Marc, Belen, Key, Ms. S, all of them are amazing. The learn who you are, and care. Management staff is extremely helpful and responsive.. Mendall is amazing. Sam keeps everything running smoothly and is extremely responsive to every single request. Melissa is Genuine and will always go out of her way to help you. Maintenance staff seems to work 24/7. I dont think I have ever waited more than a day for them to come fix something. Even if I see them in the hall and ask them a question, they will pop over and take care of it. The entire staff is fantastic and is quite frankly the #1 reason why I have been here since 2022 and will continue to be here. I have firsthand witnessed the staff getting yelled at by residents and they all keep a clam composure and continue to provide the best service around

Cons-

Elevators. The elevators are always an issue. The higher you live, the bigger of an issue you have. The elevators are fast, but during rush hour times or if there are a lot of move ins/outs, you can be waiting for a while for the elevator. Elevator design for building 2 is 10x worse than building 1. Building 1, never an issue.

Garage Doors. The are ALWAYS breaking down. I dont know if it is from over use, but wow. Cannot go 3 months without there being an issue with one of the garage doors.

Construction (Temporary). This is a temporary issue and will be over once the new building is complete. This tends to cause inconveniences with use of some of the amenities.

RESIDENTS. Leasing office really needs to do a better job at screening people. They only seem to care about getting people in. This place is more like a college dorm sometimes. Alot of people that move in here are SOOOOOO rude. They treat the staff as their servants, they act as the amenity spaces are their living rooms, and downright dont care about the property. They have a sense of entitlement and have no manners. This is not all residents, this just so happens to be a majority of them. Mainly the college students they allow to move in here. A lot of them are not on the lease, sit by the elevator in hopes to have you let them in the elevator, its just not right. When I do eventually move, the #1 reason will be the poor job the leasing team does at screening the residents. THIS IS NOT A COLLEGE DORM LEASING TEAM. FIX IT.

Overall, there are some great residents which help to balance out the bad ones. The staff is amazing, the building is new and clean, very very close to the train and close to Manhattan, and overall, a good...