The BLVD Collection — Attraction in Jersey City

Mice. I live on the 24th floor. I heard scratching in my kitchen and when I went to investigate the noise, a mouse jumped off of my kitchen counter and ran under the dishwasher. I then found droppings behind kitchen appliances and under my couch. When I went to inform my neighbors, they said they’d been dealing with mice for months. It took 4 days from the time I put in a request with maintenance for them to respond. And when the exterminator finally came, he just put traps next to the traps I already had. No effort was made to investigate or plug holes in the wall. Stuck in the elevator. I was stuck in an elevator for 30 minutes with 3 other people and the emergency button didn’t work. We kept pressing the call button but there was no answer. We had no idea if anyone was coming to help. Fortunately, one person among us eventually had 1 bar of cell service and dialed 911. When firefighters finally pulled us out after 30 minutes, they told us that when they arrived, no one was at the front desk. The firefighters actually suggested we complain to management, saying that we should not have been in there for more than 5 minutes. Afterwards, I went to speak with Vincent DeBlasio, the area manager, and he brushed the whole thing off like it wasn’t a big deal and just a standard issue. Broken elevators. There are 4 elevators for 40 floors, but it’s common for one, two, or three to be out of service. We often have to wait long lines for an elevator —especially during rush hours. I’m on the 24th floor and have waited up to 40 minutes for an elevator to the lobby on workdays. People in wheelchairs or with strollers wait even longer since there usually isn’t space for them when elevators finally reach their floors. No hot water. I went to shower one night and there was no hot water. We received no advanced notice of this. When I went down to the desk, they said it would be fixed within 10 minutes. Days later, it still wasn’t fixed, so despite still paying full rent, I was needing to shower at a friends apartment. Unsafe dog run. My dog was injured by equipment in the dog run that wasn’t safe for dogs. They had a bench which small holes. My dog jumped off the bench and it tore his nail straight through the nerve. I learned from other dog owners I the building that he wasn’t the first dog this happened to. Again, when I spoke with Vincent DeBlasio about this, he dismissed it as not that big of a deal. I also asked Vincent how frequently the dog run was cleaned, since dogs kept getting gut infections after playing there. He told me he had no idea. Charging for “prohibited” space. I pay $200-300 extra per month for a balcony. Between 10/3 and 11/19, management informed all tenants with balconies that we were “prohibited” from using them due to safety precautions during mandatory inspections. Yellow caution tape was put on my balcony during this time. When I asked for a rent concession for the 47 day period that I was prohibited from using my balcony, both Vincent and Reuben Kuchinsky, the community manager, told me that no rent concessions would be offered despite prohibited use of the space. Pricey lockouts and bribes. A spare key fob costs $75, but if you lock yourself out during non-leasing hours, you’ll be charged $175 to be let back into your unit. When I asked the leasing office for an extra key, Victor Aquino, one of the leasing agents, told me he would wave the charge if I wrote a positive Google review mentioning his name. Lost packages. The package room is a disorganized mess, so it’s common to be told a package cannot be found. I’ve also had packages given to me that weren’t mine and I’ve had other tenants return packages to me that were given to them by mistake. Dismissive/incompetent management. With all the issues I’ve had, Vincent DeBlasio and Reuben Kuchinsky have been consistently apathetic. Not once have I felt they appropriately addressed issues mentioned. All issues are treated like they’re someone else’s problem. Once you sign, management no longer cares about you...

Overall: 2- 2.5 stars - a very mediocre apartment with vary number of cons and few pros, suggest to only rent when price is right.

I lived in BLVD 475(Monaco) for almost 4 years and decide to move out on early March, Here I left my experience for future/potential residents.

Let's go with CONS :) since it is FUN

Terrible elevator system - BLVD 475 is a 50 floor building with only 3 elevator and one moving elevator is booked for garbage moving/cleaning/move in&out frequently, so if one or two elevator are out of service, your expected time for going to lobby will be around 15min ~ 30min on peak hour. If this still sound Ok for you, I personally also got stuck in elevator 3 times over almost 4 years, somehow elevator just out of power and start dropping down slowly. More important, the durability of whole elevator system is poor, it basically broken in a regular routing

Horrible soundproofing & thin wall depends on floor plan. Like my roommate's bedroom is next to neighbor's kitchen with a super thin wall. So he enjoy the sound of cooking/laughing/microwave so much that eventually decide to left no matter what :), so better look at neighbor's floorplan if you decide to move to there

Cleanliness, the hallway on each floor is quite dirty and they need some new carpet replacements. Sometimes I can smell weed in the elevator and urine smell on lobby

Some wild neighbors, I have seen naked man in elevator, man sag their pants like to show their underwear in elevator, people singing loudly on 1am, left awful smell garbage in the trash room, left cat on the hallway and more

Random thingy- BLVD 475 also known for a misery building that attract random activities, like one time the whole building is surrounded by SWAT since a wanted person is in the building so I have to wait they clear the whole build to enter my apartment(I wait around 1~2am). And the other time(not a while ago) somehow the electric box on 2nd floor is on fire and exploded around 2am(you can still find video online:) ) and the whole building is in outage for an entire day on WINTER! My friend also tell me recently all elevators are down on a evening because wire get burned. Also I have seen people get arrest by police and walk out of building on lobby, well I guess it is kind like a rogue-like game.

landlord is doing some Airbub activites so some new faces everyday. Not sure if they are still doing this but at least in the first two year of my residence.

Overpriced Amenity, I think they charge 70 or 75 each month for small amenity? I mean looks at any comparable new construction's amenity, they have at least 2-3 times bigger amenity and charge less. But that's kind of common for old apartment so, but still, overpriced

Then go with PROS，

Bigger floorplan compared to other new construction - Mainly because BLVD collection (Former name Monaco/Marbella/M2) is an older building compared to other( BLVD 475 built in 2012~ period), could be a plus if you are looking for some extra space.

Great direct NYC view for selected apartments - Thanks to the Avalon Cove, Basically all East view apartments have a quite impressive NYC downtown view

Outstanding Maintenance team, very professional and friendly, I am confident to say they are the best team I seen so far

Neutral part,

Management, I think they are alright, especially their direct Janice, a nice manager. They did their job but due to the lousy quality of the building/design company, there are very few left then can do. And they also host lots activity around the community which could be a plus for people like to meet other neighbors.

Concierge, not extremely friendly but very professional. I personally give them 4 out of 5. One star for lacking staff during night time sometime.

Feel free to comment below if you want to...

update november 2024- the building continues to worsen and is now turning into a SCHOOL, so there is confusion with delivery drivers because it shares the same address. And the construction for the pool is never-ending and loud. The management ( if there is one) doesn't update at all on these situations or provide any clarity on when the resolution of the project will end.

FIX THE ELEVATOR SITUATION. literally never lived in a building with the line going out the lobby. I literally have to leave 10 minutes earlier to prepare for the slow elevator. We were told the construction would not be audible but that was false. If you dont want to be woken up daily at 830 with the loudest construction, dont live around this area.

We recently moved here and are fairly happy- nice views, spacious, great amenities and a friendly staff. The maintenance team, in particular, deserves commendation for their prompt responses and diligent work.

However, our initial experience has been far from smooth. In less than three weeks, we’ve encountered a series of issues that have significantly disrupted our settling-in process. These include a broken washer that caused flooding, a missing handles, three broken doors, a malfunctioning AC and other issues.

Despite reaching out to the management weeks ago, we have yet to receive any response. It’s disappointing to note that the apartment was handed over to us in the same condition as when we first viewed it - no cleaning or repairs had been done.

The apartment itself, while comfortable, is dated and seems to be on the verge of requiring significant renovations.

In addition we are not happy with the initial false promise from our leasing agent who showed us the apartment that the move in date could be pushed back, that was a huge factor in our decision process and after we applied we were told that was not accurate. Thankfully we were pretty committed and it worked but that...