PLG: 123 Linden — Attraction in New York

Potential Renters Beware! I understand the importance of a healthy living environment, and my hope is that this review saves someone the frustration, stress, and anxiety of moving into PLG, a Mohnian-managed property.

Where do I begin? I'm new to Brooklyn and fell in love with the calm of the neighborhood and all the amenities this specific property has to offer. I decided to sign a lease at PLG in mid-December 2023 for what I thought was a luxury experience, but it quickly turned out to be extremely low budget! Aside from the concierges and Danielle in the office, management is not warm or welcoming by any means. I regret not reading reviews prior to making a decision to move here, but the remarks I am finding all over the internet about PLG validate what I am currently experiencing and my personal review.

First red flag: I was approved and provided all documents for a quick move, yet not one person welcomed me into the property, nor replied to emails for booking my move. I was forced blindly to move on my requested move-in date. If it weren't for the concierge making things happen for me, I would have been out of luck and the deposit I paid my movers.

Second red flag: Although I have been a renter for the last six weeks, I technically have only lived on the property for the last three weeks due to travel. As soon as I returned, I noticed a couple of things that were not in line and went to management requesting reasonable accommodations. Instead of management following the proper protocol and offering me an RA form, I was told I can’t make changes to my agreement, but they would look into it. I sent numerous emails and made phone calls for two weeks, and not once received an answer until I had to go back to the office and track someone down. I'm highly disappointed in the lack of professionalism, and the fact that management feels comfortable implying a lack of validity without having their 504 Coordinator look into my request. This is extremely dehumanizing, and their approach violates numerous fair housing and New York state laws, which is unacceptable!

Third red flag: The first week of my return, I received a call from the company's accountant regarding my billing account, which for weeks I have requested access to, but again, no one replies or follows through on anything here. Long story short, the $2,600 I paid at the time I submitted my application has not been accounted for despite the fact the money was taken out of my account. The accountant has zero recollection of our conversation upon my return, and now, three weeks later, there is still no answer and no resolution. Completely disorganized!

In addition: I can't wash my hair at home or take a long shower because the hot water only lasts 15-20 minutes, even after maintenance adjusted the water heater to the max settings. There’s an awful stench that comes from the bathroom/toilet at any given time of the day, and the only way for me to temporarily eliminate the smell is by pouring bleach in the toilet and using a plugin. In addition, black particles/liquid-like substances randomly swim in the bowl all the time. The smoke alarms must not work because I arrived on my floor to my entire hallway filled with smoke from food that someone overcooked. The building is not cost or energy efficient, as the in-unit washers and dryers take at a minimum 2 hours each to use.

No one deserves to pay rent at any cost, especially not in a luxury building and have this experience. Your home is a place of comfort and ease from the outside world, not a place of stress, headaches, and discomfort. Tenants should be prioritized, not made to feel like management is doing us a favor by living here, and it's extremely unacceptable as a tenant paying nearly $3k a month. I should be able to get these things resolved in a timely manner, but instead it’s like pulling teeth! Not only has this affected my peace of mind on top of other things, but it’s disrupted the new experience I was looking forward to having in a new city and neighborhood....

[Edit Update - I have left the original review below for transparency]

Safety and security is an issue that urgently needs addressing in the building. I'm a realist that, in a 500 unit building, bad stuff is occasionally going to happen. The problem arises from the fact that the building management completely stonewall tenants - zero communication. What should be happening is a total overhaul of security protocols and infrastructure, and changes communicated to all tenants.

Variously, over the last month or so, we've had people sleeping rough in stairwells, an armed robbery, and a knife attack. At least 2 of these could have been allayed through more stringent security measures. At least 2 of them (which made local news), necessitated some kind of statement, and we received none.

The staff on the ground are wonderful, and the apartments themselves are great (though I've heard of some tenants having issues), but a lot of tenants are quite rightly feeling scared, and gaslit.

Moinian need to up their game. From what I understand from tenants who've lived here longer, the standards were a lot higher previously, but have been in near-constant decline, whether with respect to security, or the cleanliness of communal spaces.

A great deal of these reviews may well have been a fair reflection of the problems during the buildings early stages, but aren't reflective of the current reality. The place isn't perfect, but I felt a 5* review more appropriate to counterweigh some of the older less appropriate reviews.

Staff are excellent (the guys on the front desk are super helpful, friendly and communicative).

Apartments are a generously sized, well ventilated, insulated, and easy to control temperatures in without a huge electricity bill or carbon footprint. Repairs and maintenance in units are generally actioned quickly.

Appliances are great - big refrigerators and ovens. Nice deep kitchen sinks. Reasonable counter space and plentiful storage.

Views are wonderful - I look North towards Manhattan, and it's breathtaking. The main reason we moved here tbh.

Amenities are good, though quite a few of them are covered by a monthly fee, which is fairly usual. They do seem to be closed at short notice, not infrequently, which isn't ideal, but it's not wildly out of hand.

Pleasantly surprising that the building is actually very diverse; I'd even hazard to guess it's black majority. As someone concerned about its potential for being a horrible white gentrification project, and my contributing to the problem, on balance it seems to have skirted that particular issue.

The neighborhood is great - good restaurants and bars, plenty of (Afro-)Caribbean owned independent businesses, good transportation links (2/5/B/Q and quite a lot of buses), the park is 10 minutes away at most.

Some complaints from tenant groups about building management being uncommunicative around difficult tenants. Unsurprising that they exist (in a 500 unit building, it's inevitable), but little action seems to be taken. Not a big issue for the most part, but not great if you're neighbouring a problem tenant.

Walls and doors are not super thick, but for the most part provide sufficient sound insulation. Maybe not if you've got an obnoxious neighbour who screams at sports on the TV, but day-to-day it's fine.

Elevators are a mixed bag - at peak times they can have a queue forming, but they just about manage. If one is out of service though it becomes pretty dreadful. With that said, it's only happened once in 3 months so far ...

Rents are not cheap, but can usually be negotiated down to reasonable value given the good quality of the housing, and how crazy rents are everywhere. You could pay a lot more for a lot less not that much closer...

In the course of the past 6 years I have resided in 16 different parts of NYC and Long Island. I have lived in 5 upscale buildings. While no place is perfect, I will share the positive attributes of this location in no particular order. I am concentrating on my visit as a "possible" renter. In 2019, I visited the building almost 10 times. Each time was very pleasant and the staff acted as if, it were my first time. I noticed some of the rental agents have changed but their attention to EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE remained the same. Mask were worn at all times, Polite conversation, Willingness to answer all questions, Able to provide multiple options for meeting move-in requirements, Even open to negotiating flexibility with gross rent, Awesome incentives due to the horrible financial strains of the pandemic, Clean and Sanitized model residences, amenities and common space, Appearance of an animal friendly community with great looking people to match. For me, cleanliness, availability, security, respect and delivering as advertised are important. I am providing a review of 5 stars because EVERYTHING has either met the expectation as advertised or the staff and management has corrected or improved the issues that I read of in other posts. To be honest, I can imagine if someone resided in the building during the beginning of the pandemic; it must have been frustrating when construction and the amenities were forced to 100% closure. Today the facility informs me that all amenities are opened according to New York State Health restrictions. I see social distance being practiced by all staff at ALL Times. The equipment seems to be working perfectly in the residence various amenity locations. The front desk, handymen, porters, leasing agents and residence experience team (MindBody) are SUPERB.. (BIG CLAP) Jonathan, Shyvonne, Can, Danielle, Mike, Jean, Yan, Daniel, Kevin, & James) THIS IS DEFINETLY A PLACE TO CALL YOUR HOME ** If you own a vehicle, the parking garage is managed by a third party but the building presently has a great incentive on certain available units. Be prepared to share the facility with the community and being the #1 borough to live in MEANS they are ALWAYS busy. Text 30 minutes ahead to avoid the wait. Getting started with them may be a little rough but after a couple of interactions, I am certain that you will learn how to maneuver :-) be back soon to...