Crescendo — Local services in Buffalo

I have lived at Crescendo for 2 years now in a 1BD 1BTH unit, and wanted to provide my honest opinion and insight on the property and management.

THE GOOD: I LOVE the units, they look exactly as they are described on the website, very spacious, clean, and all the units I have seen have stainless steel appliances. The 2BD 2BTH units are huge, and are worth the price when you sit down and do the breakdown of costs. I love the hardwood floors, high ceilings, and abundant amount of light that sees my apartment as the windows facing the road receive morning sun and the units on the other side of the building receive the evening sun over the water. This makes having plants in the building great, as you only have the option of east or west facing light (all my plant lovers will understand!!). To my knowledge, every unit in the building has a washer and dryer in unit, which was also something that was important to me when I was initially looking for an apartment in Buffalo. The water and Wi-Fi is included in rent, meaning as a tenant you’re paying for your rent and utilities.

If you want a garage unit downstairs, it was the best decision I could have made in the winter time, as Buffalo winters can be fairly brutal and it was SUPER helpful just being able to get into my car and go. The garage space is an extra $125 a month, which can be a little expensive, but given the waitlist and amount of spaces available combined with how useful they are in the winter months, for me it was worth the extra cost.

Noise privacy between units is decent, you cannot hear you upstairs neighbor at all due to the concrete ceilings, however if you have loud neighbors to your left and right you can hear then sometimes. In my first lease I never heard my neighbors as they were fairly quiet and polite, sometimes I hear my neighbors now in my second lease because they are quite a bit louder.

In regards to management, they have been nothing but helpful to me and always respond in a timely manner. If you ever need maintenance done within your unit, they respond in a timely manner as long as you request it in app and put in a formal request. My washing machine broke a few months ago and within a week previous management had a new washer and dryer installed in my unit.

It is an easy walk to Bird Island Pier, if you ever want to take a walk across the bridge to the pier and park in the summer months. I have gone for several runs on the pier and there is a loop that takes you to a bike path which takes about an hour and a half to walk if you have time to kill on a Sunday morning.

THE BAD: I currently live in a unit facing Niagara St., it can get fairly loud in the summer time because of the cars driving by playing music. The car wash next door has some pretty late night owls that play music come summer months, which can be frustrating when it’s 9PM on a Tuesday and they’re blasting Bad Bunny and Reggaeton. This has nothing to do with the building or accommodations itself, more so location and the neighborhood.

If you choose to walk on the bike path by the building, the area itself is not the best, and at times there can be some fairly sketchy individuals on the path. As someone that is a smaller framed woman, I usually won’t take the bike path unless I have a dog or a male counterpart with me.

All in all, I love Crescendo, management has been nothing but helpful to me, and respond in a timely manner. I love living at Crescendo, and consider myself to be a fairly reasonable individual. In the end it just comes down to what is important to you, it is about 10 minutes of a drive to downtown which is where I work, so it makes the most sense for me and the apartment itself is most important to me. I value the interior more, taking into account mostly the space itself, high ceilings, stainless steel appliances, washer and dryer in unit, and of course the abundant amount of sunlight the windows provide when the sun peaks it’s head out in...

Ok, so I lived in the apartment next to the two girls claiming that there were rats in the building, which legitimately never happened, and they lived there for less than 2 months, so I figured I'd try to give an HONEST AND UNBIASED review of the building.

Here we go-

The good- The finishes are outstanding, the 2 bedroom units are huge, You don't pay for your own water and the instant on hot water never runs out. Noise privacy between the units is very good. Management is reasonable and one of the leasing agents lives in the building. There is no office there. The gym is nice and seldom used, even if it is a little small.

The not so good- The restaurant on the first floor is really expensive to drink at and there really are not any other viable options within walking distance of the building, which means that everything is a cab ride away if you plan on going out. The Mexican restaurant next door is disgusting, you'd be better off eating out of the sewer.

The one bedroom apartments are pretty small.

The other residents (at least when I lived there) were not friendly, but I think that's more of a Buffalo thing than a Crescendo thing.

The sorta kinda bad- All of the 2 bedrooms are on the back of the building, which directly overlooks the 190 thruway. The thruway is loud because it's concrete and the noise never stops 24 hours a day.

The neighborhood is supposed to still be on the upswing, so the other residents of said neighborhood are not particularly fond of the money coming in and at times make things uncomfortable for the new people moving in.

Cleaning and maintenance of the building could be improved, for example, the whole far end of the parking garage still has unused and disorganized materials from when the building was renovated years ago. Outside maintenance of the building does not exist, they do not mow or take care of anything outside of the building other than bare minimum snow removal.

All in all- considering the price, this building is probably one of the best values per dollar you can find in the city, provided you can deal with the...

I’ve lived in the Cresendo for less than 6 months and it has been one of the worse things I’ve experience. I should have left within the first month of moving in, but gave it a chance because I did really like the apartment it self.

Let’s run down the list of just a few reasons why no one should live here : elevator CONSTANTLY has a HORRIBLE stench always (apparently the sewer is right underneath) and if it’s not smelling absolutely disgusting then it’s down. They’re advertising their “rooftop bar” that was supposed to be done this summer, it’s not even starting to be built nor will it ever be honestly. Nicole Mancuso is the worse “property manager” I’ve ever experience. She NEVER answers the phone or return phone calls. Is that not her job? Maintenance does not do their job. I waited over a month for a request to get completed, and that only happened after I went off on everyone. THERE ARE RATS! Not only is there an infestation, but they did not send anyone out to exterminate them for a week and multiple calls to their office. Lastly, the tenants who live here have to deal with the fact that cars parked outside of the building or in the parking lot provided are getting broken into nearly every week! At this point it’s routine for them and they will not stop. There is little to no parking in the garage so you have no choice but to risk it and pray they don’t bust out your windows.

Moral of the story is Cresendo is dirty, unprofessional, and not worth living...