The Pier Apartments — Local services in Jersey City

If you like great views of Manhattan, rat infestations, leaky plumbing, ancient appliances, indifferent management, ineffective maintenance, characters wandering onto an unsecure property, fire alarms at 3:00 in the morning, and an inefficient HVAC that yields $500+ summer electric bills when it is actually functioning, this is the place for you.

As many reviewers have noted, the Pier Apartments – or as I like to call it, the Slum on the Hudson – looks okay if not a little dated from the outside, but it is old, run down, and as they say, has bad bones. I suffered catastrophic flooding in my apartment due to an apparent burst pipe in the unit above me. The Pier patched up the plumbing, slapped some paint on the water stains, and caulked up the cracks. Since then, my apartment has been a sieve for water leaks, including toilet water leaking from the unit above into my unit. Maintenance has essentially thrown up its hands because they do not know how to fix the problem, and management has ignored the situation. Currently, water is running through the walls of my apartment and cascading into the garage.

The views of Manhattan are magnificent. Of course, you will pay a premium to get the same view the sketchy characters who squat on the property get for free. They can wander the property because security is spotty, and in most cases, nearly nonexistent. The garage door has been open for weeks, and unalarmed exterior doors are frequently propped open. Anyone can walk or drive in without being stopped or questioned. Scary.

Maintenance staff is good intentioned, but they are not empowered to make any real decisions or effective repairs. They cannibalize appliances in storage to “fix” broken appliances in the apartments, paint and caulk over problems without addressing the root cause, and fail to follow up once they respond to a maintenance request whether or not the problem is actually resolved. For example, our HVAC failed during the summer resulting in 100+ degree temperatures in the unit, and it took management nearly ten days to call an HVAC company to fix it.

The management team is a revolving door of underqualified and indifferent people who do not effectively communicate due to lack of awareness, or worse, apathy. When problems arise, the buck is routinely passed from management to maintenance to management resulting in complete dysfunction and little getting accomplished.

The only positive things I can say about my experience here is the location is great, and the concierge staff is generally friendly, helpful, and efficient. This place has potential that unfortunately will not be realized until the property owner invests in significant improvements to the structure and hires competent management staff with experience running a “luxury” multi-dwelling building. Until then, the Pier will continue to be a cheap, crumbling,...

I have lived here since 2021.

Pros: Nice views The wonderful front desk and in-house maintenance teams

Cons: Constant fire alarms because the garage sprinkler system is broken. This has been an unfixed problem as long as I have lived here. Management remains dedicated to ignoring the problem, and insists that the system is actually working as intended, because the fire alarm is supposed to go off when a sprinkler pipe bursts. The alarm goes off every few weeks like clockwork—so frequently that most residents no longer evacuate when it goes off. The utter disregard for this obvious safety concern is frankly appalling. The elevators were broken for years before management finally replaced them. At one point one of the lobby elevators was “under repair” for over 6 months. The water system has had known issues greg entire time I’ve lived here. Sometimes your cold water comes out boiling hot; sometimes your hot and cold water “switch.” This is a recurring issue throughout the building, but every time it happens, management will insist that it’s the first and only time it’s ever happened to anyone. Your electric bill will be extremely high in the summer—far higher than comparable units in other buildings—because of the outdated and low-quality HVAC systems installed in the apartments. Residents who move here from nearby buildings are routinely shocked by how high their summertime electric bills are. The AC in the fitness center has been broken for over a month. Management might just be waiting out the summer at this point. In general, if something in your apartment breaks badly enough to need an outside vendor for the repair, management will do everything in their power to avoid fixing it. Apartment fixtures/appliances are bottom-of-the-barrel cheap, even in “renovated” units. So inevitably things break, and then you’re at the mercy of management to decide whether they actually want to fix the problem, or just slap another band-aid on it. All of this means that trust in management is nonexistent. If you’re forced to interact with them, it’s impossible to know whether they’re telling you the truth. It’s frustrating and exhausting trying to get management to pay attention to issues that need addressing. Nevertheless, rent goes up hundreds of dollars every year. “Amenity fees” keep going up. Now management charges a “tech fee” too, which will doubtless keep going up. If you use the common space on the 8th floor, that’s a one-off event fee, on top of the amenity fee you supposedly pay for the privilege of having access to that same space. None of this money appears to be going to necessary maintenance and repairs.

Save your money and live elsewhere. I wouldn’t be surprised if this building falls into the river because management is too cheap to maintain the literal pier...

We've been living at Pier since May 2024, and it's pretty good overall. Below, I've listed more cons than pros, but most of the issues are manageable, so our experience has been positive. Hopefully, these issues improve and things get even better!

Pros: Location and views Concierges and maintenance staff are nice, helpful, and professional. Anthony is great - he goes above and beyond to help us and loves to play with our dog! John and Marybel are also great and always helpful. Colin is super nice and has helped us many times with maintenance, including once on a weekend evening just minutes after we submitted a ticket! Our apartment was renovated relatively recently, with nice finishes and amazing floor-to-ceiling windows that let us enjoy the view while providing excellent insulation from cold and noise. Some reviews mention helicopter noise, but our windows block it almost entirely when closed Plenty of storage in the apartment, a great patio, and high ceilings in the living room (ceiling height varies across rooms) Communication from management is fairly good. We moved here from Newport, so the bar was low, but the improvement is noticeable

Cons: An unexpected issue: in summer, many party boats play loud music at night. The windows block most of it, but the bass gets through and wakes us up frequently (especially Friday and Saturday nights) The building is smoke-free, but it's not enforced - we smell smoke (mostly weed) every day coming from various neighbors. Management sent a few email reminders, but with no effect The AC units are over 16 years old (one year ago, management said 15+ years). They’re loud (over 75 decibels at 6 feet away) and inefficient, resulting in $350+ bills in summer and failing to maintain comfortable temperatures on hot days. Management says nothing can be done. Minor annoyance: the bathroom fans make 90-decibel noise. We've been told they're as old as the AC units and cannot be repaired or replaced Washer/dryer: we've had minor issues, but other residents went months without washers/dryers, relying instead on units in vacant apartments, which often malfunctioned as well There's been dripping water inside one wall in our apartment: we've reported this many times, and maintenance investigated, but the issue remains unresolved after 3 months False fire alarms happen about once per month, though mostly during the day - only one was at night so far. Most were caused by leaking pipes in the garage Mold in the building and apartment - probably common along the NJ waterfront, but leaking pipes certainly don’t help Elevators are frequently out of order and repairs take a long time The gym’s AC goes out of order a few times per year, sometimes for...