The Opal Luxury Apartments — Local services in New York

I read some of these reviews and wonder if it's the same apartment I am living in. Its either exaggerated or belated; or BOTH! I have been here for about 16 months and its not as horrible as these reviews are making it sound; at least not while I've been here. To start with, the units are really nice, clean and decent with very lush and beautiful grounds. All my visitors have complimented that, so it's not just my opinion. Yes, the pets sometimes seem to over extend their boundaries, but I see the new management is very serious with enforcing the pet regulations. Also, the kids now have a very nice play area, so no unnecessary noise. Yes talking about the management, these new guys are really professional. I can say this with so much confidence because I experienced a little bit of the former management who were really awful. In the past you could spend a whole week calling to solve an issue, without success to even talk to anyone. Sometimes you had to take the day off just to see them face to face to solve an issue that would have taken a 2-minutes call. They were really horrible. But the new management are the complete opposite. The present manager is so nice, warm and helpful. I remember catching him up late when he was outside the office on his way leaving after work. He happily listened to me, went back into the office, put his computer back on to attend to me; I was impressed considering what I have seen here in the past. And the assistant property manager Erin, she's just wonderful. Always very courteous and ready to address any complains; face to face or over the phone. If I had this business I would hire these guys ten times over. And yes, the guys at the front desk (concierge)and the maintenance guys are really nice and efficient. Always ready to help and the few times I reported a maintenance issue, it got fixed before I got back from work. The shuttle does not break down constantly as I was made to believe initially. In my 16 months here I have experienced that less than 5 times (far less than the stoppages on some public transportation); and in each occasion they always make alternative transportation arrangement to take tenants to the train station. Yes, you loose some 5 -10 minutes once in a while but its incomparable to the other times it's always on schedule. Common guys, we experience breakdowns in personal cars and public transportation once in a while so give these guys a break. I am not saying the shuttle is 100% but it's effective and not as bad as I see it described. The facilities are adequate. The Laundromat is very adequate for this building. I have never for one day met more than 2 people in it, sometimes I feel it is underutilized. It only serves the one bedroom and studio apartments, since all the 2 bedroom apartments have washers and dryers in them. I use just one of the heaters in the winter and even then, I have to wake up at night and put it off. ACs are very effective also. However, the walls of the apartments are actually thin and you could hear loud conversations from outside; not too bad though but could be better. The gym is relatively well equipped and better than many I have seen in New York. For the initial price they offer, this apartment is not too bad. The doubts started coming after they start to increase the rent when renewing the lease, so that's what I think is not fair to the tenants. Overall, I am quite satisfied with the OPAL apartment in its present state; and my wife who just moved here, loves it. Hope they maintain this standard especially the WONDERFUL...

The good: Front desk where they hold your packages from UPS, Fedex etc. Front desk staff is pretty good, they don't let (or at least aren't supposed to let) people in that don't belong. Most make at least some effort to acknowledge you.

Safe neighborhood (For the most part).

Relatively quiet, I've been lucky to not have any trouble with noisy neighbors or noisy people above me.

Shuttle that takes you to and picks you up from the subway. It runs Monday-Friday 6:30am-10am, 5:30pm-10pm. Only issue I have is it should run at least some times on the weekend for the amount of money rent is.

Maintenance is pretty decent.

The bad:

Too many large families, lobby is crowded sometimes with kids.

No bathroom fan at least in the studio apartment.

Place needs some painting especially the stairs.

If you don't have a car, grocery stores are a bit of a walk. About 6-7 blocks away. The bus stops are relatively close, only about a block away depending on which one, but there a few that basically surround the building.

Not that great of a place if you are young, single and looking to mingle. There is only one bar within walking distance and that's a couple blocks away. Most of the people in the building and the surrounding area are families and couples.

Not a lot of privacy. As I stated earlier, the front desk person asks guests to sign in if they are not recognized. Not really ideal if you don't want your business out there.

If you are a serious lifter, the "gym" here isn't going to cut it. They have some cardio machines, tv's in front of them for the people hard at exercise, dumbbells (they go up to 95lb) but no free barbells and a very limited number of weight plates. They do have some machines but if you are a serious lifter you know machines aren't going to cut it. Plus you have to pay $20 per month if you want to use this. IMO for that, the gym should be fully stocked, this gym is more like a crappy hotel gym.

The ugly:

Expensive for what you get.

Feels like a hotel.

For studio apartments the heat is not strong enough in the winter, the heater is too small for an apartment of that size.

Some obviously low income residents. These same individuals are pretty inconsiderate, sometimes honking loudly at odd times, or blasting car music at 2am during the week.

Airplanes, airplanes, airplanes. This apartment complex is located right in an airplane route apparently. Some mornings it's constant, starting at 6am you hear an airplane what seems like every few minutes. You get used to it, but its still annoying.

Parking is outrageous and the surrounding area seems to be lacking in places to park.

Management is constantly changing. When I lived here for 3 years, I saw at least 4 different managers, maybe even 5. Everytime I got to know one a little bit, they were gone, and nobody would...

If there was a way to give this place negative 5 stars I would. I regret ever stepping foot into this place. First off lets start off by saying whats shown in the pictures are not what the apartments really look like. The amenities around the building are whats nice. Yes, the keep the grass neat and their little lounge room is nice. The apartments themselves are very basic and the hallways have filthy carpets and stained walls. Even despite all of the negatives, the most positive thing about them is that they allow big dogs. Which comes to the reason why my boyfriend and I decided to move there. We signed our lease on November 21, 2014, with move in date of December 1, 2014. We had already provide them with the one month rent, security, and one month for parking. Hell, we even signed a lease. But none of that matter because I got a call today around 6pm from one of the young ladies at the main office of The Opal. She stated that the building had just been bought today buy new owners and that they wanted to rent the place at a new rate of $2200, not the $1695 + $175 for parking that my boyfriend and I had on our lease. ?????? She also stated that they never cashed the cashier checks we provided them and that we could come pick them up. Did I not mention that we signed a lease and were moving in on December 1st. Disgusting. I have never dealt with any sort of company/business like this before in my life. We wasted so much time with them. Whats pisses me off the most is that they ran our credit. So basically it was brought down for no reason. I recommend everyone to stay away from this place. They don't do good business at all. You just don't do that to someone days before they plan on moving in. We had already called ConEdison and started picking out furniture. But you know what, everything happens for a reason. I know that something better is planned for my...