One Theater Square — Local services in Newark

Nothing good to say about the process One Theater Square uses to coordinate with prospective tenants and then get approval to rent an apartment. We were going to rent the penthouse at One Theater Square. We had been there a few times and decided One Theater Square was our top choice. However, first the electronic background check process was flawed and the staff were very insensitive to our concerns and our need to confirm relatively quickly. Despite completing the process and providing access to our personal bank accounts many times over many days, we were told by staff that errors were occurring with the 3rd party verifier and to provide One Theater Square Staff with the required details directly, which we did: proof of multiple high incomes, passports, etc. Every day, they asked for something additional over the course of many days. We rented similar apartments both on Long Island and in Phoenix in recent years, and approvals came in a matter of hours or minutes. We just couldn’t understand why it was taking so many days and every day there was a new request for some new piece of documentation. Staff seemed totally insensitive to what we were going through, and we called every day to try to expedite the process. We were calling them, they were not calling us. Our second choice was the Iconiq777 building in downtown Newark. After a week of frustrations with One Theater, we switched to our second rental choice. Iconiq777 approved us in one hour after work hours on a Friday night. We were moving all the way across the country, and just couldn’t wait any longer to secure a place to live and sign our contract with the movers, and do everything that needed a confirmed address. Part of the problem, I was told, was that my wife was not currently working and her personal bank account had very little money in it. We have two very young children, and after the birth of our second child, she stopped working for a while. This seemed both anti-family and especially aggravating, as our incomes were well in excess of what was needed to get in the Penthouse. We also had a perfect record over the last 10+ years of paying our apartment rental on time every month.

I can’t say enough good things about Iconiq777, in contrast…how well they treated us, our beautiful view of all of Midtown and Lower Manhattan, and how they have been since we’ve moved in. I recommended highly to anyone who is moving to downtown Newark to go to Iconiq777 first. That’s what we should’ve done. We learned this the hard way. We’re also out the $250 background check fee to One Theater. They said there could be no refund despite their incompetence and poor service. Probably a blessing we discovered their problems before we signed a lease and moved in when it would have been too late to change to another...

Pros: -Maintenance staff is great.

-Kelvin is the absolute highlight of the concierge team. He already has your packages at the desk as soon as you come out of the elevator, has the elevator already prepped to send you back to your floor as soon as you’re in, always incredibly helpful/personable/going above and beyond. I cannot say enough positive things. Seriously. Give that man a raise or a promotion or something. He is 100% the best and someone I’d love to even have working on my team.

-The apartments themselves look great. -Best apartment building gym in the area. -Attached parking -When something breaks it’s fixed before you even realize it was broken. They’ll send out an email about the garage door or an elevator and it’s literally already being worked on by the time you engage either one. -Super clean building -They try, they really do. They bring in food trucks every friday as of late and there have been several virtual community events.

Cons: -Vinyl floors -They 100% did not clean my apartment before I moved in. But there was a card in there claiming they had. -The bedrooms are pretty small. -Laminated cabinetry that puffs up once there’s actual steam in the environment from cooking. -The dryers use this stupid moisture sensor technology and will literally not dry your moist clothing if the machine doesn’t deem it wet. Sometimes it will also just stop mid cycle due to the same mechanism. -Almost all other concierge staff that IS NOT Kelvin is lazy, prone to attitude, seems to hate their job and acts like they’re doing you a favor. I have literally preferred to wait until a concierge person’s shift is over to avoid feeling like I’m bothering them by asking for my own packages. -Insane dust build up. -I moved into a larger unit and after having no issues with sound or thin walls in my previous unit, I now share a extremely thin wall with a neighbor who I can hear fart, cough, sneeze, wet burb, cuss, play online games, and hawk loogies into his sink. I complained to management and they put on a “dog & pony show” to appear as though they were going to resolve the issue and did nothing. In fact, the building manager only followed up on her last day on the job.

I don’t regret moving here. The majority of things are well done and the building and apartments are nice. They just really drop the ball on the details and the parts of the experience that make a building a luxury experience. I’ve lived in several luxury buildings in NY/NJ over the last 15 years, this isn’t among the best of them. It’s certainly not among the worst either.

At the end of the day though, we’re really picking out first world problems. It’s a better roof over your head than most...

The worst thing about 2020 for me was deciding to move into this apartment building. Part of my decision to live here was based on all of the positive reviews I read, so if I can help anyone avoid the stress I've experienced as a result of this building's management, by giving an honest review, I will.

These are the facts. Upon my move in there was rust in my toilet bowl, there were dead bugs on my window sill, there were stains on my kitchen cabinets and in my closet. Because I moved across country, I had to wait for my items to be shipped. Once my belongings were shipped, I started to unpack and organize my things in my walk-in closet only to find dead bugs in my walk-in closet.

As if this wasn't bad enough, after a month of living here, I received a call from management notifying me that they accidentally shared my private document containing my social security number with 18 residents, via email. They actually attached my personal document, containing my social security number in an email to residents and now I have to pay for identity fraud protection for the unforeseeable future because of their negligence.

Grey dust accumulates in my apartment, so if I leave white dishes out, they become stained. I've reached out to management and maintenance and they don't know what it is or why it's happening so I can only hope it's not a health hazard.

My mailbox still has the name of the former resident and I can't even be bothered to address this because at this point, I expect nothing positive from this place. I've lived in low income housing before starting my career, I didn't go through half of the grief I've gone through with this "luxury" building.

To be frank, the only reason I've given One Theater Square any stars is because of the maintenance staff and concierge. Maintenance has been kind and helpful in trying to resolve the issues that could be resolved, and people in concierge are a gem.

Though the apartment itself is nice, it's easily substitutable with any of the other luxury buildings in the area, (which by the way also offered equivalent concessions), so it's by no means worth the headache I've experienced. Had it not been because of the effort exerted in moving across country, I would have left this building when I had the chance. This has been my experience, and I've only been here...