University Centre by FOUND Study — Local services in Newark

This building has to be one of the worst in Newark. I was the voice of reason amongst my roommates for giving this building more chances than it deserved and time and time again I was proven wrong for doing so. For starters, the air ducts are ridden with black mold. My roommates and I placed particle filters over our vents within the first week and they went from white to pitch black in a month from the air being filtered through. More than one of us consistently saw noticeable differences in how sick we felt when sleeping in UC vs. our homes. Our tap water ran out of the sinks brown at least twice a month. The hot water went out at approximately the same rate. The "free" printer that they love to advertise as an amenity was not working from the months of October to April despite double digit requests for service. It was clear that they did not clean the room between the previous tenants moving out and us moving in because we had to remove food, dust, and debris from all common spaces upon move in, yet they falsely charge residents for cleaning fees on move out.

We were consistently fraudulently charged for incorrect utilities, we went without Heat/AC for months and the building management refused to put money into fixing them properly, we were charged ~$600 for a singular month of electric and then subsequently lied to about why it was that price instead of working with us through our frustration. We were originally told that the high electricity bill was due to some magical formula they were not allowed to provide us which allocated each and every resident an equal portion of the entire building's utilities and there was no individual meter for our unit, even though there actually was an individual meter for our unit (this is illegal in NJ). Upon learning that the people down the hall paid approximately $15 per person in the exact same month we were paying approximately $200 per person for electricity we brought this to the building's attention. Their response was "we don't do the billing, that is the outside billing company and any issues need to be brought to them." When asking the billing company, it became clear that they merely sent out to each resident the bills that UC sent them. UC then denied this and said that PSE&G was to blame. As we worked our way through the web of lies, UC finally fessed up and said "we told you the wrong thing and the problem is with your heating unit." It took another two months to fix the unit while we were being consistently charged egregious rates for electricity. When the issue was finally "fixed" they only compensated our electricity bills for the some of the months we were in the building and told us that the heating and AC came from separate places so they couldn't give us money back for months we used AC. Low and behold, when we had to put in service requests that our AC was out they sent workers in to work on the exact same unit as the heating issues. Yet another lie.

If none of the above if evidence of how bad the building is, someone down the hall from us sued the building company for discrimination and was awarded a sizable settlement for their experiences dealing with this horrendous living space.

Upon moving out of our unit, they attempted to charge us for multiple fraudulent cleaning fees and maintenance that were created by their staff or effectuated with no real proof of the damages. When reasoning with the company we were met with email responses that consisted of simply "the charge stands" regardless of the evidence offered to the contrary. I won't even begin to get into the fact that they threw away a unique wooden wall clock that was accidentally left behind even though i returned less than 12 hours after I moved out. I personally was charged at a 5000% markup rate for a missing part in the wardrobe that was missing when I moved in. They even tried to charge me $200 for a mattress that their own staff removed from my room.

For the sake of your sanity, your health, and your wallet - do not move into this building or you will...

Units are pretty spacious but there are a lot of issues.

I was first assigned to a classic unit, but on move in day the room was absolutely disgusting and had clearly not been cleaned at all from the previous occupants. I was moved into one of the renovated rooms but it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. My unit did not have a stove, oven, furniture, or dishwasher at the move-in date. We were eventually given a small compensation for this but given the fact that I had to pay rent twice for what essentially amounted to a room with a bed this was not nearly enough.

Something that I only realized after moving in is that one side of the high rise part of the building is next to the exposed subway system. The tour rooms that the showed us were on the other side of the building so I did not realize until after moving in. It is extremely annoying to be woken up the screeching wheels of a train at 4 am. The rooms on this side of the building should get a lower rate.

The renovated rooms seem to have been renovated as cheaply as humanly possible. The paint they used is cheap and there are random chips and extra paint marks all over the unit. The "wood" flooring they put in is uneven all over the place. The stove cooktop and fridge all seem too small for this size unit as well. The oven doesn't fit in the cupboard properly maintenance said they would come to fill in the holes on either side of the oven but that never happened. The furniture that was eventually put in is very cheap.

The people at the front desk seem nice but do not seem to be very knowledgeable about most things. Our HVAC unit's thermostat has been locked since we got here despite me repeatedly asking them to unlock it. Unfortunately, the thermostat is locked to neither heat or cool, so it's essentially the same temperature as outside. Currently my unit is below 65 degrees. I've gone down multiple times to ask what is taking so long for the maintenance only to be told that they don't have direct contact with maintenance but will try as best as they can to pass the information along. Also for the same maintenance request I asked for them to replace the air filter for our unit. When we moved in there was literally a collection of dust on the ceiling next to the air vents.

The utility cost is relatively low in terms of the dollar value, but given the fact that part of that cost goes to pay for an HVAC system that is just blowing air around this seems ridiculous.

I had a particularly unpleasant interaction with one of the managers (I don't know his name). I went down to ask a question and there was a large line of people who were complaining that their units AC did not work (this was at the end of august). After waiting in the line for a moment the manager shouted at the group that the office was now closed and that he will only speak with you if you are there to, "give him money for rent." This manager should probably be fired. It is ridiculous to speak to the tenants that pay your salary, when all of them were there to alert you to issues that you and your team caused.

As a final minor note, the gym is pretty nice but there are only four clips for cable machines when there should be eight total. Given how long it takes for the management to address anything this will likely never be addressed. Also before I moved in the previous owners had a small movie theatre in the basement. They have been doing renovations on it since the we moved in but it is apparently no longer going to be a theatre. That decision seems crazy to me, even if no one used the movie theatre before I'd still rather have the option to use it than not.

Overall, the units are spacious but with a lot of caveats. The renovated pictures look nice in pictures, but everything is extremely cheap. Management seems to be extremely slow and ineffective (and downright rude in some cases). Amenities like Wi-Fi speed are extremely nice. The best thing about the place is the location, it is extremely close to NJIT and...

I’ve never written a negative review before, but the way this building is managed left me no choice. This building is one of the worst-managed properties I’ve ever encountered. From the constant disorganization to the outright shady behavior, it’s been a nightmare to live here.

To start, maintenance is practically nonexistent. My A/C unit was broken throughout the winter, leaving my apartment either unbearably hot or freezing cold for months. Despite multiple requests, no one followed up or seemed to care.

They randomly forced all residents to switch to phone-based key access with no warning or adequate support. One night, due to no fault of my own, the mobile key system failed — I was locked out of my unit for over three hours past midnight, with no staff available to actually help and zero way to get assistance despite security attempting NUMEROUS times to reach out to whomever was supposed to be on call. It was not only ridiculously inconvenient and irritating for me (a PAYING tenant) but deeply unprofessional on their end.

On another occasion, they attempted to charge me over $100 just to be let into my room but instead of being transparent about the cost, the employee I interacted with tried to be sneaky about it. They didn’t disclose the fee upfront, and cover the price with her hand while pressing me to sign the paper. That kind of behavior feels predatory and dishonest especially given that they know their main demographic is college students living on their own for the first time.

They’ve also changed rent payment portals multiple times. At one point we were forced to pay by check — which is absurd in 2025 — then switched systems again. When I set up autopay and it failed (due to their platform, not me), they didn’t notify me. Instead, they hit me with late fees without explanation (and sent an email stating i needed to pay to avoid late fees as if they hadn’t already applied them).

The elevators are constantly out of service, construction happens at random with no notice until it’s too late to adapt and the building looks absolutely nothing like the polished photos they use to market it. It’s a bait-and-switch operation.

The building also abruptly switched management with VERY little transparency. At the tail end of april, residents were told they had to either terminate their lease by 5/31or move to a different unit — phrased in a way that made it seem like there was no choice. It was intentionally misleading and felt incredibly predatory, especially toward younger tenants living on their own for the first time. Instead of clear communication and support, they used vague language to pressure people into decisions they didn’t fully understand or agree to being that we signed leases to end in July. It was yet another example of how this building operates with little regard for the well-being of its residents.

If you’re considering living here — don’t. This building is poorly run, inconsiderate, and more concerned with finding new tenants than taking care of the ones they...