RiverHouse 9 at Port Imperial — Local services in Weehawken

Has it's perks but don't be fooled and read reviews from the people who lived there for extended periods of time. Where there is smoke there is fire.

I lived in Riverhouse 9 for 2.5 years, and was on floor 5 which moved in while much of the building was under construction. All of that information was provided at the time of moving in, so I had no concern with the lack of ammenities early on. Year 1 things break, we get it... TV's in common spaces didn't always work, pool and hot tub were inconsistent with temp, even little things with fire pits & grills had issue with gas supplies. These are all items you can live with. Upon first renewal of the lease we found it to be high but reasonable (it was net 8% increase) however their automated rate system is their defense for any rate increases and they are unwilling to use rationale to work with their residents. You will see many complaints and concerns in this area particularly as the end of 2023 renewals began. When my 2nd lease term came up for renewal it was a whopping 22% from the year prior, and had limited terms for the lease which don't always make sense. All that being said, many residents who I was friends with either tried to negotiate new lease terms or had to relocate with little to no understanding or accomodation from the Leasing office. They are unfortunately figureheads rather than actual decision makers so don't waste your time there.

With regards to upkeep and property maintenance, be prepared to have issues with dog waste in certain common areas, and while it is a challenge to manage, one of the responses I had from the leasing office was that "if I were to see anything, please say something and report it to the office" as of course it is residents job to police people who can't care for their pets or treat the property poorly. There are cameras all over the property and Veris can and should police these issues. I had instances where work orders were created and closed out without completion as well, maybe lack of oversight there or auditing but there needs to be more focus in this area.

I just received my security deposit back, I had no pets and cleaned the apartment prior to leaving. 2 small bars for the closets were noted as missing ($100 total) as well as a cleaning fee ($75). I had no pets, I left the apartment in good if not great condition considering I had lived there for nearly 30 months.

"Veris Residential offers sustainability-conscious people a choice of places to live more connected with what really matters. Find yours." This is from the Veris site, and while the buildings are quite nice, there is definitely a lack of connection with their residents and the community aspect has gone down the drain in the past few years.

So, long story short, if you are looking for a newer building in a convenient location, and don't mind overpaying then this may be the place for you. Don't set expectations to high, and make a plan on moving out after you have one or more lease renewals as its not sustainable for anyone long term. Do your research and see if Veris is ultimately who you want to do business with as moving is never at the top of anyones list of...

*Update to review

**Renters beware

Fellow tenants have noticed that on the website they list similar apartments for a much lower price than the renewal that was offered and are not willing to move on the original term even though it is not at market. Just bad practice to add to the list.

After further discussions with Management they were not willing to negotiate on lease terms, as they said even with my increase my apartment was still "well under-market". They originally offered me a 20% increase for 16-18 month renewal term and when i asked for a 12 month term it was a 35% increase. The reason given was that there were a significant amount of rentals expiring in Q4 so instead of trying to incentivize me, they preferred to "de-incentivize" me. This is not singular to myself and every tenant is getting this treatment, and as a result so many people are moving out and the sense of community is non-existent.

Overall, if you are moving into this building beware as there are no negotiations, its take it or leave it, which stems from the owner being a Public Company and having to answer to stakeholders. Have no issue with Building management, just Business practice. I have lived in the building since July 2021 and have enjoyed living here developing a very nice community. HOWEVER, it certainly appears that Veris (in house Management have no control over rent increases, it is all "corporate") have no regard for existing tenants and are chasing the $ by passing though 20-30% rent increases ("as that is what the market says we should be charging"). Please note, it is not as if residents are not expecting a rent increase, they just want it to be reasonable.

It is almost as if they want to replicate the transient Manhattan model where they only want residents staying for a short time so they can increase the rents for new tenants.

Further, similar to other recent posts, the hot tub is more like a plunge pool and you get minimal hours of sunlight over the pool to heat it up.

In conclusion, i like the building, what it has to offer, and generally find the Leasing/Management office to be friendly, however, would be cautious to moving in here as Veris has minimal regard for you they just see...

I’m very sad to have to write such a negative review. There are some great people who live in this building (but many are moving out) and when the previous management company ran the building (when I first moved in) I was very happy.

Unfortunately when Veris Residential took over management of RH9, all aspects of daily life began to go downhill quickly…

There have been MANY repeated maintenance issues in the building, both in the common areas and with the building systems. This includes the hot tub, pool, service door, trash chutes, TV’s, grills, fire pits and elevators just to name a few…Nothing is ever fixed promptly and things are constantly breaking simply because management is not maintaining anything correctly. However, they continue to charge amenity fees and even raised the fees this year despite locking tenants out of amenity’s for a month while they did a movie shoot and let a production company take over the entire building. No refunds to tenants were offered. But they gave us a Hyatt style continental breakfast one day so I guess that makes it OK ;)

My biggest issue is the absolutely insane yearly rental increases. Last year was a lot but I chose to stay in the building with hopes that this year the increase wouldn’t be as bad, boy was I wrong! This year my 1 bedroom renewal price was more than a $500 increase!

Management said they were powerless to do anything, which is the typical response they give with most items… then they offered me a tiny discount which I declined as it was still way “above market”. Then to add insult to injury they attempted to charge me a $500 penalty because they claimed I was a day or two late responding to them, even though I was not.

I would strongly suggest you AVOID moving into this building. It has been a nightmare dealing with the leasing office and Veris as a company.

The saying goes “shiny new things tarnish quickly”.

Although I do want to thank the front desk staff for always...