West 96th

The apartments are decent but overpriced and small. The building's amenities are what you're really paying for, but if you don't use their gym or the children's playroom, it's not worth the price.Beware their leases, though. Breaking one is difficult and expensive. I was told that I could either pay full rent (and then some) until they find a new tenant or pay two months rent up front. Since it took over three months and several favorite for me to take the apartment before, the settlement was the obvious (if exorbitant) option. Once I agreed to take it, though, I was told that oops, never mind, they couldn't offer a settlement at all even though it specifically allows for it in my lease.The worst thing is that it's STILL cheaper for me to move to a better apartment than to stay.Stay far away from this and other equity properties.

Awaful managment, I just move out after 4 years of leasing which they raised the rent every year. Took all the deposit with no reason. Not just me a lot of other are deserting that sinking ship.The other property the are managing 96 Westmont has bed bugs.Stay away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I moved into West 96th an Equity Residential community in April, in my first few months the experience has been wonderful. The concierge team is phenomenal, they are very attentive and go above and beyond. They always have my dry cleaning waiting for me when I return home from work, I don't even have to ask for it. My wife bikes to work and when she returns home, the concierge always has the door open making it easier for her to get her bike back in the building. The community is situated across the street from Whole Foods and one avenue away from Central Park. Its a short 5 minute walk to Riverside Park, so we have the best of both worlds. My daughter is a student at a local public school and got accepted into a dual language program, we are able to walk her to school due its close proximity. We moved to the Upper West Side from New Jersey and gave up owning a vehicle, the access to public transportation is exceptional with the 1, 2, 3, C trains within a 5 minute walk. The M96, M7 and M11 buses are right in front of the community. The building is kept very clean, the service and leasing teams are very professional. I also enjoy being able to pay rent online and submit service requests through the resident portal. My family and I are very happy we chose to live at West 96th and hope to live here for a very long time.

The building itself is lovely. Apartments are well maintained and the playroom, roof deck and gym are certainly selling points. OK location: close to Whole Foods and Central Park, but you will need to travel at least 10 blocks south for decent restaurants (which has been a huge disappointment for us!). The doormen and maintenance staff are also very nice and helpful. The issue with this place is entirely due to the price and management. Apartments start out averagely priced. However rate increases have ranged from 8-15% in any given year. There are also numerous surprise fees -- out of nowhere, Equity Residential decided to charge us a $75/month and $500/annual pet fee. A pet fee was stated nowhere in our original contract with Archstone, but they insisted on slamming us with a $1,400 random charge mid-contract!! I'm wondering when we will start being charged for our children... They also decided (mid-contract) to charge residents monthly for heat and water, which was currently covered under rent. Since the meters were set for the overall building, they -of course- charged us $500 to readjust the meter for individual unit measurements. Then are the general gym/convenience fees, etc etc etc. You are also not allowed to have more than 1 guest (one nanny/parent and one child) in the playroom. It is a very large playroom and we have never seen more than ~6 children at any given day/time, but management's directive is that any more than one guest will be turned away. Forget play dates for your kids. (or maybe they'll start charging extra fees per guest??)Lastly, a large portion of the building is subsidized. This is a sensitive and (politically) contentious matter, but it has become increasingly frustrating and unfair to be assessed fee after fee, and rent increase after incessant rent increase, when none of these fees are shared by the subsidized units. We can hardly afford these 'market' rents and live in an apartment that is way too small for our family; however you see subsidized tenants living in 2-3 bedroom apartments at 1/4 of the price we are paying for a 1 bed. We share the same amenities; however the market apartments pay the lion's share of the fees and rent and yet live in worse conditions. As a result, we see market tenants moving out every day, including ourselves.Agree with previous reviews that the building was much friendlier and better maintained/run while under Archstone management. Equity is bottom-line driven and cuts corners at every chance to save a $. You will also find that most of its commercial tenants have moved out due to significant rent hikes. The spaces remain vacant until some big paying bank moves in.

Plus Points: Location to Central Park, Subways, B,C,1,2,3, Great Staff (Morning Doorman David, is a great building asset, as is the handymen), Close to Whole Foods ($$$) and Columbus Square, so you have a mini mall one block away. Nice Hallways, good clean modern lobby. Nice roof deck! The stainless steel kitchen works The gym is acceptable

Minus Points: The apartments have electric heat which is very inefficient and you pay for , its like putting 4x space heaters side by side. Overall, the heat does not work well here in winter, the heating unit produces a very dry arid heat which if I stand next too for too long , feel I cannot breath. The apartment is chilly even with all the electric heater blasting on, the bathroom is always cold in winter. I have had more than one tenant say living in a unit facing the street (Columbus Avenue) is very noisy, we live in the back, in the summertime you hear a very notice-able (loud) humming from various collective air conditioners units from other buildings which is why the beautiful back yard 750 Columbus Avenue has is not used much in the summertime (again, we face the back yard so we do look at the view, our view being a plus point). The laundry is small and is complete chaos in the morning, evenings are good, right now there are 2x broker dryers and 3x broker washers (and they have been this way for months). Oh yes, the floor we live on lightly shakes from time to time, and this I have checked out with other tenants on our floor, they experience the same thing. Management is not aware of the problem nor is the buildings maintenance. You are right next to major traffic coming from cross town 96th Street, Columbus Avenue and 97th Street which has incoming traffic coming from the Upper East Side, so the smog levels are higher here, in my opinion than other places I have lived in the last 40x years. We bought air purifiers, humidifiers and it helps!

The building itself is lovely. Apartments are well maintained and the playroom, roof deck and gym are certainly selling points. OK location: close to Whole Foods and Central Park, but you will need to travel at least 10 blocks south for decent restaurants (which has been a huge disappointment for us!). The doormen and maintenance staff are also very nice and helpful.

The issue with this place is entirely due to the price and management. Apartments start out averagely priced. However rate increases have ranged from 8-15% in any given year. There are also numerous surprise fees -- out of nowhere, Equity Residential decided to charge us a $75/month and $500/annual pet fee. A pet fee was stated nowhere in our original contract with Archstone, but they insisted on slamming us with a $1,400 random charge mid-contract!! I'm wondering when we will start being charged for our children... They also decided (mid-contract) to charge residents monthly for heat and water, which was currently covered under rent. Since the meters were set for the overall building, they -of course- charged us $500 to readjust the meter for individual unit measurements. Then are the general gym/convenience fees, etc etc etc. You are also not allowed to have more than 1 guest (one nanny/parent and one child) in the playroom. It is a very large playroom and we have never seen more than ~6 children at any given day/time, but management's directive is that any more than one guest will be turned away. Forget play dates for your kids. (or maybe they'll start charging extra fees per guest??)Lastly, a large portion of the building is subsidized. This is a sensitive and (politically) contentious matter, but it has become increasingly frustrating and unfair to be assessed fee after fee, and rent increase after incessant rent increase, when none of these fees are shared by the subsidized units. We can hardly afford these 'market' rents and live in an apartment that is way too small for our family; however you see subsidized tenants living in 2-3 bedroom apartments at 1/4 of the price we are paying for a 1 bed. We share the same amenities; however the market apartments pay the lion's share of the fees and rent and yet live in worse conditions. As a result, we see market tenants moving out every day, including ourselves.Agree with previous reviews that the building was much friendlier and better maintained/run while under Archstone management. Equity is bottom-line driven and cuts corners at every chance to save a $. You will also find that most of its commercial tenants have moved out due to significant rent hikes. The spaces remain vacant until some big paying bank moves in.

Plus Points: Location to Central Park, Subways, B,C,1,2,3, Great Staff (Morning Doorman David, is a great building asset, as is the handymen), Close to Whole Foods ($$$) and Columbus Square, so you have a mini mall one block away. Nice Hallways, good clean modern lobby. Nice roof deck! The stainless steel kitchen works The gym is acceptable

. Minus Points: The apartments have electric heat which is very inefficient and you pay for , its like putting 4x space heaters side by side. Overall, the heat does not work well here in winter, the heating unit produces a very dry arid heat which if I stand next too for too long , feel I cannot breath. The apartment is chilly even with all the electric heater blasting on, the bathroom is always cold in winter. I have had more than one tenant say living in a unit facing the street (Columbus Avenue) is very noisy, we live in the back, in the summertime you hear a very notice-able (loud) humming from various collective air conditioners units from other buildings which is why the beautiful back yard 750 Columbus Avenue has is not used much in the summertime (again, we face the back yard so we do look at the view, our view being a plus point). The laundry is small and is complete chaos in the morning, evenings are good, right now there are 2x broker dryers and 3x broker washers (and they have been this way for months). Oh yes, the floor we live on lightly shakes from time to time, and this I have checked out with other tenants on our floor, they experience the same thing. Management is not aware of the problem nor is the buildings maintenance. You are right next to major traffic coming from cross town 96th Street, Columbus Avenue and 97th Street which has incoming traffic coming from the Upper East Side, so the smog levels are higher here, in my opinion than other places I have lived in the last 40x years. We bought air purifiers, humidifiers and it helps!

Do not move into this building. Since Equity bought it from Archstone, the upkeep is lacking. What they seem to do especially well is add on additional costs to your rent. You pay $500 a year for a small and poorly maintained "gym" whether you use it or not. You pay for sewage and other add-ons which increase your rent significantly, all on top of an over- priced basic rent.The building is noisy because you are on the corner of 96, 97 and Columbus where it seems every ambulance, fire engine (just 3 blocks away) and police car has its siren blasting 24/7. Trucks are forever blowing their air horns due to the congestion on Columbus Avenue. The noise drowns out conversations even in apartments on the higher floors and facing away from the street.Cabs are hard to come by because Whole Foods customers (on the next block uptown) get just about all of them.There is often a long wait for elevators as tenants are frequently moving out and in. There is no dedicated freight elevator. One and sometimes two of the four elevators are designated for moving.The in house staff is exceptionally pleasant and always helpful. The problem with this building seems to be with the ownership and the overall management. There are too many negatives with this building to justify the high rent cost. Pass it by.