LeFrak City

Lefrak is definitely not a long term place to live. There are many management issues that need to be resolved in order to retain long term residents. From the outside, Lefrak looks like a decent place to live, but in the inside (especially the older apartments) are in bad shape. I understand they want to improve the neighborhood, but first thing first get rid of the uncivilized people. Secondly, invest in cleaning up the buildings. For instance, get rid of bed bugs, rodents, mice ect… We had a bedbug infestation the summer of 2014. Apparently, there was an outbreak of BB on our floor (a letter was sent to us). I am assuming that’s how we got it. It was mentally draining, and caused us money to replaced our bedroom furnitures. It took Lefrak over a week to get an exterminator.
We’ve been having issues not having running hot water, lack of heat in the apartment. In fact, my husband and I had to purchase two heaters (one for our bedroom and one in living room). Vivian who is the rep for the Paris building is a waste of time. She hardly ever accepts phone calls, and when she does writes down your concerns and fail to follow-​up. In order to get repairs done, you have to literally harass management office EVERYDAY or threaten to call 311 to report any concerns, which I’ve done on several occasions.
They have increased our rent for so call capital improvements, which is a living nightmare. Construction happening from early morning to late afternoon, including the weekends. Give me a break! The only convenience living here is the location; close to shopping, subways and food stores (2 in the neighborhood).
I would NOT recommend living here if you have a family (kids and schools are horrible). Once our least is up in October 2016, it’s safe to say that we are moving. It will take another 20 years to see changes in Lefrak.

I just moved in 2 months ago the apartment size is very spacious but they are infested with roaches and Maintance doesn’t respond to your calls or messages. They only have a exterminator come one time a week during 12 – 4 when hard working people have to work they don’t make any exceptions they give you the number to the building manager who never returns your call. You spend $ 1800 a month to deal with infestation it’s not worth the money especially when most people in the building are on section 8. The lease says no dogs but everyone has one which would be much of an issue if they picked up the dog pop outside on the side walk or cleaned the side walk daily which they don’t so your constantly looking down to make sure you didn’t step in anyone’s poop and it’s not even cute little dogs it’s pitbulls and huge dogs these tenants have on the balconys everyone puts storage it’s crazy I don’t see any chairs and tables. I wouldn’t recommend it if you don’t have section 8 like myself you’ll be paying to live with roaches. I spray roach spray at my door and in the vents every night, take out my trash 3x a day (yes just to avoid roaches I do this) and they still come. Also no parking at all! The waiting list for Parking is over a year. Street parking no way you will not get a spot I have to pay to park at the mall and walk up and if your coming home late the mall parking is closed you have to call security and wait for them to walk over and open the gates…

If you plan on moving to Lefrak City, please stay far far away from this apartment complex for your own good.
They recently remodeled the entrances, so it looks really nice from the outside, but this is a bait to get you to live here. When it comes to the management, it is a nightmare any time you have an issue.
First of all, getting in contact with the managers is IMPOSSIBLE. Just to pretend they care, they send you to their assistant (Anastasia) who takes the notes but nothing gets done. Sorry, but I pay a lot to live here and have the right to the person who is actually in charge, and not your puppet. Talking to the building managers is impossible (they are always in a «meeting»). I don’t know who hired these people who do not do their job.
It is also impossible to get the contact information to the upper management that goes above the building managers to make a complaint. I literally emailed the building supervisor, Peter, for over a month asking for the information, and never got it, instead he sent me an email to his manager, Gerald, and with each email he never responds back. Also the receptionist, refused to give me her full name. What kind of service is this? Please, do your job and I won’t care about your name.
Now the issues I’ve had in the past year.
Issue 1.
The person who lived next door passed away, his body wasn’t discovered until the smell spread throughout my apartment (April). The smell was spreading to our apartment for the next few days, finally we had to paint our walls, wash all clothes, bleach the walls, and when I wanted to talk to the managers to get some kind of refund, couldn’t reach anyone who could help me. In around August we had mice biting through the walls into our apartment, so you can imagine what was happening in there. They didn’t clean that apartment up until this week (December), well on Monday my apartment smelled like bleach, and after that it smelled like a combination of what it smelled before and trash. I emailed them to do something about it, did I even get a response? No. I literally got sick physically and mentally, and went through a trauma from the entire experience, and I couldn’t even talk to the managers in person.
Issue 2.
With the renovations they changed locks to the main doors. I was very pro this change but the way they went about it, is more of a nightmare than something to help the tenants. There are two people who signed the lease, I went to get the key with the person who is listed as second, and they wouldn’t allow me to get the key, because the person who is first on the last has to be there with me. How does it make sense? I still don’t have a key. I’m sorry but they should be sending the keys, or walking from door to door to deliver them. Especially that on my ID I have this address listed.
Not only this, but only the first person on the lease has an access to the doors in the basement that leads to the garage. So if 2 people are driving, but you only have one car, the second person won’t be able to enter the building from the basement. How does it make sense? My mother has a heart condition and cannot walk uphill, but she cannot enter the door from garage to the building, she has to walk uphill, to the second floor to get to the building, even though she is one of the people who signed the lease. When I tried to get the contact information to whoever deals with it, the receptionist didn’t give it to me, and she also didn’t want to give me her name. Wow, the worst customer service I have experienced.
Do not move here. If you decide to because you got lured in with what they tell you, then first get the contact information above the general manager (Gerald), also sort out the key situation first, but make it in writing, make them sign it, otherwise good luck.
To the management and the employees: please start doing your job.

Please feel free to get an apartment here if you’re a welfare, section 8 degenerate that likes to steal money from hard working people. This place definitely caters to you! I had a ridiculous leak in my apartment 2 months ago because the lady above me (section 8) broke her sink and flooded her apartment. Of course this sorry excuse of a management company says they are not responsible for my damages. I had to replace my sofa and bed with money I don’t have. My walls are all moldy and brown. They won’t even come by to paint. Oh, but wait, they replace the free loader’s apartment, but not mine. Then they tried to evict me when I asked for my money! Really??? It’s your fault but you want to evict me for asking for my money back! I pay my rent on time every month and never gave them any issues, and this is how they treat their good tenants. I guess I have no other choice but to see them in court.

Great place to live in. Although rent is kind of expensive but great location. One of the major problem no parking in this neighborhood

As an update, these are still great apartments with great amenities, but after they completed lobby and landscaping renovations, they raised my rent too much to afford to renew my expired 2-​year lease as a single teacher. I should become a real estate investor because I’m a master at finding inexpensive places to live right before prices explode. Maybe then I would have made enough money to keep my wonderful apartment.

Ok This is an updated review from my last review of a few years ago. I have now been living here for 5 years and things have improved overall. The management company has been spending a lot of money to make this place a lot better and hopefully they will continue to attract
better tenants by reason of the increased rents, Studio and one bedroom apartments have increased between 30 to 50% in five years but still represent a good value when compared to comparable apartments. The apartments are spacious and many have good views especially on the upper floors my apartment has a view of the Unisphere, Citifield (lot’s of fireworks displays during baseball season) the LIE, the Tennis Center, NYS Paviliion and the Whitestone bridge. The general rule of thump is still to try to rent on the Horace Harding Side of the Development. Maintenance staff is great and all repair request are usually handled within hours of reporting the problem. There is still a problem with Dogs that are supposed to be illegal but they are still here. The population seems to be getting more diverse. They recently opened a new Chinese Supermarket on 99^th Street that offers fresh vegetables, fish and meats with excellent prices. If you have a car getting on the list for a parking spot is a must, the rates are reasonable and it will completely change your life. There is lots of shopping within walking distance and Public tranportation is reliable, at this point we are glad that we are here. There are still issues with noisy neighbors but overall things have improved. As far as the roach and rodent problem if you throw your garbage out every night you will never see any. I haven’t seen any in almost two years. So you will have to measure the pros and the cons to determine if this place is for you. Good Luck!

Ok, time for an update. I’ve been back at Lefrak for a year. Must say, there has been many improvements to my building and area (Horace Harding expy side). We needed work done to our apt (painting, plumbing, extermination). We got it done less than a month. They have a new maintenance request system online that helps get request completed. Extermination is done every wednesday. Hallways are clean. Now, security is good. My only issue is the new gates they installed between the buildings. I do understand that they want to keep order from any incidents going on through the complex, but it’s annoying going to the supermarket and local stores to walk all around the complex. It’s fine. I can live with it. Keep the improvements coming!

LOOK AWAY BEFORE YOU MAKE THE WORST MISTAKE
Horrible place due to the highly unprofessional «management.» Gloria Mitchell 718−575−4631 (call her, she will NEVER answer,) is the worst by far. Never answers her phone, email, return voicemails, NOTHING! When you do get to talk to her is because you have to tell the receptionist to go to Ms. Mitchell’s desk and inform her that she will receive a call or else you will never hear from her if you call. Then on top of that long process of trying to actually get receptionist to do this, she adds insult to injury if you ask her why she doesn’t return calls or answer her phone. She will completely disrespect you & yell without any explanation as to why she is so unprofessional. This is the person who tenants need to ask important questions, including rent inquiries. She will do NOTHING to help. She is very disrespectful & is employed by Lefrak City to twiddle her thumbs.
This is only one person out of many who is supposedly management, which obviously do not manage anything except the collection of rent because they are all just focused on collecting rent & do not care about their tenants. LOOK AWAY! Search anywhere else except Lefrak.
«Our price is cheap because our management is WORTHLESS!» (This is what their slogan should be. I hope they use it because it will definitely define this complex)

Worst place to live in, infested with roaches and mice, stairwells smell like piss and are full of graffiti. People smoke weed in the stairs and not an overall safe neighborhood To live in anyway.

Lefrak has always been pet friendly and now you can’t walk your dogs on the grounds. They are locking gates everywhere so if you live on the Horace Harding side, you will have to go all the way around lefrak to shop at the supermarket on the 57^th Ave side. I wish I could give no stars. Lefrak is starting to feel more like a prison than home. Thanks a lot to the new owners. In the winter there is always a problem with the heat. Lefrak is no longer a great place to live.

LeFrak is the WORST APARTMENT to live in, it is infested with rats, mice, cockroaches and without forgetting the constant dog urine everywhere. Although the management is TRYING so hard to clean up the apartment it is full of uncivilized people who are living there. The elevator always smells dog urine and the hallway has trash everywhere.
The inside of the apartment can be in a good condition but all the cupboards are SUPER cheap quality. There are still so many gangsters living there, and the teenagers are always vandalizing the property and surroundings. Forget about complaining to the management, they will simply ignore you, the Super of each block will never even respond to your email or your phone call. If you have things to get repaired you can wait forever, no one will ever come unless you chase them.
We had to sign a 2yr contract at that time as we didn’t have much choice, but it was the biggest MISTAKE ever. For the 2yrs, there was no Smoke detector and no carbon monoxide in the apartment and the management NEVER even knew about it.
Me & my husband have seen a drive by shooting and a hit and run. the whole area is still super hot. Although the actual security is NYPD, they are simply useless. They SO don’t look like they can even run to catch a bad guy, they look heavy and lethargic.
As for the rent cost, it usually starts low but it increases every year. Your contract might say something, but nobody follows the rules there, there are apartments keeping 2 – 3 dogs at a time.
I WOULD HIGHLY NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE! PLEASE DONT BELIEVE THOSE IMAGES THEY ADVERTISE!

This is the place that you move into when you have no other choice. The building is not safe. The front and side doors are always open. The security is not there to protect you they are only there to read magazines and monitor the parking meters. I asked one of them which building the maintenance office was located in and he said «I don’t know». Their maintenance worker used the spare key to enter my apartment without my consent. They stole appliances and fraudulently used my credit card. They were not successful in completing the transaction due to alerts that I have placed on the account. There is an endless supply of roaches, spiders and mice. The exterminator is non existent and the pictures on the website are lies. My cabinets are the original cabinets installed back in the 70’s with the huge knobs and wooden planks to put your glasses and dishes on. The Lefrak family is worth 6 billion dollars and yet they cannot maintain an apartment building. Paying over $ 1175.00 a month for a studio apartment is ridiculous. This will be my last year in this hell hole. Keep looking you’re life is worth it.

**constant urine smell in the stairs and outside areas of Paris building**
I strongly recommend you do not rent here unless you absolutely have to. Terribly managed apartments. I am counting down the days until our lease is up. Since we have moved in we have had ongoing problems with the hot water, garbage, and now the A/​C unit. Not to mention constant «improvements» to the building, which is just an excuse to charge you more.
We actually had to open a case with the city TWICE because LeFrak did not provide adequate hot water while it was less than 60 degrees outside. There was one point in November where we had to take cold showers for 5 days straight.
The main problem is communication. Lefrak provides a telephone number for emergency repairs outside of business hours. Nobody ever answers the phone. I don’t even know what we would do if our apartment flooding because we can never get a hold of ANYONE after 5pm and supposedly there are on-​site supers.
Our A/​C unit worked all year until now. Summer is the only time we actually need it, obviously. I know a lot of people live without A/​C but it is an amenity that we pay for. Also, you are not permitted to install your own A/​C unit. We have called and spoke to literally 4 different people. Usually they say they «opened a case» and «will let the maintenance team know». We are going on day 2 and nobody has contacted us or showed up at our apartment. I work from home, there’s no way I missed anyone coming to my door.
The only way we are ever able to have anything repaired is if we threaten to withhold our rent payment. This has happened on 3 separate occasions. After days of back and forth nonsense, I told the building manager I’m not paying rent until this is fixed. Maintenance was at my door within an hour.
It’s actually a shame because most of the residents here are great neighbors and the area is loaded with great shops and restaurants.

Don’t live on the first floor… or ever use the stairs… Been here two years. Cockroaches all over the apartment… popping out of the cracks in the wall, the sink, and the bathroom fixtures… and giant silver dollar sized ones in the hallway where one often finds puddles of piss. Building doors are never locked. Lot of stupid tenants.
Also be prepared to live in a perpetual construction zone. Drilling, sawing and hammering from 8 – 5 every day from various places. Above me. next to me, outside in the alley. Better hope ya like loud salsa music too. ya know that one song they loop over and over in taxis and corner stores? Yeah.
Meanwhile it took them a couple of years to get around to fixing the fucked up ceiling in the livingroom. It wasn’t until someones toilet water flooded our livingroom for about a week that someone did anything.
I’m leaving soon thankfully… We have no shortage of shit to get out of the lease fairly.

The apartments look nice don’t get me wrong they look for rennovated when you move in. But every year they raise your rent a ridiculous amount around $ 150 for living in the ghetto. They’re like cars you pay for it in full price over the internet they look nice but over time begin to have lots of problems. The paint was starting to chip in the bathtub and walls and we experienced water leaks which they just patched up twice before the initially fixed the leak after making us wait for months. In two years there have been two murders incredibly close one in the parking lot where I walk through every day and one on the 15^th floor hall way. In not saying there’s not crime every where but I was born and raised in the ghetto so I know how to identify that kind of environment. I look at this place as if it were projects.

We lived on the Horace Harding side of Lefrak for two years. Initially, we were really excited, because at $ 1450 for a 1BR deluxe (that’s with a balcony and a den) in a fabulous area only 20mins to midtown, who could complain? The building was undergoing renovations so it was only going to get better, right?
Months after moving in, problems began, the biggest one being the bathroom tub (it would pump out dirty water from the pipes connected to our neighbors’ kitchen). It would happen every so often & maintenance would take care of it.
On January 1 this year, a water main break exploded, so we had flooding in the bathroom for three days. When a maintenance worker inspected it on the third day, I was told I shouldn’t have been cleaning the floor (in effect, I was supposed to let it flood into the rest of the apartment to cause more damage).
Long story short, the leak stopped, but maintenance wouldn’t make internal repairs. So we stopped paying rent to get their attention, but that just ended up with us going to housing court. When we told the lawyer and judge what was happening, they made it seem like it was such a simple fix. We got a court order stipulating what fixes need to be made in the apartment, and while most of them were completed, some things have yet to be taken care of.
Yes, these apartments are rent-​stabilized, and no, this is not public housing. Our neighbors are great for the most part, but after dealing with such terrible management, I just can’t. The buildings are also very busy, and sometimes there are sketchy people walking around. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide, but when the time came to renew our lease, we opted not to.
Good luck!

LeFrak City’s deplorable attributes spanning the 80’s, 90’s, 00’s till current are as undesirable as they are consistent.
You will find the following here:
low income housing, alcohol/​drugs, misdemeanor/​felony offenders, roaches, rats, feces, homeless individuals, and a likelihood of being hit with projectiles (bb’s, bullets, bottles, watermelons, cantaloupes, etc.)
Apartment:
The apartments are in a state of decomposition held together by layers of paint. They leak water. They are infested with a variety of pests. Crackhead for neighbors. Crack bags litter the stairwell and even human feces.
Noise (BASE from rap, BASE from bachata/​merengue, BASE from domestic disputes).
Surrounding area:
Strict policy of «DO NOT CURB» your pit bull is enforced here. You will find dog droppings of varying colors, smells and consistency to keep you on your toes.
Garbage all over the property.
Parking your car? Likely get the following stolen: rims, car stereos, entire cars.
Crack heads in the restaurant wait on line, then say «Hmmmm, lemegetta water».
Verdict:
Lie:
Truth:
Unilocal SON!!!

I’ve lived on 98^th and 57^th for the past 2 years.
Pros: The apartments are large and pretty modern. The stove was new and the view is nice. Close to Queens Ctr mall, Rego Park shopping area and Target. Subway is 10 minutes away. The 3 elevators usually run pretty fast.
Cons: Do not… I repeat… DO NOT move into any buildings on 57^th Avenue! There are people hanging out in front of the stores ALL the time, no matter what the weather is! As a woman, I don’t feel safe walking in front of the stores, I have to walk on the Lefrak side to get to my house. Also, people let their dogs pee in the elevators all the time! People take their garbage to the trash receptacle area, but don’t open the compactor and throw it in. They will leave it right in front of it. Very difficult to get ahold of the maintenance to fix something. It’s best to just go downstairs in person and grab one of them if you need something. When I have driven a rental car, yes, parking does suck. It’s almost impossible to find parking.
On a positive note, they are updating the buildings. Unfortunately, they are also raising the rent. I guess that’s a good thing because it will help get rid of that hood element and increase the quality of residents living there. I expected better from a privately owned building. To me, it’s one step up from the projects.

My experience at LeFrak
The lease center is very nice, agent’s were nice and helpful
My agent takes me to view building, I ask her if things have improved since the glory days of the 80’s when the name sakes of rappers «Noreaga» ‚“Akinyele” and” Kool G Rap” lived in LeFrak, she quickly changed the subject.
We entered the building in through a side door, where anyone could buzz their way into your building if they waited long enough, (Very Concerned), in fact three people came in with us. Who know who they were. I did not notice any security presence or video security.
The lobby was nice but being the son of a contractor I could tell it was a rig job, to lowest bidder. It also smelled like chinese food. This is NYC and your going to smell all kinds of foods cooking. Elevator ‘s fine, a little small. I asked if any other improvements to the building will be made, and was told no.
While we are on the elevator a tenant is complaining that her rent just jumped 200 $, I cant make this stuff up. I felt terrible for her.
Now we exit the elevator and I see the carpeted hall ways. I didn’t want it to be true but it was. The carpeted halls were filthy dirty, and stained. Yes your heard correct, the «newly renovated halls» were stained from one end to the other. Halls were painted a terrible dark brown. Not enough coats of paint to cover the old gashes and names carved on some of the apartment doors. I also noticed water damage through out the halls. Im guessing we would not expect another coat of paint or new carpeting for another 50 years.
So she takes me to a gutted apartment, at least they are renovating it but very hard to know what the final product will look like. No show room, and they def did not look like the high end apartments on the web site.
Good News!, Onsite laundry, in the basement, womp womp, get your pepper spray ready ladies!
My recommendations, if none of the above bothers you go for it. I will keep on looking.