Mantena Apartments

This is regarding my inquiry and tour as a prospective tenant.
Location:
This apartment is half way between 9^th Avenue and 10^th Avenue on West 37^th Street. The area is a bit rough and industrial still. It is up and coming. It is not as developed as HK or Clinton Hill north of 42^nd Street. The closest subways are 34^th Street A/​C/​E or the new 7 train station. It is a hike though.
Apartment:
I reserved a tour online at their parent company Equity Apartments. I met the representative on-​time and she showed me a studio. She was kind, bubbly, and helpful. The apartment was very nice and had exquisite finishings. Those extra touches that are worth the money… back splashes, washer/​dryer, lighting features, and stunning ceiling to floor windows. It is a new building and you can really tell its in excellent condition and modern! The building is rather small, which can be good or bad.
Nice experience, but just was not the area for me.

We moved into this building in December of 2014 and couldn’t be happier to call Mantena home. From our initial visit and move-​in and continued through to a transfer to a different unit in the building (different layout + terraces) the staff has bent over backwards to help us in any way we needed. Beth, Toni and Kristie have been a pleasure to work with every step of the way! The concierge staff and porters are wonderful. They’re all extremely friendly and attentive, always ready with a smile and «Have a good day» or «Welcome home.»
The apartments themselves are beautiful, modern, and clean. They’re very well constructed, so you almost never hear your neighbors. Any maintenance issues, which have been minor, are handled quickly. The building is well maintained and always clean and tidy in common areas.
I didn’t expect to like the neighborhood as much as I do, but it’s so convenient to transportation. The elementary school that we’re zoned for here has been wonderful for our two children. Having Brooklyn Fare right downstairs has been great, too, since we don’t have to cart bags of groceries for blocks.
All in all, we’re so glad to have found this building.

With all honesty, the staffing here, including some of the tenants are secretly racist.

I had lived in mantena in a studio apartment since ⁰⁷⁄₁₄ till ⁰²⁄₁₅ and unfortunately had to move out to a bigger apartment with my fiancé. I’m writing this review because it’s truly an amazing building and people that work there are very professional and super nice. The amenities in the building are new and expensive. Every apartment has a lot of closet space (my studio apt had 2 closets + 1 walking closet), washer+dryer, gym, beautiful rooftop and Brooklyn Fare downstairs that even do delivery to the building :) but what makes this building a truly luxury is the people that work there. Whatever issue I had, the response was always prompt. Beth, from the management office, always answered all e-​mails right away without leaving me wondering. Tony, the super, always helped with any problem I had (I didn’t have much but still). And the doorman team is super nice. They always smile, always in a good mood. You don’t find that much in New York. I highly recommend this building!

I am going on my second year here at Mantena and I will say it is one of the best places I have lived. The office staff is super friendly and extremely helpful. The doorman are great and all know me by name and always have the best treats for my dog. I would highly recommend this place to anyone.

My boyfriend and I had been Equity Residential residents at the Parc Coliseum, one of their Upper West Side buildings, for two years when we decided to make the move to midtown. Because our experience with the Parc Coliseum had been so fantastic, we wanted to stay within the Equity family so we began touring their midtown locations. The Mantena was far and away the most beautiful. While the gym was no great shakes and the 37^th street location left a little to be desired, the actual units were spectacular.
So when the price dropped drastically on a one bedroom, we immediately contacted the leasing agent who had toured us the first time. We came in to retour, and the leasing agent said that she couldn’t show us the actual unit that afternoon, but she could show us something comparable. All of the units had the same appliances, flooring etc, and we knew and trusted Equity so we signed a lease for the apartment sight unseen. BIG MISTAKE. We asked if there was anything wrong with the apartment that we should know about because the price seemed too good to be true for that building. «No,» the leasing agent told us.
We received a welcome e-​mail from the management a few days later. We even reserved the elevator for our move-​in date. Then, a week AFTER we had signed the lease, we received an email from the leasing agent that there was a problem with the current tenant and that we may not be able to move in for a month or so. No apology. Nothing. Just that the current resident had decided that she wasn’t going to move out on her previously agreed upon move date.
I could go into more detail about the story, but the gist of it is that we came to find out the woman was a SQUATTER, and the building had been trying for months to evict her. The eviction process in NYC can take up to a year by the way. They did not tell us ANY of this prior to signing the lease, and I’m not sure what they were doing putting the unit on the market when they knew they were in the middle of an eviction process.
This review is for the Mantena and the Mantena’s leasing office by the way — NOT for Equity in general. The higher level management at corporate offered us an apartment at a different building for the same price, but we decided to move to the Mercedes House — which has been awesome.
Do yourself a favor and pass on the Mantena. While it’s pretty, the building is incredibly mismanaged.

This place is a bit pricey but again you are in Manhattan.
The views from the community courtyard is defiantly nice for guests and sunbathing.
I would definitely recommend you walk your daily route if you intend to lease/​buy/​rent. As the train I normally caught was further than I preferred.
Small modern.
Friendly doorman. But I believe they have a very casual policy on who they let though. I’m sure anybody with a good excuse can get by.

Unfortunately, after spending close to a year at the Mantena (as its very first resident having moved in on May 15, 2012), I can in no way recommend that any person consider signing a lease here.
After much consideration, I’ve decided that the best way to provide a constructive review of the Mantena is to breakdown the points I want to cover into three categories. This will prevent this review from turning into a rant that unfairly criticizes the building or its maintenance and management team for a singular incident; I believe the Mantena has shown a consistent track record of problems that I will call out below.
As a warning, this review is long. If you’re seriously considering spending the ~$ 2,800 monthly (and more) that studios command here though (as of April 2013), keep in mind that the extra time spent reviewing the information I’ve provided could save you a significant amount of heartache in the future.
GENERAL BUILDING REVIEW
Grounds are beautiful (in my opinion) but there were/​are many issues with both my unit and larger building amenities. Major examples include, but are not limited to, the items below.
–Improper installation of refrigerator, stove, washer/​dryer, and AC leading to multiple failures and corresponding service requests. Not a large problem when each issue is considered separately, but together these problems have caused me a fair amount of lost time and discomfort.
–Basic unit design flaws such as a lack of proper shower curtains (glass barriers spanning only ~1/​3 of the tub). This may have been rectified as of this review, but I feel the need to document this issue because shower/​tub spillage in the unit above me caused severe water damage to my ceiling early on in my tenancy as documented in the Unilocal photo I’ve associated with this review page.
–Floorboards have started to separate from each other at the seams, leading to possible decay and splintering issues.
–Common areas/​amenities are seeing delays in delivery. Brooklyn Fare is still not open on the ground floor despite a marketing post about this amenity dated April 16, 2012 on the Mantena’s Facebook page (
). The roof deck only opened at the *end* of last summer and has its seating and lounge areas removed without warning as well. I’ve personally seen entire sections of the gym in states of non-​function also (e.g., all treadmills out of order).
STAFF AND SERVICE
–Super: Absolutely wonderful as he responds to any request ASAP and is very amiable. One of the few areas where I cannot provide any criticism.
–Doormen: High staff turnover and inconsistency of service provided. I believe the building rotates 8 doormen given the holiday staff tipping list. Original crew has been pretty much entirely replaced two times over in the past 11 months, meaning I have no idea who’s monitoring access to the building, securing packages, etc. Some doormen will go out of their way to help you, some will not acknowledge you with even a simple greeting unless very directly prompted.
**SECURITY**
This is the largest issue with living at the Mantena and a security-​related incident was the final problem that prompted me to actually share my experiences living here.
I was the victim of a burglary sometime between April 2, 2013 and April 7, 2013 at the Mantena while out-​of-​town. Facts of the ongoing NYPD investigation are presented below, please draw your own conclusions:
–The front door was the most likely entrance point and the deadbolt was engaged to the best of my recollection. Even if the deadbolt was not engaged, a key should be required to disengage the door’s auto-​locking mechanism. NYPD concluded that there were no signs of tampering or lockpicking, meaning a key was most likely used. I had both copies of my keys in my possession at the suspected time of the burglary. A third copy is held for use by building staff.
–Primary security camera recording system was not recording during the entire period I was away from home. Backup system may have footage, but is currently being reviewed (as of 4÷16÷2013).
–The system to make calls between the security desk and residents has not been functioning for several months (as of April 2013). As a result, the security desk no longer calls residents asking for permission to let a visitor into the building elevators or primary stairwell as was often the case during the first few months of my residency. It is my understanding that a sign-​in process is required for guests.
–NYPD is currently investigating two other burglaries in the building that occurred around the same time as mine.
To conclude, the Mantena has major problems that have cost me a significant amount of time, money, and property. With many similar luxury rental properties either open or set to open nearby, please review your options carefully before deciding whether or not you want to live here.