Columbus Square

I lived here for a few years in both 795 and 775
The apartments are beautiful (albeit very small). In 795 we had a view of the park, it was very well maintained and any maintenance requests were quickly responded to. What makes this apartment complex particularly great were the front desk — Super helpful, charming and just really nice people.
I have deducted two stars because of the management team. When we first moved in the leasing agent left out important information which would have made us reconsider leasing the apartment (regarding the break clause). I would suggest thoroughly ensuring you understand all clauses in full before signing a lease here.

We have been renting here for 8 weeks and 3 out of those weeks we had no hot water on the weekends until 1pm. Ruins your weekends.
Still no response from management, no prior notifications of maintenance work. Very poorly managed for the fact that they claim they are a luxury apartment living building

We moved into 808 as a panic move. A broker had made me literally cry about the state of my credit, so when 808 said it was fine, we took it. We should have searched more. The rent was far more than I wanted to pay, but I had saved money for the broker’s fees, so we decided it was a push. It was also less space than we needed. We took the largest 1 bedroom they offered and it was still too small. So for more money, we got less space. Unless you consider height space. I suppose it is, in a literal sense, but in a functional sense, the kitchen shelves were just stupid high. I needed a step ladder.
The entire kitchen experience, if you cook, was bad. We had to buy separate storage (from Ikea) for our actual food, as the cabinet space is so limited & inconvenient. The refrigerator was clearly bought in bulk when the manufacturer realized it was a dud. The door had no magnet. You will leave it open more than once. The layout of the place, like a tunnel, also makes cooking hot and unpleasant. And you’ll never get rid of the smell of what you made. But you’re paying too much in rent to go out, so you’re SOL.
They said that you could install ceiling fans, and if we were going to stay, I would have. The place holds heat — which is great in the winter, but the air conditioner situation was not okay. Loud and inconsistent. Even after I sent service requests. You had to keep it way down in the low 60’s to get relief. More $$$.
But anytime I had a service request, it was done by the next day. And the doormen were great. Friendly and helpful.
You do get access to the awesome landscaped outdoor space with comfortable furniture. We never used the pool. It seems to be used primarily for kids swim classes. Good for kids. Bad for tenants. The gym is small, but empty during the day. At night, forget about it.
And don’t take an apartment across the hall from the elevators. I’m not sure why they designed the building like a hotel, but you will hear them. Running up and down. All day. All night. They will haunt your dreams. And that’s strange, because whenever you need one, you will wait.
A note about the neighborhood. It is not the «Upper West Side.» It is a mall. A very loud mall. Proximity to the park is great, but the bodega situation is not. Luckily the Duane Reade sells some groceries. The Whole Foods is expensive, obviously, and can be a real time commitment after 4pm & weekends. And the building is around the corner from a police and possibly the busiest fire station in the city. It was so loud there. Just the traffic alone made it impossible to watch TV with the windows open.
And there appears to be more than bit of bitterness between 808 and the Park West Village Condos behind the building. Look, if I bought a condo there a million years ago and some giant corporation put a big glass slab between me and the park, I’d be pissed too. So they took away all the green space that we used to let our dogs play in and made a parking lot. That forced those of us who like to just get our business done in the am to a small patch of filthy grass covered in cigarette buts and garbage. Once, their building super even turned the sprinklers on me. Not cool. Who knows what will happen next. All I know is neither my dog or I wants to go all the way to the park first thing in the morning. And lord knows there’s no other green space in that overdeveloped area. Just something to consider if you have a «surface specific» dog. .
Do you like to cook? Do you work from home? Are you in a relationship? This place might not be for you. Are you single and wealthy? And rarely home? And appreciate the park and nearby subway stations? (²⁄₃ is express!!) This might be the place for you.

The leasing office steals money from your security deposit at the end of your lease by fabricating outrageous expenses. I was charged several 100s of dollars in cleaning fees, etc. after I had a maid come and clean the place top to bottom. I lost a key, which was apparently worth $ 150. Totally absurd!

The Leasing office is beyond unprofessional. They make viewing appointments without checking with the current resident if the time or day is ok. The doorman are the smartest people and so are the Maintenance staff. Unfortunatly, thats about all thats good of Columbus square. The elevator service sucks and some of the neighbors are crazy. If you have a dog, be prepared for the dog haters to whine. Its a dog friendly building, but Most people didn’t get the memo. Cheers.

I have lived at the 775 building for a year now and couldn’t be happier. The doormen are always friendly and the management is always there when you need them. I am moving now to a bigger apartment to the 808 building and the transition has been super easy thanks to the help from management. I could not be happier!

We have lived at 801 Amsterdam for just over a year. The lobby and corridors were both remodeled since we moved in and look good. Common outdoor space is impressive for Manhattan (large, real grass, tons of flowers). Gym is fine. We debated about living in one of the Columbus Sq buildings on Columbus Ave versus this one and ultimately chose Amsterdam because it was slightly less expensive at the time we signed up… glad we did. Amsterdam is closer to the trains we use for work and Columbus feels a bit like a mall, but really that just depends on your preference. It’s good to have all the big stores on Columbus close though. I have had all positive experiences with mgmt office and maintenance has been responsive and pretty quick. Yes, it’s expensive relative to older buildings or non-​doorman buildings, but it’s a good quality of life.

We have lived in both 808 and 795 Columbus, and moved in when the buildings were both brand new. Keep in mind that UDR recently acquired Columbus Square, so you will miss the smaller owner feel with meaningful conversations that could result in a more customized lease. UDR is big, corporate, cut and dry, my way or the highway, so don’t expect any personal touches. As a recent acquisition, UDR has two ways to make money; reduce costs and increase rents. They have done both.
Also keep in mind that when someone is giving kudos to the «management team,» that the people who show you the building and sign your lease are not the people who actually manage the building that you see daily. The Leasing Agents are great. The management team (those that actually manage the staff inside 795 and 808) are great. The UDR managers/​corp group is never on site (or if they are, I’ve yet to meet them since the purchase over a year ago), and they are not the people that are going to affect your life once your lease is signed.
Life is a tradeoff – here are the pros and cons as I see them:
PROS
— Great location (Close to A, B, 1, 2, 3 and Whole Foods, Duane Reade, more.)
— Newer buildings
— Good gym in 795
— Great Doormen/​Staff and Onsite Management (795)
— Close to Central Park
— Dog friendly
— Convenient parking
CONS
— Expensive
— Expensive parking
— Not well built for new construction
— Noisy (if you face Columbus it is noisy almost ²⁴⁄₇ — especially am rush hour)
If you’re looking for a ripping deal, amazingly friendly and accommodating management, convenience, over-​the-​top quality, quiet atmosphere, and chatty neighbors – you’re in the wrong city.

Columbus Square — 808 Columbus Avenue. Where should I begin?
Firstly, I am disappointed that I cannot give this building ⁰⁄₅ stars. If I could — I would.
I used to live 11 streets up north in 1 Morningside Dr., which was a great building. Sadly, I had to move and then decided that I would move to 808 Columbus Avenue. When I left Avalon Morningside Dr. I could not imagine that moving to 808 would result in a terrible experience.
I absolutely agree with much that had been written here in the different reviews.
I lived at 808 Columbus for 13 months and terminated my new lease (which I
Renewed just one month prior to my cancelation). You might ask what brought me to the point where I was willing to throw away $ 5,700 of termination fee?
Well, there are many reasons. The simplest answer would be: «it just isn’t worth it». And indeed, when you pay $ 2,870 per month for a tiny studio, you expect high returns. At 808 Columbus you won’t find these returns. Lets start with the pool, which is unavailable during much of the weekends due to recreational activities. Next, 4 out of my 6 drawers broke as a result of regular use, AC barely worked, smoke detectors activated when I cooked, and the list continues and the worst is to come.
At 808 Columbus you will find great and nice doormen — and that is pretty much the only good aspect. However, two of the current doormen won’t even say hello to you in the morning, and one of them once told me that I was not allowed to take my $ 6,000 bike out of the main door (he never repeated that, nor did any other doorman). You will indeed feel for times as if you live in a student’s dorm — The most expensive dorm in NYC.
Now, to the worst problem of them all, one they will probably forget to mention when you check out the apartments– The bedbug issue and 808 management’s customer care /​response to that. After 13 months of rent I found that I had bedbugs in my apartment. When I notified management, they indeed took quick action. I moved out of my apartment and paid $ 1700 for a hotel and $ 500 for laundry. After several treatment failures (sometimes my apartment wasn’t prepared properly by myself — I admit) another large treatment took place.
I placed my clean, dry-​cleaned clothes downstairs with the doorman because I did not want to pay extra $ 500 for another laundry. I did not imagine that the doorman would wake me up at 7:00 am telling me to come down immediately to pick up my stuff. When I asked him for one of my laundry bags — he asked about the others. I said that I’ll pick them up later. He told me that it’s not a storage and that he will take care of it. When I asked him if that was a threat he answered «yes».
I then called the management and told them that the bedbugs did not disappear. They in response gave me a 10-​minute speech why it is my fault. I asked them about any refund /​temporary living — and received the answer that «we talked to the exterminator and he said that you didn’t have to leave your apartment or go to a hotel, that’s why you won’t get any refund — neither for the laundry nor for the hotel». Go bedbug bites all over your body.
I thought about sitting at the front door with a sign stating that this building is infected with bedbugs and management won’t do anything beyond the minimum to help its residents. But I decided to give up the fight. Why would I fight a «luxury» building when I can find a much better place for the same or lower price?
I decided to leave 808 rather than paying additional 11 months of rent. I preferred to throw these $ 5,700 and find a better and higher utility/​$ apartment. I preferred to move to a place, which I will be able to call «home», a place where I will receive the positive attitude and service for which I am paying for. That is why I canceled my lease.
Later on, as I told the management about the ongoing bedbug issue and received the response that they did their best and that they will call the exterminator again once I leave the apartment for good (in a month) — insinuating that the issue won’t be taken care of until I leave. I wanted to thank them, as they just reaffirmed my thoughts and reconfirmed my decision.
I am sorry for the length of this review, as I find it absolutely crucial and necessary to share my experience with this building. It is especially important since living in this «luxury» building is far from cheap. Repeating myself, not only that it is extremely expensive, but you won’t receive anything worth the money.
Due to the length of this review I won’t go into the story when I talked to the management a day after I signed the letter saying I will renew my lease and asked about the option to withdraw it (Before I signed the lease). I received an aggressive response, completely rejecting my request and was then ignored via email. In any case, good luck finding an apartment. I am sorry it has come to this. Do yourself a favor and find another place. I did, and I am a happier person.

My husband and I recently moved out of these apartments after renting for 14 months. As other reviewers have stated, the apartments are nice and new but very poorly/​hastily built. And while the doormen and other staff are AMAZING, the management is by far, the absolutely worst I have ever dealt with in over 12 years of renting my own place.
Originally when we moved in, the original management ran the company, and things were ok. Yes, our rent was insane compared to anything else in the area, and it took several attempts (by phone and email) to get someone from management to come and go over some issues we had, but we were overall fairly happy. My only issue was the shiesty way in which our lease signing was handled– only upon our arrival to sign, were we informed that the lease was in fact 14 months (not 12). At this point we really had no choice but to agree, as we had no other apt options and were planning on moving the next day. I felt that this was an incredibly unsavory way to do business, but we resolved to let it go and enjoy our new home.
Then, things got worse. The new company came in and people started moving out. This complex consists of 4 buildings, all of which have large retail spaces at the bottom. Our apartment building housed a full grocery store in the bottom– one of our favorite things about it. When UDR came in, pay cuts for the entire staff ensued, already ridiculous rent prices were raised, and the building started to empty, including the downstairs grocery. When we moved out, UDR still hadn’t been able to rent a SINGLE open retail space in that building. A cost I’m sure will be passed along to it’s current residents and staff.
To make matters worse, our 14 month lease ended December 31^st, and oh, UDR doesn’t do month to month leases. They do not care that you’re moving in the worst time possible, between holidays, or that you never really had a choice but to sign a 14 month lease. If we wanted to stay, we would have had to sign a new lease, and pay a significantly higher rent than we were before. Left with no option, my husband and I were forced to move out between Christmas and New Years. We made it work, even with UDR making it difficult on us every step of the way.
Finally, as if all of that weren’t enough, they straight up GOUGED us for every single penny they could take before returning what was left of our security deposit. And this was done in what I consider the most dishonest and underhanded way possible. We never received a move out inspection, and then we were charged for things that were not wrong with the apartment. There was damage we were responsible for– a closet door that needed to be replaced. However, instead of having their maintenance team replace the door (which, btw, they had plenty of, as I saw several sitting in the maintenance hallway when we moved out), they brought in an outside contractor who charged much more than necessary– more than twice the amount if we had bought and replaced the door ourselves. This is all even more frustrating considering that our closet doors would come off the track and were in such bad shape that maintenance would have to come and put it back up on almost a MONTHLY basis. On top of all of that, for several months when I went into their online system to pay rent, it showed a lowered amount as due (about $ 30 – 60 less than normal). I mistakenly assumed that we were being credited for all of the promised amenities that never came to pass (check out the sign with «bowling alley» scratched out in the basement– real classy), and simply hit «pay in full» every month. Well, according to UDR, I was paying less than I should have, and as such our deposit was docked. However, I never once received notice that I wasn’t paying the amount of rent required– yet another incredibly shady move by the management. Initially, UDR was entirely unresponsive on these matters, and when we finally got a person that actually responded, my husband had to go back and forth with management for over a month to get it resolved (and by resolved, I mean, worked out to the point where we aren’t going to bother anymore– I am in no way satisfied with where things were left).
***If all of that is too much to read, hopefully you’ll just skip to the end, and I’ll summarize. UDR does not care about it’s tenants or staff, and they will find every and any way to take as much money from them as possible. DO NOT RENT FROM THEM! The buildings are beautiful and the door men are wonderful, but that will be the end of any good parts in your rental experience. Management’s complete lack of care for their tenants, and the dishonest and unprofessional way they handle things absolutely disgusts me. By the end of our lease my husband and I couldn’t wait to get out of there. The way UDR handled things left us with a sour taste in our mouths– we will never, ever consider renting from them again, and I caution anyone else to do the same.

the staff is wonderful, however the management is horrible. not responsive at all. you think you’re addressing robots. if you ever have a problem, they never call you back. ever since the building got sold to UDR, everything went downhill. our electricity bills have tripled. something smells here.

Speaking of 795 Columbus:
I moved in right when the building was opening and was attracted by the location, the fact it was new and the floorplan. I was said that we would be able to use the pool of 808, but this never happened, I also quickly found out that the apartment finish was really cheap… Nothing that bad though until Dec 2011 /​Jan 2012 when UDR took over from Columbus Square Managment. The staff (who BTW was really nice!) started to look demotivated by the new management (easy to understand when you Mngt!!) UDR changed the internal system for mail notification (didn’t work for weeks), started to raise the rents, didn’t just do what they are supposed to do in terms of Management: UDR’s job is only cash collecting and cost reducing… They don’t deal with questions or issues you may have… So if you feel like giving them more money for a weak service, go & rent there. If you like buildings that have consideration for both their staff and their tenants, find anything else… but UDR!
Also they like to keep deposit for very bad reasons!
Still the area is wonderful, you get all you need next door and that is worth 1 star :-)

All that glitters is not gold. We have lived in Columbus Square apartments since they were built. Recently, management changed. The new management, UDR, is raising rents, meanwhile the services and gym are going down, and the employees and staff are having their pay cut by 25%! Management depends on the tenants to pay the staff at the end of the year in Christmas tips — so they don’t have to pay the staff a living wage throughout the whole year. Meanwhile, the rents are being raised so high that people are moving out. So management is shafting its employees and its tenants at the same time. Be warned, if you live here, you will be expected to pay high rent, as well as pay the staff at the end of the year.
And the staff. They get treated very poorly here. They get fired if they complain about pay cuts. Please see below an email that was sent out to all tenants by a staff member on his way out the door. Renter beware:
From: 775 Columbus Concierge (Frontdesk)
Subject: Warning you are loosing the fallowing services!
June 1, 2012 3:48 PM
Hello too all our great tenant’s,
this message comes to you from one of your building concierge’s who is now a former concierge of your building due to the fact that our pay was recently lowered from 16 $ an HR to 12 $ an HR with no sick days or health care for us or our family’s. Which the reason you are seeing new face’s and people in your buildings and the front desk who you do not know. this is because guys are quitting or being fired for speaking out and letting you the tenants know whats really going on. We were threatened not to tell any of you what was done to us or what’s happening or we would loose our jobs, UDR has decided that we are not worth the 16 $ an HR that we were being paid before they now want cheaper labor which will results in less customer service and Professionalism for you.
We know not all of the concierges were perfect but most of us were good professionals and you know who those people were and who went out of their way to please you and help you because we understand we are here to provide you a service and that you are paying to have that service. Now since most of us are quitting or being fired you will have new concierge’s who do not have customer service skills or are educated working in your buildings who will have access to your Apartments with your spare keys in the keytrak and who will be handling your packages and belongings, we have been working with you since the buildings opened up we grew to know each other and care for each other but now most of us will leave or be fired because we can not live or support our family’s due to our pay being lowered.
We were not asking for a raise because we know we will never get one. We are just asking that our pay remain the same as it was and as it was agreed when we took these jobs and were hired for the positions. We were only given 1 weeks notice that our pay would be lowered. Our services to you were not valued by UDR and UDR doesn’t want to give you valued services they want to give you cheap service while you pay top dollar you have and will be getting less. Welcome to «UDR» your new «modern» living. Call UDR Management at 212−316−0808 if you think we the workers and you the tenants deserve this new way of UDR and «new modern living»
Thank you for your time, it was a great meeting and working with you and your family’s have a blessed day, your former concierge.

My complain is about 801 on Amsterdam ave!!!
My husband and I moved in when this building went up. Along with some of the door men not doing their jobs, some of the gym equipments are always out of order. If you are a gym rat or like working out, this is not the place to live.
The equipments have been out of order or not functioning properly for weeks.
Also the tenants adjust the temp to their workout needs, which is bad thing because some of them turn the temp. completely off, and the gym which is located in the sub cellar has no windows. Spoke to management and they said that they have no solution for that. Basically I should tell them don’t turn the air off. WTF I’m too busy and pay too much rent in this building… to fight with a tenant about temp control.
Also be aware!!! some of the tenants have trainers coming in for sessions and the gym becomes very crowded with no equipments available.
We are not renewing our lease at the end of the year, and we’re not recommending this as a place to live. We are going into 2 yrs of living in this building and we foresee the building services getting worst.