Ebbets Field Apartments get a make over

whynot_31

NYC has been getting better about starting capital projects, such as playground renovations:   http://comptroller.nyc.gov/newsroom/comptroller-stringer-city-made-progress-in-starting-capital-projects-in-fy-2015/

New units at 47 McKeever continue to be listed:   http://www.apartments.com/ebbetts-field-brooklyn-ny/xge34sq/

pragmaticguy

I looked at a few of the photos. If you notice the bathroom, no medicine cabinet, no vanity which means there's no storage in there for essentials. Just another way they're cutting costs and charging crazy rents.

whynot_31

I see that a lot in apartments where the bathrooms are shared by unrelated persons.   Basically, the bedrooms are private space where you keep your stuff.

On the other hand places like bathrooms, the living room and the kitchen are places that you are to leave as you found them.   You don't leave any stuff there.

...they are building it for this market.

pragmaticguy

Sorry to disagree, I don't think it's too much to ask to have some space to put deodorant or some such stuff. It's the equivalent of saying each person in the apartment should have their own refrigerator because one of the others might take your food.

whynot_31

The young, transient folks don't know their roommates well, so locks on bedroom doors are not uncommon.

The kitchen does not have much food in it.   There are things that don't spoil:  Condiments.   Ramen. Pasta.

Most food is delivered or eaten outside of the apartment.

Don't leave dishes in the sink.  Ever.

pragmaticguy

It doesn't appear that these apartments are catering to the transient lifestyle. That's what that other guy was trying to do with the short term rentals that there was a thread about on here. I wonder what ever happened with that.

whynot_31

Those "co-living" apartments were shared to the degree that they had a common kitchen and bathrooms for 19 people.    Those folks are really transient, and don't have to a sign a lease.

...if young folks split these, they will get a little more privacy and less expectation of "community".   They must sign a lease.

 

 

whynot_31

Local politicians are now concerned about the fate of the low income tenants that they have organized legal clinics:

From Renee Collymore:
Attention all tenants...I am sponsoring a Pro Bono Legal event Monday, June 27 at Ebbets Field 1700 Bedford Ave (Crown Heights) 6:30pm. Our team of qualified attorney's will gladly offer legal advice & guidance to help us with through issues such as tenant rights, criminal, housing, child support, etc. COMPLETELY FREE!!!

mugofmead111

pragmaticguy said:

I looked at a few of the photos. If you notice the bathroom, no medicine cabinet, no vanity which means there's no storage in there for essentials. Just another way they're cutting costs and charging crazy rents.

I think the renovated unit has a medicine cabinet in the bathroom; it's just hidden behind that shiny mirror.

The medicine cabinets in unrenovated units also are covered with mirrors.

mugofmead111

whynot_31 said:

Local politicians are now concerned about the fate of the low income tenants that they have organized legal clinics: From Renee Collymore: Attention all tenants...I am sponsoring a Pro Bono Legal event Monday, June 27 at Ebbets Field 1700 Bedford Ave (Crown Heights) 6:30pm. Our team of qualified attorney's will gladly offer legal advice & guidance to help us with through issues such as tenant rights, criminal, housing, child support, etc. COMPLETELY FREE!!!

Renee Collymore's people have been flyering the complex.

mugofmead111

pragmaticguy said:

I looked at a few of the photos. If you notice the bathroom, no medicine cabinet, no vanity which means there's no storage in there for essentials. Just another way they're cutting costs and charging crazy rents.

The bathrooms in unrenovated units don't have vanities either; just the sink. In a one bedroom at least, there isn't much space for one. 

The tenant(s) may have to go out and spring for something like this:

Just hope nothing falls into the toilet.

whynot_31

She wants to be Democratic District Leader again.

http://www.reneecollymore.com/

mugofmead111

whynot_31 said:

Most food is delivered or eaten outside of the apartment.

It'd be great if (even) more attractive dining out options came into the area. 

Photo 11 in this series is the lobby where Bill de Blasio and Carl Heastie had that photo op, I believe.

whynot_31

Restaurants are starting to populate the stretch of Flatbush between Empire and Hawthorne.  

That series shows an apartment that many renters would love to rent.

mugofmead111

Restaurants may be popping up but how long will they stay?

Look at the complaints on that website though.

whynot_31

This one seems credible to me:

"Horribly and direspectfully Adminitrated! Bamboozeled!

Delete

I was told the apartment would be renovated. But it was just patched up. The cabinets were filthy from previous tenant. Paint was applied over dirty surfaces. toilet was black, bedroom is VERY drafty, windows had 3 + years of soot. Bathroom is patched up in caulk. Caulk and grout was put on top of moldy dirty grout...so it fell off and peeled immediately. Thick caulk used to patch up every where. Roaches, Mice will be your housemates. Administration and maintenance will give you the run around, and even lie to say you never put in a maintenance request in the first place. They will only come 9am to 5, and not even on that day. So you need to take 2 days off to sit and wait for someone to come, and not solve your problem. The Real estate agents were nice, but that has nothing to do with the reality of living here. They are trying to gentrify this building so they treat all new and old tenants alike, badly and like we are unintelligent."

whynot_31

I expect it will take quite a while for the management and maintenance staff to "adjust" to a tenant base that is paying market rents and demands services consistent with those rents.

Retraining?

Additional staff?

Firing?

...or just constant turnover among the market rate units? 

mugofmead111

I suspect the last option.

whynot_31

Here's a photo of Renee Collymore's legal help session at Ebbets Field last night.

 I assume she took the photo.

whynot_31

Ebbets was considered by the tenant featured in this Sunday's NYT "The Hunt" column.  I added the highlighting:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/realestate/a-bed-stuy-apartment-well-known-terrain.html?_r=0

quote:

Ms. Fenton had grown up in the Ebbets Field Apartments, a large complex opened in 1962 in Crown Heights on the former field of the Brooklyn Dodgers. A renovated two-bedroom rented for $1,900 a month, including all utilities except for air-conditioning.

Growing up, she said, “we had a good experience in that building, but the apartments were, at that point, running down.”

“The quality was kind of shifting and in order for me to go back there, changes would have had to be drastic,” she added. “The grounds still weren’t very well kept, but the apartment was renovated and that was the draw.”

Still, “the agent fee was the barrier,” she said. “You couldn’t get into the building without the agent.”

<endquote>

All of which is to say, this might not go as quickly as the managing agents of Ebbets would like.    They may need to step it up. 

whynot_31

The playground reopened a few weeks ago, and is once again well used.

whynot_31

Today, Ebbets Field was in the news as a result of building conditions:

http://pix11.com/2016/09/21/tenants-outraged-over-elevator-upgrade-fee-despite-buildings-disrepair/

A little googling indicated that a bedroom in a 3BR apartment is presently being split for as low as $850 to $1350.

$850 per month room to rent in Ebbets Field Houses available from ...

...which is certainly within the reach of transient recent college graduates.

mugofmead111

The water was shut off on Wednesday due to repairs. Tenants were notified a few days beforehand via memo. 

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Rat Information portal contains information about whether or not signs of rats were found at the complex. (They were)

whynot_31

I can't imagine a complex that large not having rats.

whynot_31

Several apartments now have no cooking gas.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/ebbets-field-apartments/no-gas/1016728225100579

whynot_31

The management company is reportedly pursuing eviction for rule violations and payment issues, that it previously did not.

I have been told that the tenant mix is changing and that crime is less of a concern now than it was just 2 years ago.

I would love to read a well written piece that tracked tenants who have left.

Where do they go?

whynot_31

While I would not describe preferential rent as a loophole, this article does accurately describe the changes presently occurring at Ebbets Field.  

 https://www.propublica.org/article/new-york-landlords-exploit-loophole-to-hike-rents-despite-freeze

whynot_31

Cumbo knows where the voters live:   https://cmlauriecumbo.wordpress.com/2017/05/04/state-of-the-district-2017/

..she knows she can't save them from their landlord taking away their preferential rent, but also knows she needs to be seen as helping them. 

mugofmead111

I am trying to understand why tenants who agreed to preferential rent see it as such a crisis.

dac545

As long as the landlord makes it clear what the max legal rent is and then the difference vs the preferential rate, I don't think it's a crisis at all.  

If that isn't made clear, it would definitely be shocking to have your rent double when you thought that it would be more in the range of 1-2%.