Apartment Reviews for Riverbend At Port Imperial - West New York

Having lived at Riverbend for several years - in a good position to rate the quality of services over different management personnel and time.
Pros
The location to the NY Waterways ferry places Riverbend as the closest location (4min walk) to the ferry to NYC. Additionally, NJ Transit buses stop right in front of the complex and the light rail is a short walk for trips to Hoboken and the PATH to NYC – if access to the city is important there is no better location
The addition of the A&P Fresh market brings a low stress, high quality food store along with other local store, this a five minute or less walk, depending on which building you live in.
The apartments range from five and six years to over twelve years old, again depending on which building you live in. The 25 building is poured concrete and the most resistant to noise transfer from unit to unit as well as fire protection. The other buildings are stick aluminum and less well built from a construction perspective but newer
The maintenance team is understaffed but really nice, efficient and attentive to residence issues. Repairs are entered via a website, called BuildingLink and my experience has always been positive with the professionalism and speed at which these folks deal with issues
Cons
There have been several management teams during the time lived here, they are mostly young and inexperienced. Clearly, some people are more receptive then others however, if you have lived in NYC, this is not a New York management company which I found to be more professional.
- The general attention to garbage around the complex is not great, cigarette butts and garbage from our forced neighbor: PF Changs, the chain restaurant means more litter.
- Since the restaurant shares a common entrance and egress as the people who pay to live here – it means there is a steady influx of cars that drive fast, take spots originally designated for residence and add to the overall diminished level of quality of the complex
- When the restaurant was built the administration at the time said there might be speed bumps installed to slow down traffic and hedges shielding the restaurant from the 25 building, these never were done.
- With hundreds of residences throughout the several buildings that make up the complex you would think there would be more then 3 luggage carts (one is now broken) for all residence use
- Fire alarms will go off during the winter, why it seems always at 3am in the morning when a water pipe breaks due to cold weather. Of course, the alarm rings for 30mins until the fire department gets here determines what we already know (that it’s a water piper) and turns it off, not great during a work week.
- Gym equipment will break and it may take months for a repair to occur
- You will pay $600 per year for amenities such as pools and gym rooms however, the whirlpools are often not working or never properly hot, i.e according to convention they should be 104 degrees (see: http://bit.ly/fSKHG)
- You are forced to pay about $100/month for TV and Internet (does not seem very fast) compared to my friends who have FIOS or Optimum Online which even if you want your own providers you cannot remove this charge from your yearly fees
I can only determine based on actions over a time period that the people who sell the apartments do not care to a level of customer service I and others I spoken with consider sufficient. Net, net I live here because it is convenient to access to NYC, the area is still relatively quite compared to Edgewater (to the North) and Hoboken (to the South) but the area if being built up and I can see in a couple of years will want to move to a better run, less dense location