Sterling Plaza Condo

Advice to Family/Friends: Avoid Sterling Plaza!

We bought a condo unit in this building approximately five years ago and we have resided in this building since then (as a primary residence). The location is quite good, it's close to the subways and Grand Central. But for everything else, we have been generally disappointed with the overall experience of living in this building. The board/management, the community, and the value-retention aspects have been disappointing.<br/><br/>(For context, we also own condo units in other towns/states - so, we are seasoned condo owners who know what we should expect)<br/><br/>Let's start with the board. We found the board of this building to be very slow, bureaucratic, and unreasonable - relative to other comparable buildings in the neighborhood. Paperwork takes significantly longer than expected every time, for everything: subletting, renovating, moving in and out with the service elevator, etc. There is no reachable, clearly-defined point of contact who will liaise with residents when issues arise. Residents are supposed to submit everything in paper form to "the board" which operates like a mysterious black box. And this leads to the next issue: transparency (or the seriously lack thereof). The residents have no clue who specifically are working on the paperwork when they go to the board. There is zero accountability for deadlines and quality of service on the part of the board. Moreover, the tone of communications from the board has never been polite.<br/><br/>Next, the community. There isn't much of a community because there isn't much public space or amenities over which the residents can interact. One such space is Laundry Room. And believe us, the interactions in there are never cordial or relaxing. Folks are super defensive, territorial, and always stressed out and frustrated (probably from dealing with the board). The environment is not yet "toxic" - but it's getting there.<br/><br/>What else? The value-retention aspect of this building is just not what it once was or what it was purported to be by the real estate agents. We were told this was a good investment and that our unit would gain value over time. Quite the opposite. Our purchase here turned out to be quite a poor investment choice. The reason is that there have been so many (and there will be many more) new high-rise luxury condo developments popping up in the neighborhood. All the new buildings have higher ceilings, modern designs, better amenities, better service, etc. The buyers in the market will always lean towards the newer, better buildings.<br/><br/>Lately, family and friends have been asking us whether they should buy something in the same building and become our neighbors. We wanted to say yes. We wanted to be excited about it. But given all the reasons and reservations detailed above, we just couldn�t.<br/><br/>Our recommendation is to look elsewhere in the same neighborhood. There are tons of great buildings out there. Explore them all.