Citizen Linden

"2 year update: there's been lots of ups and downs with this building covered in other reviews which are accurate for the most part, but overall it's a decent place to temporarily reside. The facilities are nice if you ever get around to using em (we hardly do). Overall the rent increases are still a pain point and at this point I just look forward to leaving. I almost feel like tenants are encouraged to leave, given that contract incentives/benefits are a one-off thing. New apartment building with a ton of amazing amenities; - A zen courtyard, as well as a separate courtyard for grilling, hanging out and having fun (pool table and table tennis) - The lobby, gym and work areas are spacious, modern and well-maintained so far. - Very pet-friendly - The building itself is located near a hub of places with many restaurant options and a mini mall + AMC theater within a few miles radius. Also you can just hop in a train down the street, and end up in Manhattan within an hour."

"It seems the owner is trying to exempt itself from responsibility by saying they reached out to me (which they did) and never got a response (which is untrue). Typical treatment I would expect after living there for 15 months and seeing how they operate. In any case, here is my copy and paste of what I responded to them: - I constantly heard my upstairs neighbors walking, which is normal. My downstairs neighbor was constantly complaining about me walking. I was walking, mind you - not running, not jumping. For the last 8 months of my lease I had to tiptoe and constantly wear socks for the complaints to stop. The property manager never really checked in to see if my level of noise was unreasonable, and just mindlessly forwarded any complaints to me alongside a threat of enforcing making me pay for carpeting my entire apartment. - I kept hearing stories about other residents getting their food orders stolen and, after checking cameras, the property manager was unwilling to confront the thief and instead let the victim know they should call the police. - The frequent fire alarms is a no-brainer: I assume you need no explanation here. Even after it was astoundingly obvious that the fire alarms had an issue, the only response we'd get is that the property manager was legally prohibited from tampering with it. - The constant fear of having other people parked in my spot - this never happened to me but happened constantly in the community as you might have heard. - There was a lot of dog poop that dog owners didn't pick up from the back area and dog park. Never heard of anyone getting fined for it, and no other enforcement was done. - Trash rooms needed to be emptied out more frequently, and it got pretty disgusting on the weekends when the chute filled up and residents would just throw their trash on the floor. - The elevator I used to take was the service elevator which was close to the dog park. It constantly reeked of dog urine there, and I felt they wouldn't properly clean it up (not as much as the main elevator) simply because prospective renters didn't go through there. I was quite embarrassed when I had visitors and had to go through there. There were other smaller things but those are the main ones. With such a long list of problems, you can imagine how I felt paying $3.4k to live there."

"We don’t usually do reviews but a new property manager has joined the team in September 2023 and all we can say is thank you. She took on this role with authority and class. Since she started, we have felt and seen the difference. She is trying to make it into an upscale community again. Her holiday party was the best so far. The one before hers was a classless disaster so we are very thankful. She listens to the tenants and is very responsive. If you are looking for an upscale, community feeling building, then Citizen Linden is it. We believe this is Emily’s goal and can see it progressing. Thank you Emily, glad you are still sticking around. Keep up the great work. Thank you."

"I moved in when they just opened and left a year after, sept 23. Wish I broke the lease sooner. Marketed as luxury apartment, but FAR from it. TWO Critical pieces that I will highlight for any residency to be considered "luxury". That is the actual properties themselves, the quality of the apartments, finishing, amenities etc. AND the living experience: how is the property management team and the service they provide?, how are the other residents and what does the property management team do to ensure a peaceful, SAFE living environment. Both of these are found to be severely lacking here. Property management team has already seen turnover, and although the new team "communicates" via email on probably less than half the complaints, I've seen no action plan or improvement. A resident in the past stole my delivery of over $70 dollars, and I went to the property management team. The property manager, Shanette Jones, is both incompetent and unprofessional. Wherever she has gone to next, I pray for the residents in that apartment. I literally had to force her to check the cameras. She told me she recognized which resident had stolen my delivery but refused to disclose a name OR mediate a peaceful reconciliation. Instead, she told me to submit a police report (basically go F myself) AND then told the culprit that it would be okay for 3 grown men to pull up to my apartment at 8 PM at night and try to convince my that it was a mistake when my apartment was isolated by the elevator. Way to protect your friends that commit crimes, and disturb my peace and make my partner and I feel endangered. Residents invite their guests to park in other people's assigned PAID parking spots that aren't theirs, this is a habitual issue. Property management makes "threats" of towing vehicles without even having a towing company they've partnered with (to this day I’ve never seen a single car towed). Halls reek of marijuana constantly, multieple incidents where fire alarms are set off past 11 PM, and property management said they found cigarette butts in the male lobby bathroom. BUT NO COURSE OF ACTION was outlined. What confidence can residents have in the property management team to ensure issues like these don't happen again??? None. Residents seem to struggle with the responsibility of putting garbage bags down the actual chute. Flies literally plague these rooms, simply because one cannot put a garbage bag full of food down a chute. Found a dead RAT in the stairwell left to decompose. And when no one can enforce even what should be common etiquette, just leaves you to imagine what else could be going wrong here. Property management gets complaints, says they will do something or "fine' them, but these issues are still plaguing this apartment. I have not even gone into detail on the property and how bad of a job the builders did. 2 -3 years will wear this place down horribly. Floors are extremely thin, detailing on walls and windows were left dusty and dirty on move in (luckily we took pictures on move in, in case they try to put this on us). Door stoppers break ALL THE TIME. Worst thing was on move-in the bathrooms smelled like SEWAGE. DO NOT COME HERE, you can get something better at these prices in places like Metro/Meridia in Rahway...actually cheaper. Meridia saves me about 400 dollars and gives a fullsized gym. I got more photos, videos, email receipts of everything so would love to see Citizen try and address this. 3.5 stars?! get outta here."

"So had an appointment for 4.15 pm. No one is at the leasing office after a 10 minute wait in the cold from 4.10 to 4.20 pm despite having an appointment for a physical tour. Pressed the bell 20 times . Pictures below of empty leasing office at 4.10 pm. The phone system at the door is also a joke, you dial leasing and it asks to press a button for the leasing manager without a dial pad to press a button! It would be comical if it wasn’t for the time I wasted. First impression was an awful one. Now I see why so many bad reviews exist for this building."