Madox Apartments 198 Van Vorst Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302

"Update: I increased the number of stars from 1 to 3 because they seem to have got the service around, including having a dedicated service team. Things are now working and getting fixed around the building. I'll perhaps increase even more if time proves these are lasting changes. Past: The concierge are amazing. Peter was great, Antonio is superb, and Pablo is heartwarming. That's where the perks of Madox start and end. For reference, I've lived here for 3 years. Here's my spiel, the building is utterly neglected by corporate and management and I do not recommend you live here. For essentially the 6th consecutive month, there's again, no hot water. The interior walls/decor is all in shambles as it is either broken or water damaged with sloppy paint-overs. The elevator interiors have been broken for over 10 months. The gym equipment is out of date or second-hand. The common room is antiquated. The playroom is a filthy mess. Your money will be going straight to equity holders as they allow the building to crumble until renovations are mandated in force by either the city or the residents. It's pathetic, really. There are two adjacent buildings originally built by the same company at the same time. They are in a much better condition, presumably because they aren't owned by Equity."

"Been here 3 years and used to like it but now am excited to leave. It’s actually a pretty great building if management gets their act together and fixes the water boiler. If you live here, make sure to choose a unit that doesn’t face the train - it’s very loud. Self-guided tours are great and convenient - but in reality it’s an indication of this building being understaffed. They’ve fired so many people here - and now don’t even have people to tour, let alone deal with issues that come up over time. Pros: front desk staff, large units, full size washer/dryer, substantially less expensive than competitors, white/clean looking units, quiet part of the neighborhood Cons: water boilers are down - this building hasn’t had hot water in months, maintenance team takes 2 weeks to fulfill any simple request, no onsite management whatsoever (everything is at offsite at their bigger buildings in the area), light rail is very loud and runs 24/7, far walk from path, the owner is a publicly traded company which you’ll notice rather quickly in the tone when dealing with them"

"Initially we loved living in the Madox but the maintenance issues have really made the building a nightmare to live in. Our dishwasher has been broken for a month and when we follow up to see when maintenance is coming, we are told my management that a dishwasher is low priority on their list since tenants can hand wash all of their dishes as an alternative…. It seems like after a year living here, all of the appliances started falling apart. Our dishwasher is completely broken, ice machine does not work, and our dry vent has been broken for weeks. Additionally, the elevator to the roof has been broken for 6 months. Really it’s becoming comical how much is broken and how little management does to fix the issues. The front desk team is amazing though!!"

"I am a current resident. I have never written negative reviews on Google and always try my best to negotiate with relevant parties instead of go ahead and post something public. But this time I have to say probably the only good thing for this building is our amazing concierge personnel. Antonio, Pablo, Alma are all great. I have been staying for a bit less than 4 months. My experience is it is close to impossible to get things fixed if anything goes wrong in your apartment. Since I moved in my washer smells very moldy. It takes infinite amount of back and forth to get to the conclusion the washer needs to be replaced (which they agreed). But it was never replaced until today. It was not possible to get someone to come and do it. I had to hand wash some of my clothes because they smell moldy with the washer. There is a water leakage in my closet since last week. After submitting a service request, someone came and had a look but nothing was done to stop the leakage. It is still leaking today. But magically my service request on the leaking was marked as 'done/fixed' in the system! By the way I also lost gas on my stove. I realize so when I prepared my ingredients and about the start cooking dinner. Reported to the building but haven't heard from them after three days. If the concierge help to call the maintenance, I was told 'some one will come today', 'we will come now'. No one ever showed up so far. So in less than 4 months this is the amount of challenges you may have - moldy washer, water leakage, no gas. The things above are not all the problems I've experienced - I can easily count several more that are equally annoying but just maybe not quite as a safety/health hazard.\ No, I dont advice you to rent from this building."

"We have had a very mixed experience here (current resident, Aug 2023). We love the location and the neighborhood. We haven't had any issues with neighbors, the communal spaces are nice, the laundry machines in unit are a big plus. We had a baby this year and have enjoyed getting to know the parent/child/nanny community here. The biggest plus is that the front desk staff are all amazing: Antonio, Pablo, Alma- they're all great. They're all professional, make you feel at home, go the extra mile, remember your apartment number, etc. Antonio and Pablo in particular helped us out by making calls and following up when our service requests were not being addressed on time. Which brings me to the downside. Service requests about important items are not being addressed in a timely manner (~2 weeks each for a broken toilet and for an AC unit infested with black mold). This is just unacceptable and a lot of the residents complain to each other about various service issues. This seems to be the biggest problem. I have the feeling they have too many buildings to manage (3 in the same vicinity) for the amount of staff they have. If they would hire a whole bunch of new people and address that issue and whatever is behind it, it would be a great place to live."