Luxury renter's lament: No cream for my coffee

By anonymous downtown renter | June 11, 2010 - 7:30AM

In July 2009 I moved to a high-end luxury rental building that was about 60 percent full.

My two roommates and I thought we got an amazing deal for our $5,600 a month two-bedroom: We got a couple of months free in a great downtown building at the perfect time for us to move.

At the time the building had only been open about eight months, and they were still trying fill the place up. One of the nice perks they offered was breakfast in the roof lounge.

It was pretty popular. Every morning, from 7-10 am on weekdays, you’d have about 20 people in the area at any given time, either hanging out or having breakfast there.

There was a buffet of fruit, yogurts, a couple of different coffee stations with pods of coffee, a Nespresso machine, cereals, croissants, pitchers of juices, soy milk, skim milk, whole milk, bowls of creamers.

Two or three different attendants would refill everything and it was always replenished.

But lately, things have been different.

First the toaster broke. That took about a week to fix. Then the Nespresso machine would disappear and reappear over the course of a couple of months, or they would run out of espresso pods, and finally it went away for good.

Only one attendant was left.

Then I went up last week and there was no milk for my coffee and no cream. There was cranberry juice, a few croissants, coffee, tea. That’s it.

Since we moved in last summer, the building has filled up completely, so maybe that has something to do with it.

I’ve also noticed they’re not attending the roof as well.

Last summer it was a very popular place. There was a fireplace they used to turn on, and now they don’t. When you ask downstairs, they say someone will come up and turn it on, but they don’t.

And it’s very very dark up there at night because they stopped turning on a lot of the huge light fixtures on the roof.

The lobby is still really clean and the valet is great.

But, my lease is coming up in August.

I’m not sure why I would spend all this money if I’m not getting the same services.

And I guess I'm coming at it from a different perspective than last summer: This is my first luxury building. I’m not home that often anyway, so I’ve started to wonder whether spending all this money is worth it to me if I’m not around to enjoy it.

I guess it will depend on the price—I might be fine with the same rent and incentives, but otherwise I’ll have to start looking again.

And next time I go upstairs for breakfast I will bring my own milk.

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