Central and Oak Apartments

Overall, solid experience after 8-9 months of living here. Many of the older negative reviews are from 2021 when the building first opened—I haven’t had any major issues. It’s a quiet, pet-friendly, and diverse community.

Pros:
Maintenance & Staff: Quick and reliable. You can submit requests through the app or website, and someone usually follows up the next day. Had a few AC issues, but staff—especially Paul—has been great about resolving them.

Units: Spacious, modern, and well-maintained.... Everything still feels new. The layout and design are some of the best we saw in the area.

Location: Walkable to stores, restaurants, bars, and even the Rutherford train station (20 min walk or 2 min drive). Lots of dining options nearby and not overly expensive.

Cons:
Amenities: Definitely the weak spot. The gym is very limited, and there's no pool. Aside from a dog park and a couple of BBQs, there’s not much for the price.

Parking: Street parking is tight, even after new sticker rules. A garage is worth it if you have a car, but it’s $150/month. Street parking favors affordable housing units nearby (not the property's fault).

Train Noise: Trains pass frequently from early morning to past midnight. The horns can be very loud—sometimes you can’t hear your TV. You’ll likely get used to it, but it’s something to consider before moving in.

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When I first moved into Central & Oak, I was excited as I was picked through the affordable housing lottery. Before they switched management, I never had ANY problems. Until the new owners/management took over in 2021. They are rude, never answer your calls and not only that they IGNORE your emails. My apartment has cracks everywhere, the ceiling is literally falling and my cabinet in the kitchen is coming off the walls. They won’t return my calls when it comes to them fixing my ledger and I’ve... had enough. Please do not move here unless you want an apartment that’s falling apart. Read More

1. Noise.

Yes the trains can be heard throughout the day and night. It is
something you get used to over time. Proximity of train tracks, is
a negative, but location to everything else can outweigh that.

2. On Site Management.

There was a change in the management, and a major
improvement with that.

3. Constuction

i) Quality material and appliances.
ii) Installed and put together by cheap labor, and not specialized
contractors so you have to expect things to be a... little less
' refined'.

iii) Cheap constructions, or issues with materials allows ODORS
to easily pass/transfer into other apartments.
Someone smokes, cigarettes, cigars, or weed, and it's strong in
neighboring apartments (NON-SMOKING policy is ignored by
quite a few tenants in different buildings).
Not all in apartment door locks latch, and are misaligned.

iv) Detail in design and layout of apartments, was not the best
by the architects.

Lots of cabinet space, and counter space in kitchens.
NO drawers in the bathroom cabinets, just under sink space.

4. Dog run.

Not all the tenants use the dog run with their pets. They walk
the dogs off leash in other areas of the complex. Some dogs
run free.

5. Parking/Garages.

If you have a garage, you have to be aware that if someone parks
in front of your garage, you may get stuck, in, or out of the
garage. The only way to get someone to move the car, that's
blocking your garage is for management (in daytime hours only)
to send out an email asking tenants to get them to move the car,
or guest move it. You can try calling the towing company
yourself but good luck in getting them to respond.

6. Pacakage Deliveries.

There has been a lot of issue with package deliveries. Amazon is
meant to leave the packages in the mail area behind secure
doors. They have access through the doors, but don't use it.
Packages do go missing.

In summary.....

A good place to stay if you are lucky to get an apartment, or block
with less issues from the list above. If you don't like any outside noise then this is not the place for you. Location is great and close
to all the local amenities. Read More

I do not say this lightly, I strongly advise anyone thinking of signing a lease here to read the below review of a current tenant in this "luxury" apartment complex. All though there are a laundry list of problems that cause serious concern on a daily basis I will highlight the three major issues, in importance.

1) Prior to moving here, I lived on First Avenue in Manhattan for three years. The decibel level of noise from the train line less than 100 feet outside of the cheap "double paned"... windows is multiple times louder. There are over three dozen trains that pass the complex each day and each and every time they blow their horn 8 times. That is almost 300 horn noises every single day and night (the train runs all night). Put this in perspective, after living in Manhattan for three years the noise issue here is much more of a concern than it ever was there.

2) The management company is completely and utterly out of their league when it comes to this complex. Every single email that I have sent has been ignored initially and only responded to upon multiple follow ups. Examples of emails that go ignored. THE ENTIRE COMPLEX SMELLS LIKE MARIJUANA. Due to the cheap materials and construction of this complex the walls are extremely thin allowing any smell to seep out of your unit and into the unit next to yours. Furthermore, trash is being thrown all over the complex and not being picked up for days on end. Next, packages are being stolen from the lobby! This place is an absolute disaster and whoever owns the complex NEEDS to clean house because i assure you that not a single tenant will resign a lease here.

3) Extremely expensive. I am paying more money to live in this overpriced, pseudo luxury apartment than I was in Manhattan ! I understand that this is bergen county (barely) and that costs are high but this place is exorbitantly priced. There are "luxury" apartment complexes popping up all over north jersey and believe me when i say there is absolutely nothing that positively distinguishes this one from any of the rest.

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Where to begin? While the apartments themselves are beautiful, the construction is cheaply done. Our brand new apartment has cracks in the bathroom tiles, dents in the refrigerator and paint chipped off the wall. All of this would be forgivable if the management was minorly competent.
To begin, we signed our lease in July for a December 31st move in. This has been delayed and moved around multiple times and we are still not in our apartment.
Central and Oak did provide us with a temporary... apartment to live in in a different building, however it was using our free month promotion that everyone else got for signing a lease. We weren't compensated at all for having to sign two leases, moving all of our belongings twice, all the days off from work to move, having internet set up twice, moving our pets twice and frankly the lack of compassion and professionalism from the entire team. To top everything off, when we signed our original lease in the summer we were told our apartment would have a garage and storage unit. We find out the week before our move in date that there is no storage unit for our apartment, meaning we signed this lease under multiple false pretenses.
When we met with Ivy in the office to sign paperwork, she was scatterbrained and unsympathetic. When I explained our situation to her she pretended like she was unaware. She did not so much as offer an I'm sorry you're going through this. She put the blame off and was confrontational and did not offer to help at all. Suggesting we put our complaints in an email to her and she'll send it off. Being as she has proved her incompetency at her job, we will be contacting Sterling ourselves. The whole experience was very unsettling as she obviously can not handle the demands of the job.
Finally move in day: the keys to the apartment do not work, the elevator does not work and our assigned storage unit does not exist. When we spoke to Ivy about this all she again offered no assistance, only excuses.
After all that we have been through with Central and Oak, we have been offered no free utilities, no moving compensation, no free rent and no upgrade in apartment and quite frankly not so much as an I'm sorry. We have been met at every turn with miscommunication and incompetence. Again, while the apartments are beautiful, I spent my time writing this to warn everyone as I wish I have been warned. Stay away until management changes. Read More