345 W 30TH ST, Manhattan, NY 10001

This building, like all the other similar ones, has gone up in rental price considerably. I moved in in the Spring 0f 1995 at $950.00 and when I vacated in late Spring 2005 my final rent was close to hi $1300.00s. The building is all alcove studios except for the 2 PH units which are like 4 rooms with terraces. There is no gas in the building, all untis are a combo electric heat/A/C and all units have electric stoves. The A/C units are very old - hte original units since the building opened in 1988 - and mosty work poorly. The windows are the vertical sliders with no screens and no real way to install your own A/C unit which is a drag. I suffered with the A/C unit and paid to have it cleaned and upgraded myself, which the landlord refused to pay for. The unit really needed to be replaced. The laundry room is worthless, there are only 2 washers and 2 dryers for the entire building and they are Speed Queens, which merely swish around the dirty water and never clean the clothes. The good news - you can usually get a machine as most tenants send their wash out. Pets are allowed and there is a super who lives in the sister building down the block - 309 W 30 Street. The other sister building on the block is 337 W 30th. The block started to really change for the good in the late 90s, but by 2005 things were starting to get back to sketchy again - when Midtown South - the neighborhood precinct - had cut down on the beat cops. When I first moved in we had a specific beat cop assigned, his name was Billy Melendez or something similar. All in all I would recommend the units but not if you are required to pay above $1500.00 and paying a brokers fee. Parking on the street is impossible and if you live in the front it can be noisy. There was a halfway house/crack house next store at 341 West 30 St that wasn't there when I first moved in; it came late - in 2002. Previously it had been full of older Maritime veterens who where almost invisible, but they eventually died off. The owner of the building couldn't sell it so he worked out a deal with Malibu Hotels Corp and they moved recovering addicts/AIDS patients in for 28 - 30 days. It was a very transient type environment with these supposed recovering addicts still selling drugs out the windows of the building. It was a nightmare for most of the block, not sure if it has been rectified. They were hanging out on the stoop until all hours of the night and the cops were no where to be found. This definately deterred and undid all of the positive aspects of the block and the neighborhood. In 1995 there were crack houses that disappeared by the late 90s, but this one was really a horror. I would check out the block before renting paying special attention to 341 and what it is being used for now.