Southside Associates

SNEAKY. Going by different names? Not ok! I know them as Garden Management —
By far, one of the worst experiences I’ve ever had with building management.
When our roommates moved in, the apartment was filthy. They had to deep clean the entire place on their own. They also found several repairs which needed to be addressed.
We moved in a few weeks later, and on our first night, we had issues with the superintendent’s assistant who lives in the basement. He threatened to harm tenants if they called the police (who had been recently called to the building due to his loud music and violent altercations).
These issues with the assistant have persisted, and the superintendent has done nothing to remedy them.
We contacted the landlord (Frady) to address the issues, and they have been dodging my calls, my emails, and have not taken any further actions to ensure our safety and security from this individual.
Do NOT use this agency, they are irresponsible, and will not return your calls.
Worst experience I’ve ever had with a landlord.

Daniel M. with a five star review vs. 4 reviews that are terrible claiming everyone else’s reviews are one account. Hmmm… and he’s the only one NOT in New York… that’s a tough case to make.
Garden Management and Southside Associates are one and the same — it says so on the very building where you would sign your lease. My experience with these guys has been pretty terrible. Not sure if that is just all landlords in Brooklyn or if it’s just this company. Nothing super shady yet — just a bunch of neglect and a lack of caring about tenants.
In the name of transparency I will update this review for apartment hunters and will include names of people who have orchestrated our lease and management we’ve dealt with. For better or worse. You should know who you are entering into agreements with.

BEWARE! This management company is now going by the name of Garden Management. I had a lease through Southside Associates at 315 Seigel St. for four years from 2010 to 2014. My lease was set to end Feb 28, 2014 and I chose not to renew because after this last rent increase, they had increased the rent $ 750 in the four years I had been there. After the murder of Max Stark, or Menachem Stark, I was informed mid-​January that a new management company called Mazeh Realty would be taking over.
Upon move out, I contacted the new management company to get my security deposit and have been receiving the runaround ever since. They are telling me that the previous management company (Southside Associates) was claiming to not have any of the security deposits, meanwhile after I called Southside (now Garden Management), they told me they that they cannot pay me, had transferred all of the deposits to the new management company, and that they should pay me.
This is absolutely unacceptable and extremely shady. DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH EITHER OF THESE MANAGEMENT COMPANIES. Save yourself the trouble and loss of money.

Any good review on this management company is by people being paid by the management company, FYI. DONT FALL FOR IT

IGNORE THE NEGATIVE REVIEWS! I know firsthand that they are written by one disgruntled tenant who has multiple Unilocal accounts. Unilocal is in the process of removing these. Max Stark is a real genuine righteous man. Due to losing my job, I was unable to pay rent, and he allowed me to live in his building rent free for 6 months. Who else would even consider doing something like that?

I lived at 265 South 2^nd St. for five years — the plumbing was a nightmare. The first-​floor was overrun with BIG ASS RATS. Electricity would randomly be shut off for days at a time … The stairwells were crumbling (you could see daylight through them) … The poor ONE-​MAN-​SHOW maintenance guy could only do so much to help (after I tracked him down at his basement hovel) as calls to the (mis)management office always went unanswered. Max might have been a «great man» — but he was also a slumlord.

UPDATE: So this happened.
This more than anything should be enough to convince anyone not to do business with this company.
And Max was a criminal scumbag, but he didn’t deserve that. And his family doesn’t deserve that.
I only wish he treated his tenants with the same respect and generosity that he treated those close to him.
Original review:
Think of every terrible stereotype and characterization you can possibly imagine when the phrase «New York City slumlords» enters your head.
Be comfortable in the fact that Southside Associates embodies every single one of these attributes.
Our building is not a legal residency, instead being zoned for commercial/​industrial purposes. Our efforts to make the building protected under the loft laws were unrecognized by SSA. The building itself has open citations from the Department of Buildings going as far back as 1996, and it’s only a matter of time before it goes the way of the notorious Sweater Factory.
Our building’s freight elevator and our floor’s central heating were nonfunctional during our entire residency, and all entreaties to them to fix the amenities that we had been promised upon moving in went unheeded. It may have saved them a bit of scratch in the short-​term, but during the winter we could see our own breath at night.
Our unit was overrun with leaks, one of which was directly above our water heater. These leaks were never once repaired during our entire tenancy.
We have had multiple problems with vermin, including mice, rats, and cockroaches. Somehow, we were spared bedbugs. We received no help from SSA and had to undertake extermination ourselves.
A long-​term vacancy in our basement led to our electric bill being misestimated by the power company for an entire year, due to their inability to enter the building caused by SSA’s complete negligence for the comfort and well-​being of their tenants. Never once did SSA make an effort to help us pay down the debts caused by their ineptitude.
Upon signing a new lease, they pushed remorselessly for a rent increase of $ 2000 for a unit with antiquated infrastructure, no heat or air conditioning, and multiple pest problems.
They work under the following names and should be avoided at all costs.
* South Side Associates, LLC
* Sage Franklin, LLC
* South Side Housing, LLC
* SYC Realty, LLC
* Greenpoint Management, LLC
* Israel Perlmutter, LLC
* Meserole Factory, LLC
* Melrose Realty, LLC
* Melrose Deals, LLC
Menachem Stark (aka Max Stark) and Israel Perlmutter (aka Sam Perl) are criminals and should not be trusted with your time or money. Find another space to live that these crooks aren’t renting out. Don’t look back.

Do not give these people your money. 100 S 4^th St is a nightmare. Our water heater broke and they shut off our water for 2 entire days. They randomly shut off the electricity to «do work» without notice. They need to hire more than one super to manage all of their buildings. Terrible ethics. I can’t say enough bad things about these people. Stay far away

These people are absolutely terrible. It’s as though they have no hearts and no compassion for anyone else. All they seem to care about is their bank account.
Our elevator and washing machines simply never work. We’re paying far too much for such abysmal management. These people are pretty disgusting.

Watch out. I was placed in my current apartment by Broadway International Realty, a very sweet older Hasid guy, who has helped me deal with the superintendants that work at Southside. The building isn’t well-​cared for (I can literally see the light in my downstair neighbors apt through a crack in my floor, terrifying) and they are expensive for what they provide.
The supers are nice but dealing with a number of apartments at once, as someone else has said — things are not dealt with with urgency (e.g. there was an active exposed gas line when we moved in, we had to request getting smoke detectors installed, we told them our shower was leaking hot water and it took a week to get someone to deal with it…).
also for rosh hashana, they turn off their phones for 2 weeks.

They’re pretty bad. I lived in a building they managed for a few years and they would rather paint the outside of the building to get new tenants than fix anything inside.

They suck. They also go by Sage Franklin LLC… Generally nasty people who are abusive towards tenants… They don’t take care of their buildings and are running a shady operation.

This company is the building management for an old apartment of mine. They are awful disrespectful slumlords. They took months to repair a leak, would not fix flood damage to the walls, closed off our roof access (which was an amenity I paid for), wouldn’t fix the broken washing machines (also an amenity I paid for), and are assholes on the phone when you call with any issues (especially Max, whose actual name is Menachem Stark), especially if you are a woman. I had to call 311 to report their violations to the city many times, and still that did not help getting things repaired. Oh, and the rent in the building went up $ 1000 in two years. Fuck these guys. They are awful. Do not rent from them!
It’s worth mentioning that Neftali, the super, is the sweetest and is the only super for three of their huge properties, which means that he is overworked and likely underpaid. But he always tried to be an advocate for tenants when he could.
They also work under the name SYC Realty and a few other names, which seems shady. They’ve also been sued at least once for defaulting on loans, according to my research.
Here’s the address of the building so that hopefully anyone who does a google search for it will find this review and decide not to rent from them.
315 Seigel St
Brooklyn, NY 11 206
East Williamsburg
Bushwick
Other names used by this company:
SYC Realty
Sage Franklin
Greenpoint Management
Meserole Factory
South Side House
Israel Perlmutter