Gothamist, David Brand, Mar 16, 2026

Water has come to define the 30-story high-rise at One Blue Slip in Greenpoint since it opened eight years ago.

There are the sweeping views of the East River and Newtown Creek, which separates Brooklyn from Long Island City like a Venetian canal, though slightly more toxic.

And then there’s what happens inside the 359-unit building: Water has both poured from ceilings and stopped running altogether.

On an extremely cold afternoon last month, several tenants said they couldn’t shower, flush the toilet or do their laundry. Building managers blamed frozen pipes leading from a rooftop water tank. The water outage affected the entire building and lasted three days. It followed chronic complaints about a lack of hot water, according to tenants and city complaint data.

It was a change from the fall, when tenants said water flooded the second floor. Photos and videos shared by residents show the water pouring into the luxurious lobby below, which features sofas, bookshelves, a fireplace and designer wood paneling.

The problems shocked residents, whose rents can reach over $12,400 a month for a three-bedroom apartment, or about $3,400 a month for a studio.

“ I moved into what looked like a hotel and I come home to a s— dump now,” said Joey Hes, a commercial property manager in Greenpoint who moved into One Blue Slip in 2022.  ”It’s come to the point this year where everything’s breaking down and people’s health is at stake.”

One Blue Slip is one of dozens of newly constructed apartment buildings in New York City, many of them marketed as luxury accommodations, that have been beset by unexpected maintenance problems and questionable construction.

Nearly 10% of roughly 1,600 residential buildings that have opened since 2016 have at least one housing code violation per apartment, according to a Gothamist analysis of city housing data. That set of properties averages 2.1 violations per unit, compared to a 0.8 average per unit citywide, indicating that many of the city’s newest residential buildings suffer from chronic or serious problems. Each building included in the review had received a property tax abatement through the state’s 421a program, a key tool for easing development costs.

Tenants in other recently constructed units have complained of major quality of life problems, like heat outages and vermin infestations, along with cheap finishes and other minor annoyances, despite paying top dollar for their apartments and fancy perks like lounges, yoga rooms and pet grooming stations.

In short, “luxury” can often equal “crappy.”

Housing Preservation and Development spokesperson Ilana Maier said the agency is investigating the conditions at One Blue Slip and other newly constructed buildings.

Read More: Gothamist