The Brunswick - New Brunswick, New Jersey

Sebastian P.

I have been living in The Brunswick for almost a year now and I have had only positive experiences. Every single one of the maintenance requests has been fixed within the same day and once even within the hour. When Lamont arrives to fix something he is both courteous and invaluable. The front office was prompt at answering all of my questions and made my move-in experience as painless as it could have been. Bernice is especially friendly and takes a special interest in the animals that live in the building. Overall, The Brunswick feels more like a community rather than a building and I appreciate that.

Rob I.

I lived in the complex now known as The Brunswick for 7 years from 2017-2024. For the first half of this time, the property was known as Riverwatch Commons and was managed by Roseland. I loved living here during this time. Roseland was a good, proactive and reliable property management company. However, as soon as Aion took over the property in Dec 2020 (only read reviews since), things went downhill fast and they keep getting worse. Aion management is reactive and unreliable, and thanks to their corporate greed, this place is now unlivable.

Aion uses RealPage to fix rental prices (stories on NJ.com), and so they are contributing to likely collusion with other property managers that is causing prices to rise dramatically and unfairly.

$10/mo trash fee: The trash situation in the building has gotten progressively worse since this was instituted. The halls are not air conditioned and a putrid smell of garbage pervades the building and wafts into the apartments, especially in the summer. Garbage all over the floors. Frequently, the garbage rooms are so full you can barely enter to put your garbage down the shoot.

$14/mo renter’s insurance, which DOES NOT COVER YOUR PROPERTY. So, if you want to cover your property you have to pay for your own policy, plus theirs.

$75/mo parking. This is not unreasonable as an amount, but they do a horrible job of enforcing parking. If a gate gets broken, it may be broken for weeks or months. During this time, don’t expect them to do anything about a car parked in your space. For 3.5 years 0 cars were towed from the property (except in Ida's flood). That said, I know of one tenant who got their car stolen off the property. The management failed to inform anyone about this.

Living here you will be subject to frequent (and frequently unannounced) water shut offs that can last for 1.5-4 hours. If anything happens in the building at all they shut the water off to the entire building. They might give you as much as 10 minutes notice, but frequently, nope, nothing. Just no water.

Except, the Brunswick is located in a major flood zone (https://www.arcgis.com/apps/mapviewer/index.html?webmap=05392b2382b64d8a85e6c5e50ecda593). During Ida, all surface parking lots were under water. If you need to live here for a couple years, you might get lucky, but eventually you will have to evacuate. That said, don’t expect Aion or the Brunswick to warn you about this. In the lead up to Ida not a peep was heard from the management (hence reactive). The only time I have seen a tow truck on the property was to tow 30+ mud filled cars from the parking lots afterward. It was a real mess, and they did not help. It even took them over 5 months to replace the carpet in the halls. The place looked like a war zone.

The people who work in the office are some of the most frustrating and ineffective individuals I have ever had to deal with. However, I don't blame them. Aion must do an extremely poor job training people skills. Or they do a great job of training deflection. They will be nice to you up to the point that you sign the lease, and then they disappear almost completely. They might be reactive to problems, but only after many people come to them with the same issue. If you try to message them on the hilariously misnamed active building platform, they do not respond.

One huge positive is Lamont. He is an amazing maintenance person and all-around cool guy. None of the other maintenance people are nice or particularly effective.

So, prospective renter, do yourself a favor and look elsewhere. Yes, prices in New Brunswick are out of control, but if you think you are getting a good deal here, please think again. FYI, the George is also run by Aion. Personally, I will never ever live in another Aion-managed property again.

Lastly, I wouldn't be surprised if Brunswick team got up the energy to copy paste a cookie cutter response “Thank you for taking the time…we are so sorry to hear…” blah blah blah.

Y'all. They. Don’t. Care. As long as they have your money. Trust the one-star reviews and keep looking!

ANNE P.

My roommate and I toured The Brunswick two times and both times we appreciated that the leasing department was available to answer our questions. We met with Albert on a few occasions and he was able to talk to us about the different housing options in the building and provide recommendations. Albert also remained available via phone and email to answer any questions we had during the application process. We had a great experience!

Richard T.

My washer-dryer combination unit had run it's useful life. I put in maintenance request for a new washer-dryer. Three days later, maintenence crews installed a new washer-dryer unit. It works very well. I'm very pleased with the quick response from the maintenance crew and mgmt.
Thank You

Brian T.

It took us several months to get our security deposit back. We had to call out of work and repeatedly go down to the office. We had to threaten to go to the main office and even threaten to take them to court before we finally got the money that was rightfully ours. The community was great, but the management was trash.

Zhang T. Z.

Packages from Amazon, Walmart, and PetSmart are constantly stolen. The leasing office told me to call those companies for replacement orders, which is not a solution. I’ve seen leasing and maintenance employees walk by packages that are outside- instead of assisting residents, employees are not thoughtful enough to bring packages indoors where it’s safe.

I moved in last year, 2023, and this issue remains a big problem to the present day. Therefore, don’t expect to get your packages. And the problem became worse because lobby doors were frequently broken and not maintained.

On that note, your packages AND personal safety are not valued here.

nivedita R.

I would give them zero stars if I could. I scheduled twice online for a tour and eve received email confirmation on both days. They flaked and no one was there to show me the apartment.

1. Yesterday, I had a scheduled tour at 10:30 am. I called their listed number before I went, was told somebody from the local office would be there. There was nobody. When I called back , I was told they were an offsite team and did not know about the local team. And that the local team/ office was closed(!!) Because it was memorial day. But they had spots for in-person tour, let me book them, sent me confirmation emails and even confirmed on phone the first time.

2. Today, I had a 1:30 pm tour. I confirmed with the local office that they would be there. I was there by 1:05 and there was nobody. I was there till 1:50 and no one in sight. Maintenance guy told me the leasing guy was out for lunch. It just wasn't worth it.

Please do not waste your time here.

Update: dear Brunswick team, please do not copy paste a cookie cutter response for every review. You have my contact details, if you (really) want to resolve this issue- get in touch!!

Lo L.

I've lived in The Brunswick since last Fall 2022. The leasing office treats you well as a new tenant. But once you move in, you're treated like a second class citizen. For example, the property manager talks down to you and is arrogant, especially if you disagree with his assessment of any issue you have in your apartment. HE DEFINITELY HAS NO BUSINESS BEING IN A CLIENT-FACING ROLE.
Furthermore, the majority of the time I call the leasing office, no one answers the phone. It automatically transfers to an outside call center. I've called separate times in the morning AND afternoon, yet no one answers from the office. But when I walk down to the leasing office (I live in the same building as the leasing office), the staff and the manager are there sitting at their desks with no one else in the room! They are clearly not performing the basic responsibilities of helping their tenants. If they respond to my review to call the leasing office so this can be worked out - which they will - I assure you, no one will answer the phone.

I'm warning you, once you become an existing tenant, you'll be treated poorly. You should strongly consider renting from the Renaissance Plaza Square or the Quincy, which are one street away. I've heard great things about them.