I've lived at 295J for a couple years and have had a positive experience so far. Huge plus for me is the parking situation and proximity to the Light Rail (which can easily connect to PATH). I mainly do street parking in the area which isn't too bad, but most of the spots have twice per week street cleaning from 10am-noon, so your husband would have to play around that. I hear that monthly parking at LSP parking lot is doable, and is ~$60/month, but i've never tried it since I drive to work everyday and dealing with the street cleaning schedule hasn't been an issue (other than going on vacation). The building also has garage parking, but it's expensive (>$200/month).

There are two major construction projects going on nearby, and is pretty loud during the day, but they don't do much at night. I've never considered it an issue since I don't work from home.

In-unit laundry is great, haven't had any issues with it. Gym access is great as well. The weight lifting and cardio rooms are separated which can be nice as you don't have to deal with as many people at once. The pool is kinda whatever, pretty small, and more for just hanging out in the sun while occasionally dipping in. They have rules on accessing the pool which have changed over time (need to get an ID made, and need to pay to have guests with you, although I haven't seen them be super stringent on this).

One thing i'd like to mention is that that the footprint of the building itself is very large. Depending on where your apartment is, it can be a long walk from the entrance/elevator. I believe the apartments are priced accordingly (i.e. higher prices on the eastern side, which also happens to face LSP).

Safety-wise, I think the area is decent. It's certainly not a bustling downtown area, but also isn't super sketchy.

My major cons are:

1. Kitchen sink is very small, height-wise. Makes it difficult to put dishes in there while also dealing with other cooking-related tasks. Can be used as positive encouragement to wash your sooner rather than let them pile up though
2. Bathdoom door is a slider that is pretty flimsy, and the lock doesn't work properly. Not a huge deal to me, but just feels cheap
3. The whole building uses an app called Latch to access your apartment door, and all other areas (gym, main entrance, pool/patio, etc.). On my phone, it's fairly buggy/slow and gets annoying. I mentioned that the gym being separated based on weights/cardio is a positive, but having to use the app to go between them makes it annoying
4. Overall, things just feel pretty cheap, while giving the false look of being decent quality. I don't particularly mind too much though as i'm not the type to bring friends/family over all the time. You mentioned Bridget and Sawyer as other options, and doing a quick look, they seem quite a bit more expensive, so if that is you/your husband's standard, then you might notice the cheapness of this place.

Thank you so much!! We honestly need to be more budget conscious so I was hoping 295J would work out! I’m not able to move with him, so we have to account for frequent flights and other things. We also don’t anticipate having a lot of visitors other than myself and maybe our younger siblings, so quality isn’t a huge deal. I will work from home during the day when visiting but can always go elsewhere in the building, and he will be gone pretty much all day unless he is on nights or post call so construction shouldn’t be a problem.

I really really appreciate your feedback! It’s so helpful to hear from an actual resident and has made me few more confident in probably choosing 295J. We don’t live in a luxury building right now but do have gym access and a package room, so things like that are always nice.

Thank you again!!!

You are a gem greggowaffle!

You're welcome, glad I could help! If you have any other questions feel free to reach out.

Thank you! I really appreciate it again. Hope to cross paths someday if we do end up moving there!

One of my friends used to live at 295j before moving to the Urby downtown recently. Agreed on Latch it is hit or miss, on my iPhone it worked fine, but on some Androids it might lag when opening doors or the progress bar would get stuck. Still I've seen worse, whatever the app the Dvora buildings use would actually just not work at all sometimes.

My wife, son, and I are moving to 295J in May. Moving from Newport. If you see a guy wearing a New York Red Bulls jacket everyday, come say hi.

Ive lived in this area for 4 years and 3 of those were through residency! I love the Bergen-Lafayette area. I lived in the Solaris building for 3 yrs and personally really loved it as a resident. (moved because I wanted to upgrade from my studio apartment and they didnt have any 1beds for me to rent). I was able to sleep during the day when i was on overnight shifts and they were very nice about accommodating me if there was ever something being done in the building that didnt work with my weird day/night flips. (example, there was some random day where they were doing fire alarm inspections or something and needed to access every unit for about 1min to check the alarm. Originally was scheduled for a day and time I had planned to be asleep from an overnight shift and they moved it to let me sleep). That particular building I felt has better washer dryers and bathroom set up then 295J (bigger on both counts). There is also the BeLa building across from it that is also very sound proof per my conversations with neighbors. It's concrete and metal so little noise from neighbors. Likewise also a bigger bathroom/washer dryer then 295J. Not that I think there is anything wrong with 295J, they are the bigger of the 3 buildings discussed, just playing devils advocate in case you were looking for other ideas in the exact same location. 295J has units that will face the Liberty State Park Lightrail station so you will be able to see your car if you park in the lot there. Yes, you can park overnight, there is a 24h security car that roams around all the time and there is monthly parking available for there. Very rare occasion they ask you to move your car for something like 4th of july when they need the space, otherwise it always has cars in it. Personally my priority when I picked a building to live in during residency was 'can I sleep here during the day' but everyone has their own priorities. Hope that helps a bit!

Wow this is incredibly helpful! I just looked at Solaris as that didn’t come up when I was searching. Seems to be a bit more expensive but will definitely check it our per your recommendation! Thank you so much!

Aww that’s awesome! So you toured in person? Did you also tour Solaris Lofts? We can’t visit in person so I’m trying my best to get a good sense of what we should ultimately choose! Hope to cross paths with you and the fam!

No worries, if you have any other questions feel free to reach out!

Yes, we toured, but didn't see many other buildings.

For us, it was amenities vs. price. We've been in Newport for 5 years and our rent would have been higher than 295J if we stayed. If we stayed we wouldn't have the gym, the courtyard, the co-working space (a big plus for me). Our son has also been going to PS22 up the street—since we were unable to go to our local school, PS37—so there's less upheaval for him. He's also a water bug, so the pool (tiny as it may be) will be absolutely massive for him. My wife and I are now work-from-home full time, so being further from the PATH train isn't a big deal.

There were more pro's than con's, but there were some cons when we made the decision:

• There's no big supermarket in the area, not yet at least. We've been doing ShopRite From Home since the pandemic, but it is still helpful if you need to run out quick to get like, mushrooms. (We will miss Newport's exceptional East and South Asian grocery specialties). The same is true for a pharmacy/CVS/Duane Reade for that kind of stuff.

• The construction noise. We're on the southwest corner where one building is going up, so there will be daytime noise. Though, as my wife put it: "It's a city."

• Our new apartment is smaller by about 100 sq feet than our current place, but our hope is that we'll use the amenities as much as we can if we need to stretch our legs.

It's a bit of a gamble for us, but considering what we would get for the price we were offered, it was very hard to turn down.

Oh, and they're opening a branch of the JC Public Library on the ground floor. That sealed the deal for us.

Oh what! That’s so cool! Thank you so much for sharing. We are doing a virtual tour today and then will probably apply. I am excited about the amenities as well given that I work from home and will be there a fair bit. I’m excited for your son! I’m sure the pool and rooftop will be very fun for him!