I lived here for exactly 2 years, the majority of which were during the Covid-19 pandemic/lockdown. What really appealed to us when we first signed was the amazing front desk staff, but the staff did have a pretty high turnover rate and by the end of our stay, we were less than impressed by the staff.
Pros:
-Very quiet apartments: we could rarely hear our neighbors.
-LOCATION!!!! You can't get better than this location, especially if you work at/near UMN. I didn't have a car, but never had a problem managing/getting around.
-Rent specials--we got 2 months of rent off/year for signing a 2-year contract.
-The apartments are really nice, and well maintained. Maintenance crew is always great.
-Natural light is unbeatable. In the summer, we sometimes never had to turn our lights on!
Cons:
-Lax covid restrictions throughout pandemic; staff didn't enforce any of their own rules. Furthermore, the staff themselves always had their masks sagging off their noses/mouth and wouldn't bother to pull them up when approached. They were also pretty rude about it when we reached out to them.
-The kitchen sink faucets really suck--the water isn't dispersed and it comes shooting out so it would always spray everywhere when we turned the water on.
-Lots of hidden fees: $25/month for amenities (which they continued to charge throughout covid, even though they canceled most of the amenities), $4 transaction fee to pay your water/sewer, etc.
-I felt they were pretty dishonest with the deposit. We kept our apartment really clean, and also spent 3 hours cleaning it before we moved out, but $25 (+ $50 for "painting") was still deducted from our deposit for "cleaning." They clearly just scrape a bit off the top of everyone's deposit.
-Somehow these apartments just get really dusty really quickly! We would do a deep dust/vacuum every 2 weeks or less, never wore shoes in the house, had no pets, but there would always be a thick layer of dust on our toilet/counter tops within a few days! Have no idea if it is a ventilation problem, but we changed our air filters and even purchased an air purifier but nothing helped.
Even though the cons section is pretty long, I would still live here again if I had to! I really loved my cozy apartment here and enjoyed being walking distance to so much stuff. The frat bro-y staff was the biggest turn off for us. read more