Lived there for two years. Had 3 different property managers, first one was the best (shouts out Elizabeth, you're missed), current one is trying his best to clean up messes left by the property management company in her absence. This place sucked and the area is getting sketchier, but for downtown it could definitely be worse.
TL;DR: Units are cozy but overpriced like everything else in the city. Tenants are mostly great. Everything else is bad :P
Cons/things to look out for:
- The building is old. The walls are plaster and paper thin, you can hear everything. Some units have 5+ people living in them, and it was genuinely hell having to live above that. Kids running around in the halls. The windows are also single paned and/or poorly installed so you can hear everything outside. There are sirens all day long from the hospital and fire station, and the apts across the street's fire alarm goes off like once a day for an hour.
- CONSTANT plumping issues, not even slightly exaggerating: leaks, ceilings caving in, septic even backed up into my sink and tub once. Might be the worst thing about the building.
- There will be homeless people outside pretty consistently and drug deals happening on the south side of the building. People will sleep in both doorways and leave drug paraphernalia/feces/trash/light things on fire and pound on/spit on the doors. There are always human feces somewhere on/around the building. Poop magnet, idk. Being next to the hospital and up the street from the homeless shelter will bring a lot of characters around. I thankfully never had any confrontations or anything though, they'll leave you alone or are mostly friendly from what I've experienced.
- Your recycling will be gone through, don't leave anything important un-shredded.
- Parking is non existent and the garage waitlist is really rough. It took me 9 months on it for a spot to open up. The garage is 3 spots and is really tiny and hard to navigate. It's also blocked by people's cars while they're picking up food across the street 2/3s of the time you'll go to leave. Definitely wasn't meant to have cars in it. No-parking zone tickets are also $50 and they're constantly monitored. The parking enforcement officers are evil.
- 1 of 3 washing machines is perpetually broken and the dryers are somehow both 10000 degrees AND don't fully dry your clothes (and are $2.50).
- The bottom floor/basement units (1-10 i think) are street level and are sketchy. People try to break into them semi-often, especially if they seem vacant. The door to the street doesn't shut very well sometimes.
- Rent varies heavily per unit and is raised every chance they get. My first lease was $1,290 w/ utilities. My last 'offer' was $1,460 without utilities. Some units that are the same size barely got raises or started lower.
- Your packages will get stolen inside. Make friends with neighbors and ask them to hold onto them, they will.
- In my 2 years, 3 cars were broken into in the middle of the day. Never at night for some reason lol.
- 1 shooting outside. It was REALLY surprising and I couldn't imagine it happening often whatsoever though.
Pros :D (in my experience):
- Majority of tenants are chill and extremely helpful. Say hi.
- Maintenance requests are fulfilled pretty quickly.
- Management responds reasonably fast.
- The units themselves are charming. I honestly really loved my apartment and the layout despite what a mess the building was as a whole.
- The coffee shop across the street (URL) absolutely bangs and the staff is awesome. Not a huge fan of the food spots (burgers or noodle box, RIP Bonchon) but there are great options on 12th.
- The sidewalks and landscaping are well taken care of on Minor.
- Huge trash and recycle dumpsters. Only got lit on fire once lol.
- Never had any issues with Xfinity internet connection.
- On-site laundry, pro even if it kinda sucks. read more