My partner and I have lived here four or five years, since a few months after the building opened, and we really love Coldwater. It's truly spoiled us. We've considered leaving (solely because we love to garden and would love to have a yard) but we never do; we always renew our lease and I've got a good feeling that we will again. The amenities, size, and location are too perfect to be beat and it's so quiet and peaceful. Every staff member since we've moved in has been very kind and responsive, and they know folks by name (and often times they know their dogs by name too-- a smart touch in Austin!).
I like:
-How close everything is. Eating, groceries, entertainment-- there's a ton of everything in walking distance.
-Cool, underground assigned parking in the busiest part of Austin
-There's tiny lesser-known park to enjoy across the street when Zilker is full of festival-goers
-Relaxed neighborhood. Everyone is active but no one is trying to be in anyone else's business. We know a fair amount of our neighbors but mostly I just interact with neighbors to talk about their dogs!
-There is a fair amount of traffic on the street because the lot across the street is parking for baseball and for Zilker Park events, and we're next door to a school/restaurants. Communication from the City was dicey the first year we lived there about festival traffic, but management has obviously worked with the City on their festival traffic plan because it's really intuitive now. Management clearly communicates the plans with us, too. Altered traffic patterns a few weeks a year is something I'm 100% willing to put up with to live in such an awesome central area.
-There are monthly events for residents and there are also holiday events you can see from the roof-- everyone piles up there with their guests for Fourth of July, which is a lot of fun. People are always using the grills at predictable times, but more often than not you find yourself the only one and you can enjoy the whole roof or pool or courtyard to yourself. Folks go up there and watch expensive festival performances (yes, you can see and hear it from the roof... probably a great deal better than folks in the concert crowds, too!).... OR you can hang out in your unit and never notice any of those festivities because the apartments are absolutely sound-proof, which we have also done. It always shocks us that if you open your patio door, you're blasted by sound, and then it closes to reveal perfect silence. We've napped through fireworks and forgot they had happened until the following day. The flip side of this also means you can be loud and never get that perturbed banging-on-the-wall response from neighbors! :)
-Valet trash pickup, and a trash chute in most every other hour if you get too much trash to put it out at once.
-Storage rooms on the property that you can rent; once you get one, you keep it for the remainder of your lease, but you can make the decision if you want to keep the storage area if you renew.
I've lived in places where I've been nickel-and-dimed and I feel Coldwater is not that place at all. The only thing I've had to pay for aside from rent has been for my pets and a storage unit we had for a while-- and I chose those things. When we had a ridiculously high water bill a couple years ago, Rosie worked with us and made sure a) there was no leak, and
then b) negotiated with the utility company to audit our meter. I appreciate living somewhere management doesn't want us to have to be ripped off, either, and will advocate on our behalf so we aren't.
Things I haven't liked:
-The garage can, in some hours of the day, be straight-up dark. That makes them a little freaky but mostly just really hard to see what you're doing, driving or trying to sort something out in your car after work or before a trip, or especially looking for your bike on the lower garage level.
-The elevators break often, though the other one will usually be working.
Neighbors often let their dogs off leash, and leave their valet trash in bags on the ground, rather than in the designated bins (or in any kind of bin!). We have seen animal excrement in the hallways and have seen some leaking bags flat on the carpet on more than one occasion, usually weekly, and these things stain the carpeted halls. Now, what impolite neighbors do is NOT management's fault, I realize-- but some of those messes didn't get cleaned for weeks. Because valet trash and dogs off-leash is a daily thing, the humid hallways get really funky really fast. We feel they could do a better job enforcing those things. I've seen them make attempts to fix it afterward-- recently all hallways were deep-cleaned, which I appreciate-- but a proactive enforcement would be more practical and sanitary.
I've lived all kinds of places and I've gotta say-- I love Coldwater because they get every important thing right with flying colors, and their "problems" aren't really problems, in our experience. Thanks to them! read more