We've lived in a 1 bdr in the 1521 building for just over a year, and are only leaving because we are relocating to another city for work. Otherwise we would definitely stay here longer or maybe upgrade to a 2 bdr apartment within the same building.
I'm really not sure why there are bad reviews for this building, we had nothing but positive experiences here.
My top priorities when we were looking to move to Ballard was a nice kitchen with counter space, and natural light, and this apartment was perfect for that! It's also pet-friendly, so we ended up adopting a cat. There is an $500 deposit for any animal (half of it is refundable), and $25/mo pet rent. I thought this was a bit excessive just for a cat, but it seems fairly standard, especially for newer buildings.
The apartment felt a little small when we first saw it, but once we moved in and got used to living here, the amount of space was perfect for us. There is a large storage closet in the unit, along with a smaller closet and the bedroom closet, and ample cupboard space in the kitchen. If you do have a lot of furniture or large stuff it might be a bit cramped, though. The bedroom is fairly large, and the balconies are awesome! We were lucky enough to face south, which meant plenty of sunlight and no fire truck sounds.
The location can't be beat, so easy to walk to downtown Ballard, grocery stores, and bus stops. I saw another reviewer say that paying extra for the parking garage is a necessity, but that is not true at all. We never paid for the parking garage, and can always find a spot either in front of Wendy's, or alongside the hospital on 17th Ave just a block and a half away. This worked just fine for us, and I was glad we saved the money from parking. Car prowl is relatively low around here, but it does happen. If you don't leave anything visible in your car, you shouldn't have anything to worry about, which is best practice anyway.
The staff is great - Nicole has been the property manager the entire time we lived here. She is very friendly, was great when we were looking at the property and deciding on it, and always arranges a No Parking zone when you move in to make it convenient. We only ever needed them to fix something once, and they were very prompt and communicated well. There were a few things that needed fixing before we moved in, but they took care of it all gladly and it was all fixed by move-in day. Absolutely no complaints there.
The few drawbacks we did have are minor: the dishwasher is pretty low-end and we had to wash the dishes pretty thoroughly before putting them in or they would come out just as dirty. The noise from 15th is surprisingly loud, even on the 5th floor. It didn't bother me much, but my boyfriend is a light sleeper and often wouldn't be able to fall asleep with the window open. However, that's part of living in the city in a central location.
The only other negative thing we can report is that the sounds barrier between floor and ceiling is not great. Wall-to-wall is great, we hardly ever heard our side-to-side neighbors. However the people below us would sometimes complain about us playing music (when it was at a fairly normal volume), and we would often be woken up by our upstairs neighbor... getting busy. That was definitely very frustrating at times, but more an issue of his unusually loud boxspring and inconsiderate timing. Aside from that we weren't too bothered by with some footsteps at times or muffled video-game sounds.
Overall its a great place to live and reasonable rent for this area! Would definitely recommend to anyone. read more