** 2.5 stars **
Relocating to the Longview-Kelso area for a…read morenew job and just got an apartment here. They advertise themselves as Kelso's "premiere luxury apartments", and indeed they do seem to have the most amenities of any other apartment complex in the area, but there are some big caveats to note.
PROS:
- Nice poolhouse featuring a workout room (eliptical, treadmill, bike, few weight machines), seasonal pool, spa, sauna, public bbq grill (unfortunately it closes at 10pm so not a good fit if you like latenight workouts).
- Gated entry at night which seems to decrease the risk of break-ins/theft
- There appears to be ample parking spots for the number of residents.
- The 2 managers seem nice and pretty knowledgeable about the complex, though several details weren't given about the application/move-in process that really detracted from our experience (see below).
CONS:
- REALLY THIN WALLS - unfortunately this is something really hard to tell if you're just visiting, but within the 1st couple nights we could VERY easily hear neighbors through the walls talking, singing in the shower, or using a blender at 5am. If you're a light sleeper, be very prepared to bring earplugs.
- Price: Compared to all other apartments we saw in the area, this is definitely the most expensive we found: ~$1000/mo for a 2 bedroom, ~1000sq ft + 1 car covered garage parking spot.
- No onsite recycling - you have to pack it all up and take it to the local recycling drop-off. Despite living in several apartments in Oregon, I've never heard of this being a thing; given that they do have a local trash drop, it really makes it inconvenient to recycle and likely encourages a lot of people to just throw everything away :-(
- The water/sewer bill is NOT metered for each unit, so they calculate the total building's use and then divide the cost (presumably evenly) for each unit. It was quite the shock when we were only present in the apartment for a few days during the 1st month, and yet the water usage was still $45 (not including taxes or base fees) - again, there's really no incentive to save/limit water use with this billing method.
- Really inflexible policies: The worst example was on the day that we were going to move-in. They refused to take my check for the move-in fees, saying it had to come from my wife's checking account since she's the primary tenant (even though we jointly applied and both paid the application fee). No one had told us that ahead of time! But we weren't worried because we could pay cash or a direct bank transfer of funds. Wrong - they would only take checks or money orders. It's usually easy to get that from our bank, but it was also the day of a big snowstorm that closed all the banks by noon, so we had no way to get a cashiers check that day. Instead of letting us spend just 1 night there before getting them a check the next day, they made us pay to get a hotel room. We had already paid all the screening fees, have perfect credit, AND gave a valid check from me, so I saw no reason why they couldn't help us out just a little by letting us pay the deposit 1 day late since they only now told us about the check requirement. The lack of empathy and flexibility in such frigid conditions, really seemed unfathomable.
Overall, the place has been ok, but given the price you'll be paying, definitely be aware of the concerns noted above if you're thinking about staying here.