I lived in this building for 2.5 years as an owner and for the most part, I have enjoyed living in…read morethis building. It has a good mixed demographic as far as families, yuppies, students, etc.
This vertical village is 33 floors, just under 500 units, and 7 floors of parking spots (with top floor being uncovered). There are not a lot of amenities (lacking fitness room, pool, community activity room) which I personally preferred because it kept assessments low. In fact, this is probably one of the lowest assessments for the highrises in the area. However, the building does have 24 hour doormen & security, package room for deliveries, dog run with complimentary bags, a dry cleaners, and well-stocked market in the building. A martial arts/yoga tenant now occupies one of the retail units as well.
In my 2.5 years here, the building has gone through high Management turnover. We are on our second management company, and 4th manager so far. I have been happy with two of them. Sometimes I don't understand the things that the Board approves, but I'm sure every building has the same issues.
I actually lived in 2 units in the building, the first being a rental with lake-facing views and a balcony. The issue I personally did not like about the units that faced east and west was that the second "bedroom" wasn't a true bedroom (i.e. windows) but just had a 3/4 wall sharing the kitchen. It felt like a cave. The unit I eventually bought was a south facing unit and even though it did not have a balcony, it had two true bedrooms with floor to ceiling windows in each room (master bedroom, great room and guest bedroom). It was light, it was airy, it was beautiful. Rarely did I ever need to turn on the heat during the winter.
Location wise it has its pros and cons. I'll start off by saying t's a bit of a walk to Roosevelt station (red, orange and green lines). I had no problem walking during the warmer months, but rarely ever walked to the train during winter. The CTA buses stop right in front of the building though (the building also has a cab light). It has access to Grant Park, the Lake, Museum Campus and Northerly Island via the 18th Street bridge. I always used to walk to State Street shopping too. It is close to other daily necessities like groceries (Mariano's, Jewel Osco, Trader Joes, Target) if you find that the on-site market is too expensive (which it is). It's close to Chinatown, McCormick Place, and Soldier Field. Traffic can be a nightmare during game nights, and there is zoned permit parking required on some nearby streets.
Move in/move out fees are kind of high (increased last year) but pretty much what all other high rise units are going at nowadays, and a small assessment occurred at the new year. Upon my move out, even though I paid and 'reserved' the elevator for a 4 hour time frame, the front desk/maintenance staff hadn't prepared the elevator at all the morning of (aka padded the elevator and added a "Do Not Use Elevator, Move In Progress" sign). So of course I had to go to the front desk and remind them.
Speaking of front desk staff, there were probably 5 or 6. When the management company changed (when I first moved in) so did the front desk staff. I only like maybe 2 or 3 of them (2 girls and 1 guy Luis)... the others I felt were not hospitable, friendly and weren't doing their job most of the time (i.e. letting guests enter the building without contacting the unit first).
Window washing occurred twice a year. It's amazing how much bird poop gets on your windows and how high spiders can live. Power washing the garage floors happened I think once a year. The garage had been replaced/repaired several times. The front desk lobby was remodeled. Corridor Carpeting is being replaced on all floors (Floors 2-6 were already done because of high traffic areas). Elevator landings will get a touch of color.
I thought I'd live here a lot longer, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity of putting my unit on the market and selling at my price point.