I've been here for a while. I moved in because of the price compared to amount of space you get,…read morewhich is excellent, and the proximity to downtown, which is also excellent (close enough to walk to downtown, but not in downtown, so you don't get all the noise and thin walls that you get with smaller buildings). It is an older building and it has some issues, like management is still in the process of fixing some of the foundation issues and pipes, which is admittedly a big and somewhat scary problem (we have tons of water leakage in the garage when it rains), and they've been working on it for a couple years, but have seemed to make little progress. The apartments are done well, but yes, they're old, so paint chips sometimes. But, the management is starting to try. Granted they're starting with cosmetic issues, but they are trying, so I'm willing to give them a chance.
The two property managers are not the nicest people. If you don't accept their b.s. they won't be nice to you at all. And, they jack up the rent when you go to renew your lease, almost double the recommended rate. Which is obnoxious and will hopefully be illegal soon. The people who work here at the front desk and who maintain the building, on the other hand, couldn't be nicer. One of the maintenance staff lives on site and I believe another lives in the sister building across the street, so if there's a real emergency, you don't have to wait for help. But, if it's not an emergency, it may take a day or two to fix, depending on how much else there is to do, which really isn't that bad. There are virtually no pests, I've never seen a rodent, knock on wood. Yes, there are roaches in the building, like every other building in the area, and if you think you'll find a building without roaches in a downtown area, you're in serious denial. Management picked an amazing company for pest control and they're here all the time, so even with all the construction potentially upending pests, we've seen a decline in them over the last few years to the point where the issue is almost non-existent. Well, provided that you keep your space clean, which I do.
The laundry room is a big problem. It's almost always crowded, the dryers break down frequently, and management doesn't enforce people removing their clothes in a timely manner, though they've been asked to do so many times.
You won't get a lot of amenities here, really any actually, but you will get good apartments for a very reasonable price for the area and great neighbors. This place is super quiet and the neighbors are generally friendly. (The guy who said the walls are paper thin has never lived in an apartment with paper thin walls. Yes, you can here something now and then, but this place is so quiet that any bit of noise seems disruptive and is noticeable. But, it is very quiet.) Management does do a good job of keeping bad neighbors in line or asking them to leave. It sounds weird, but if you're not respectful of the place and the others that live in this building, you will be asked to leave. And, in return it's very comfortable here. And, safe. I often leave my apartment unlocked as I go to get laundry or mail or whatever, as do most of my neighbors, and I don't have any worries that someone will walk into my apartment.
There is a major issue here for the next year or two: There's a lot of construction going on, both in and around the building. The majority of the drilling and such is already done, so there isn't much dust being kicked up, beyond the extra dust of this being an old building with lots of connected vents. So, yeah, sometimes the construction is annoying and if you have a night job or very young children who sleep during the day, this might not be the best place for you for the next 2 years or so. But, to be honest, I work a 9-5 and only notice it when I wake up in the morning, which isn't a problem for me.
So, here's the thing... I've lived in a lot of places in this area and all of them have issues. If you think they don't or that you'll find a perfect building, you're kidding yourself. It does really suck and I wish it weren't that way, but right now while the MD rental laws are trying to catch up to the times, it's not going to be perfect. But, I'd rather have a little extra dust than rodents, so this place is in many ways better than it would be anywhere else, and for that reason I'll stay here until my situation changes.
