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Ownership Change
From:
-Anonymous-
Date posted:
6/28/2008
Years at this apartment:
2007
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2008
2 responses
I tried to pay my rent online, as I usually do, but was informed that the access had expired when I tried to log in. When I called, I was informed that as of yesterday (6/27), Archstone no longer owns the place, and I would need to come into the office to pay my rent. Since I'm out of town, I will have to mail it in. They better not try to charge me a late fee. The new owners are "Laramar" (I've corrected based on response posted - thank you), and I hope they plan to clean house around here, because as you have read from the other postings, this place sucks. I would move if I didn't hate moving so much. May be worth it, though... we'll see how the ownership change works out. Poor ventilation in the hallways, so doors are consistently propped - don't believe the false sense of security that the gated parking and locked doors provide. And the maintenance people have entered my apartment without permission, without notice, and without leaving documentation afterwards on at least 2 occasions that I am aware of. I have called on both instances and received an apology, but it is still completely unacceptable. Residents here are almost as bad as the management - no one respects the common areas or other residents... trash everywhere, even next to the dumpster or garbage cans by the mail... people leave their laundry in the washer/dryer for hours on end... kids running around everywhere... Find someplace else and make sure you give yourself an unguided tour both during the day and during the evening. That's the only way to really get a feel for things.
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User Responses
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From:
Anonymous
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Date:
04/20/2007
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>There are garbage cans by the mail boxes, but people must just toss their junk mail in the air and watch it flutter around and litter everywhere.<
LMAO!! This is so true that it's funny.
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From:
Anonymous
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Date:
07/09/2008
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The new owner is actually Laramar (the legal name of the "owning" entity is a bit unclear - some communications show it as "Laramar Communities, LLC", others show it as "Laramar San Jose Partners, LLC" - the latter suggests that there's probably an LLC whose assets, and hence liability, are limited to this one property).
Their web page for this property is at http://www.laramar.com/community/792/index.php - new name and new logo shown here.
The new name they will be using for the complex is Park Kiely.
Laramar is quite a bit smaller than Archstone-Smith (Laramar has "only" about 20,000 units spread across the United States while Archstone-Smith had more like 90,000 units). Laramar also has a *much* smaller footprint in the Bay Area than Archstone-Smith (they only show two complexes in California - this property and one in San Francisco). This is likely not a good omen as they are far too big and "spread out" to be your local "cozy, compassionate, customer centric" landlord but have such a minimal presence in this area to enjoy economy and efficiency of scale.
[Update - July 9, 2008]
It appears major renovations are planned for this property. This could be quite disruptive to tenants. Even if they only remodel vacant units, the construction noise will likely be disruptive (both for new tenants in "remodeled" and long time tenants in "non-remodeled" adjacent units).
Following is a quote from http://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2008/07/07/daily29.html
"Laramar said it plans substantial renovations and upgrades to the complex -- which was built from 1968 through 1972 -- including installation of new kitchen appliances, in-unit washers and dryers, lighting packages, and upgraded bathrooms."
It appears Laramar may be planning substantial expansion in California so their footprint may become bigger in the area - probably better than not.
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