I've lived in Uptown Village for four years (one year back in '99, and again for the past three years). I figured it's finally time I write up a review. Unlike most reviews on this site, mine is neither from the perspective of a disgruntled resident, nor is it the management pretending to be a resident and writing a review that reads like a brochure. I've lived in many, many apartments over the years, so I try to be fair about expectations.

1. The quick summary

Uptown Village is filled with partying college-age hooligans, but the concrete walls help keep noise to a minimum. The staff is about like the staff at every other apartment complex (which isn't saying a whole lot). The location is great, and I consider this to be the best place to live (cost/value wise) in downtown Denver. I'd recommend it.

2. Location

Uptown Village is a large, three-tower high-rise apartment complex in downtown Denver. While it's on the opposite end of downtown from LoDo, it's only 3-4 blocks from the 16th Street Mall free shuttle bus. Also, this neighborhood (Uptown) has developed quite a bit in recent years, and there's a fair amount of stuff within a few blocks. Being on the edge between "downtown proper" and the more quaint "Uptown" neighborhood, you have your choice of hanging out at the trendy, high-energy restaurants/bars downtown, or the more down-to-earth, friendly establishments in Uptown.

3. Demographics and noise

College-age people make up a large portion of the residents here, and they do like to party and can make a lot of noise when they get drunk. However, the noise insulation between units is the best I've ever experienced in an apartment. This place must have concrete walls between units. Uptown Village was built in 1986, just before developers realized they could get away with building paper-mache apartments. I'm sure the owners of Uptown Village are kicking themselves for not thinking of building with cheap, paper-thin walls. Their loss, your gain. :)

However, the sound insulation of the unit's entrance door (between the unit and the hallway) is almost non-existent. You could just about carry on a conversation with someone in the hallway. This has never been a problem for me, since I live at the end of the hall where there is almost no traffic. A friend of mine who lived in the center of the building near the elevator lobby said that it can get pretty loud at 2:00am when drunk residents are stumbling back from the bars. It's a little weird to walk past my next-door neighbor's apartment and hear music blasting, then enter my apartment and hear nothing.

My current apartment is facing Logan Street, and even though the windows here are fair at insulating sound, I do get a lot more "city noises" (sirens, car alarms, crazy people yelling on the street, etc.) than I did in my old apartment that faced the courtyard.

The moral of the story is: If noise bothers you, try to get a courtyard-facing apartment at the end of a hallway.

3. Rent

Most apartment buildings around downtown are either really old, or really new. However, Uptown Village was built in 1986, so it contains relatively modern apartments without the "really new" price tag. Rents here are certainly a lot higher than in the suburbs, but quite a bit less than the really new apartment buildings around downtown. As with every other apartment complex I've ever lived in, rent ALWAYS goes up at the end of the lease period. It's the "surely the resident won't bother to move" bonus for the landlord, heh. Extra fees added on to the base rent include parking, a "utility fee" for water/trash, and any short-term or month-to-month lease fees. (As far as I know, month-to-month is only available after you complete a regular lease term.)

4. The hook-up

Utilities are pretty standard here. You can get phone service from Qwest or any of the others, the usual TV options from Comcast, and internet service from your phone company or Comcast. I use Forethought.net DSL for internet -- it's an excellent local internet provider that also provides phone service.

Beware of the apartment complexes that force you to use the utilities they are in cahoots with -- i.e. "You may only use Comcast for internet here" or "You may only get TV service from our bizarre DirecTV/Qwest thingamajig." Those apartment complexes get a commission at your expense.

5. Miscellaneous

There is no hot water heater in the units. Instead, the building must have a central furnace for heating water. This is great because it means unlimited hot water. :) There is central heating/cooling, and it seems to be fairly inexpensive to heat and cool my one-bedroom unit. It would be nice if the units had washer/dryers (instead of using laundry rooms), but that's not a terrible burden to bear.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 03/12/2007
Well done, makes me wish this resident would review more properties - thanks for the straight dope!
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/14/2007
Fabulous review!!!
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/03/2007
Great Review! As a result, I am going to check it out and see what I think.

Your thoughts? Post a response to this review. Display my response: with my username anonymously Responses appear below reviews and one response per user is permitted.

   Free estimates on moving trucks      Find apartment share/roommates