Gelmarc Towers
1930 Columbia Road NW, Washington, DC 20009
202-265-5377  save favorite
AVERAGE RATING
recommended by:
45%

overall rating:
2.7
2.5
2.48 Parking:
2.6
2.61 Maintenance:
2.3
2.29 Construction:
2.7
2.65 Noise:
2.7
2.71 Grounds:
3.2
3.16 Safety:
3.3
3.26 Office Staff:
< | >

Unofficial Taxi Depot, etc.

From: -Anonymous-
Date posted: 8/17/2009
Years at this apartment: 2004 - 2008
 
TWO ISSUES:

First, Gelmarc Towers is adjacent to a 7-11, which is nice when it comes to getting late-night snacks. HOWEVER, as you can imagine, 7-11 is constantly full of taxi drivers who suspiciously hang out in the 7-11 basement. Homeland Security should probably investigate. Anyway, a bunch of taxi drivers rent out units in Gemlarc and sleep in rotation, it seems. Fifteen people constantly cycling out of one apartment is a bit odd.

Second, the owners of this building reinvest NO money into the building. The maintenance guy is expected to constantly repair this place, one piece at a time. It's an impossible task and this place is constantly falling apart.

Expect the water to be shut off approximately once a month, sometimes twice a month. Expect the air conditioning to be shut off every other week during the hot summer months. Anticipate water leaking through your ceiling from the a/c unit above at least once per summer. Expect to see mice traversing through your apartment as they discover the numerous holes throughout the building. Expect your kitchen and bathroom sinks to constantly be plugged -- Drano won't help; they'll need to shut the water off in the entire building to fix it. Understand that the windows are so thin (and illegal by current construction codes) that they might as well be non-existent. If you face Columbia road, you'll hear buses every 15 minutes, loud-as-hell police/ambulance sirens every half hour, and drunks every weekend. The windows are about to fall out onto the street (the caulking is nearly crumbled away), and if they were to break, they would create deadly shards. They don't make thins window glass like this anymore for a reason. Unfortunately, Gelman Management hasn't thought to replace them since the original construction 50 years ago. It's a liability that will one day kill someone, and in the meantime, you won't be able to sleep as they offer NO protection from sound, and little protection from the elements.

The only happy people here are old ladies who are paying $400 a month (rent cap). They're also probably deaf, so the sound doesn't bother them. And their glaucoma prevents them from seeing the mice. Expect to pay at least $1,400 a month as of January 2008.

OH, and TONS of cockroaches. Tons.

Recommended: NO
Overall Rating
2 out of 5
Parking:
1 of 5
Maintenance:
2 of 5
Construction: 1 of 5
Noise:
1 of 5
Grounds: 2 of 5
Safety: 2 of 5
Office Staff:
3 of 5
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