I have used apartmentratings.com to help give me an idea of the places I am considering before I sign the lease, but have never posted a review. This time, I find it necessary because this complex is very new and no one has more than a handful of new reviews to reference. Most of these reviews are just initial reactions, and I don t believe they are too detailed as they just describe the obvious, which you can get from reading a brochure. By the way, those three reviews written on 8/14/2007, were all by the staff, I heard they wanted to boost ratings, and it is obvious anyways, because there are 3 reviews on the same day. Since I just wanted a change of scenery, I decided to switch complexes which I am regretting now because I had no problems in my previous place. I was drawn in by the basketball court, arcade, and pool like most people. Also, the fact it was new also swayed me into signing. Unfortunately, there was only one review here and only a handful of people living here so I didn t have much to go upon when looking into how the place would be. Reality is that a complex is only as good as it s staff and tenants. So the reviews before 8/17/2007 should be discarded because that was the official move in date for all the tenants. While I have not had any real maintenance issues with my own unit yet which I shouldn t anyways because it s brand new, I am really thankful because from what I have heard from other tenants, they are really slow. You can also see proof of this because the pool is still not done yet as of today 8/21/2007, and it looks like it while be a while before it is complete. Since it is an outdoor pool, it will not be useful for most of the year so if you like swimming, you may want to consider the many complexes that have an indoor pool. Also, the fact comparison sheet 88 west made is not accurate because they don t account for facilities they lack (like a Jacuzzi or walk in closets) and lie about other complexes as it states that capstone is closer to UIUC than the Atrium Apartments (which is not true). The parking situation is pretty bad now that all the other tenants have moved in and there are no more garages left to rent. The only bus route that comes to these apartments (2 Red) will only stop outside these apartment about 5-6 times a day, so that heated bus stop is pretty useless unless you want to get to your classes way ahead of time or come back at some specific time that may not be around your schedule. Organization and communication between the staff is poor because I was told that I am going to live with one roommate, then the next day someone told me the apartment was full, then I was told that there was no one living there (I finally had to talk to the main leasing manager because everyone had a different copy of the lists). Most of the facilities since move in day have been occupied by residents as well as non-residents. When I talk to people playing basketball on the court, most of them tell me they don t even live here. I am paying rent for these facilities and I barely get to use them, which is really not right. Also, most of the nights there are lots of drunk people driving around the complex as well as walking on the driveway areas, so you have to be really careful pulling in because people like to lay in the middle of the roads. There was also police here the other night because people heard gunshots from outside the clubhouse which is a really unsafe. People are constantly getting beat up and I have already gotten stopped twice by the police regarding a missing person and the gunshot incident. I have even lived near eads in Urbana for a few years and never once got stopped there. There is also only one trash area in the whole complex, so you have to either walk your trash about a quarter mile to the dumpster or drive it if you live in any of the farther apartments. This is pretty gross because I have a nice car and wouldn t want trash spilling in it. The bedroom lights are pretty dim and the panic alarms were not installed as promised. Also, there are no phone lines in the rooms, so you cannot hook up a fax machine here. The other real downside which others may see as a plus is that you only have bathrooms in the bedrooms. This means that if you have random guests over and they need to use the bathroom, they have to go through the bedrooms and stuff can get stolen easily. I have to make sure to lock my bedroom when my roommate has people over because I don t want them going to use the bathroom in my room. A common area bathroom would have been better in that case. I guess the moral of the story is to not expect anything unless you see it complete and working. If I continue here in grad school, I will probably move back to my old place because the maintenance was much better and there was a lot less residents and were a lot more organized. Also, I would recommend you talk to the residents who have lived year for the first year rather than the leasing agents as they can give you all the real inside information rather than just persuade to sign the lease like a bunch of car salesmen.

Manager's Response
From: Manager	Date: 01/17/2008
We do not believe this is a resident comment, but rather the work of a competitor. We have analyzed and micro-dissected all police calls carefully to verify there has been no gun incident on record with the Champaign Police Department. We encourage any concerned readers to please do the same research. Furthermore, there are phone lines in each bedroom and an intrusion alarm in the living room of each apartment, however it is the residents' choice and responsibility to secure a monitoring company. On behalf of the entire 88 West management team, thank you for taking the time to read our response to these false allegations and misrepresentation of our community and product.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 08/27/2007
sounds like another property manager to me; dont you guys have anything better to do?
From: Anonymous	Date: 07/07/2008
First of all, i doubt it is a "competitor" simply because this isn't the first review that claims of shots fired in the area. Secondly, the security system installed in each unit is useless, because like the manager stated, it is up to each tenant to secure a security company, i.e ADT, Brinks etc...however, none of these companies will offer packages for less than a 3 year term. Not many of us will live in any apartment for 3 years straight to justify a security system. Do you homework. Call METCAD (C-U 911 center) and request a list of prior complaints to this apartment complex. Thank the Freedom of Information Act for the ability to actually get a list what has happened on this property.

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