Like the title reads, this is probably the "nicest" apartment community in Gurnee; HOWEVER, in comparison to others, it's not all that great.

There are 2 phases. Phase 1 sucks...simply put, these apartments are built horrendously;

1) The walls and floors are paper thin and you can literally hear people living their daily lives through the walls and floors. Normal conversations can be heard as well as any tv or music. I feel that there's absolutely no sound insulation b/w apartments in the first phase.
2) I don't know who designed the layout of the apartment buildings, b/c in phase 1, the buildings face each other which creates a tunnel effect for noise and wind. It's like living in a breezeway of office buildings. You can hear whenever a car passes by as well as when people are talking outside. LITERALLY echos!
3)Layout of the apartments are bad. We live in the Raven, which is possibly the worst. The masterbedroom is useless b/c the wall is next to the stairs so you can literally hear people walking up and down the stairs outside.
4)The hallways are always smelly, from overpowering glade plug-in scents to cigarettes to dog feces.
5)The whole grounds are littered with dog feces. It's hard to walk in the grassy parts without the fear of stepping in doggy poo. I have lived in many different apartment communities and this is the first one where the grounds keepers haven't made any effort to alleviate this situation. There are only 3 or 4 dog stations (keep in mind that AMLI Osprey Lake is HUGE HUGE HUGE) that NEVER have doggy bags.

Phase 2 is built very well. It's very apparent that they learned from their mistakes in phase 1 and fixed things. The setup is much better and lacks the short comings of phase 1, so if you're planning on getting an apartment here, look ONLY into phase 2. The bad thing is that the sound insulation is still not that great (don't get me wrong, it's much better than phase 1, but not the best), there's still dog poo everywhere, the hallways smell the same as phase 1, and there are no attached garages like in phase 1. The attached garage is the only reason why I chose phase 1 over 2.

As for the apartment management and features;

1)Management doesn't exist and complaints go unanswered. They don't even have a permanent property manager! (only a temp).
2)Lease breaking is a big no-no. 2months with 2 months notice. So you better plan on staying your whole lease term. They really could care less if you have valid reasons to break the lease. This is the FIRST apartment community where the penalty was this stiff and there was absolutely no negotiability on lease break fines.
3)The gym is decent. They have a multipurpose/all-in-one gym thing-a-ma-bobs but it's not very ergonomic and designed poorly on the manufacturers side.(It's one of those cheapy sports authority setups). There are no freeweights beyond dumbbells (which there are many missing and only go up to 75). Otherwise, the gym is fine. It gets very crowded though.
4)The people that live in the community aren't very friendly. There are a few nice individuals here and there, but most keep to themselves.
5)The business office isn't that great. Never any ink in the printer (or even paper for that matter), the computer is obsolete, and there is no copier available to residents.
6)Tennis court gates have been broken for the longest time, but I imagine that this will be fixed come summer
7)Two different pools (indoor and outdoor). Nice but small indoor.
8)As mentioned previously, security gates are ALWAYS broken. Is it so hard to get stronger plastic ones'
9)They clean up snow and ice fairly well.
10) The garage bins overfill sometimes, but dumped regularly
11) Parking is limited if you don't have a garage.

User Responses
From: chicagochic	Date: 06/12/2005
I have been looking at different Amli's among other properties, and the Osprey Lakes apartment seems to be the best of them all. But I value your opinion a LOT, so I want to know if moving there would be a good choice for me. All the amenities at Osprey Lakes seems to be far greater than other properties, and for the price and the square feet, I feel like I would be getting a great deal. But if parking is limited, noice levels are loud and management sucks, I might have to rethink the decision. Please offer some more insight. I would only be looking at a 12 month lease.
From: cklocek	Date: 08/05/2005
In regards to posting: "Best place in Gurnee...but that's not saying much" It's really the best Gurnee, Waukegan, Zion, Park City, Buffalo Grove, Lake Forest have to offer. I can't speak for any other location(s) south of these areas b/c they are much larger cities. There really isn't any other types of communities like Amli though. I just moved into a Phase II studio. My appt complex faces north; it's right off delany road. The only "complaint" I have is the noise from traffic (loud - really loud motorcycles & everyday vehicles), but I digress - it comes w/ the territory so it's not really a "complaint". Besides it's only loud if you have the screen door open. In my complex (which is a pet complex)it is believe it or not very quiet inside the studio. Sure when I'm walking down the halls I can hear the other dogs barking; duh! But, no smell whatsoever and the folks in my area do a great job of cleaning up outside and the dog stations have never run out of bags. Needless to say Amli is by nature an expensive community to live in, the pool(s) (indoor / outdoor) are not big, but hey I didn't ask for them. The fitness room is decent size and they have a sauna room. The business area does suck; really bad. There is only one computer and it's a piece of junk. The only other thing I would say is ask a lot of questions before renting; especially if you've never rented in this type of community or at all. I didn't know I had to pay a sewage / garbage bill until after I signed up everything and they left me a nice notice in my appt when I moved in telling me they were passing along an increase in the admin fee of that bill starting immediately. BTW: all the garages in Phase 1 & 2 are attached. They are the first floor on two sides of each building. Overall worth renting. Coming from living in a really nice home for over 20 years I'm spoiled, so I can't complain about the studio. It's way too hard to compare.
From: StacyIJ	Date: 06/05/2006
Since you have lived there for almost 1 year, what do you think now?

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