I've lived at Walnut Tower for several years now, and, although the experience has been a worthwhile learning experience, I would definitely not repeat it.

My first experience was with the parking garage. Although the garage is gated and monitored via closed-circuit TV (which means the feed from the cameras are recorded to videotaped; staff rarely watches the feed during the day and not at all on nights and weekends), this does not deter the local homeless and the other human debris that frequent downtown (not to mention tenants, which have been seen breaking into vehicles). Break-ins to vehicles and vandalism are the norm, and anything with any value stands a very good chance of being stolen. Break-ins are a bigger problem when the garage door is broken and stands open for days and nights on end, which is all too frequent.

Maintenance can be a problem as well. Although I have not experienced great problems with maintenance myself, other tenants have had difficulties. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that there is exactly one maintenance man for twelve floors and a few hundred units. He tries his best, but any fool knows that only one maintenance man for this kind of complex is simply insufficient. The biggest single maintenance problem is with the elevators. Not a month goes by without one of the two being out of service for some reason. In a high-rise apartment during "rush hour" it can be quite a wait to get an elevator when only one is working. It is also not uncommon for tenants to be trapped in the elevators for up to a few hours. Admittedly the elevators are somewhat better now than they were previously, when they stopped between floors or jumped up and down while the doors were open. However, such experiences have made me highly skeptical of the safety of the main method of ingress and egress for most of Walnut Tower's tenants.

The biggest problem is with the administration of the building, both on-site and at NAI Cohen-Esrey's main office. The office staff on-site is quite useless in emergency situations. In an emergency you are on your own, as they won't even return your phone call (relayed to them by an answering service) until the next business day. They will not act to remedy any major problem until residents begin moving out. The complex has gone without security of any kind until early this year (2004) when they hired a contractor to do courtesy patrols, which means an occasional drive-by by the security guard (who, by the way, is responsible for several other properties). This concession was not made by NAI Cohen-Esrey's main office until after dozens of break-ins and at least one lawsuit. Several tenants petitioned both the property manager, the hirsute-visaged Karen Klemmer (who, in my opinion, couldn't manage a roach motel and should be fired), and CEO Bob Esrey to do something about the abhorrent situation at Walnut Tower. Ms. Klemmer was uncooperative, unhelpful and typically useless. Mr. Esrey never found the time to answer a certified letter. NAI Cohen-Esrey never seems to have much of a problem cashing a rent check, but when it comes to improving the situation of it's tenants they are clearly uninterested.

Management routinely lies and covers up potentially threatening situations. For instance, one day I came home to Walnut Tower to the appearance of several police cars and vans. Apparently there was some homicide that had occurred in the building. Of course the rumor mill ran rampant. The office subsequently left a note with each of the tenants explaining that there was indeed a death on the premises, but the tenant had died of natural causes. Being a curious person, I went to the police station on Linwood and Troost and pulled the police report on the incident (CRN 03-027330). The tenant was found in his apartment, which had blood throughout, having apparently expired as a result of "blunt trauma to the forehead." I never did discover what naturally caused the tenant in apartment 1105's skull to be crushed, but I learned plenty about the way NAI Cohen-Esrey does business.

Walnut Tower looks like a fine building from the street, but unless you enjoy watching drugs being dealt, hearing bums and druggies arguing all night long and waging war with the management, I suggest you look elsewhere. The lesson we learned the hard way is that if a complex has several available units and is bending over backwards with low rent and specials there must be some reason why the building is empty and they can't keep tenants. Pay the higher rent and live somewhere where you are not in constant fear for the safety of yourself, your loved ones and your possessions. Personally I would never have anything ever to do with a NAI Cohen-Esrey property and I would recommend that everyone else do the same.

PS: For what it's worth, I have a perfect rental history. The place I live in now doesn't accept anyone with any kind of negative background whatsoever. And I don't have BO, either.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/10/2007
Now this person REALLY laid it on the line,a nd it is about time someone actually go into this kind of detail about this place. Yes, I agree that when it comes to rent, they are ready to snatch that money out of your hand before the third of the month (We used to have until the fifth of the month; they changed it some time ago without informing the tenants. they just "slipped" it into your new lease...) but do not want to take care of problems. They especially are good at "covering up" negative things that take place on site as this reviewer noted.

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