I lived in Nexus Apartments for about a year.

Office and Maintenance Staff:

The office staff was very friendly, and maintenance always responded to my requests. There were a few maintenance emergencies, and the on-call maintenance guy always came within 30 minutes of me calling after 8pm. Each and every time they would leave a note stating the repair ticket and follow up to make sure the maintenance had been completed and resolved. I never had a problem with the office personnel when I had a question about the rent payment, deposits, or offered specials. Like another reviewer posted, they gave me some concessions off of the rent even though it wasn't advertised on the website at that time.

Apartment and Building Construction:

The construction seemed solid, and everything was brand new at the time of move in. As another poster commented, the hot water tank is rather small, and seemed to run out if I took more than short shower. (I never investigated turning up the heat on the unit though.) The appliances are what you'd expect for an apartment, where they go with the most economical unit. The in-unit washer and dryer are functional but cheap. The washer doesn't even have a fabric softener dispenser, for instance.

The units have a wall heater/air conditioning unit below the window in the living room and bedroom. With the temperatures in Hillsboro, I could get by without running these units for most of the year. The only problem here is that there's no vent in the bathroom, so they can get on the chilly side in the winter. However, this was one of the few nearby apartment complexes in Hillsboro that had air conditioning, so that's definitely a plus. The thermometers on the units weren't the highest quality, and so it required a bit of overshooting the temperature you actually wanted by a few degrees.

Closet space was a bit of an issue. In the one-bedroom configurations, there's only storage space in the coat closet and in the walk-in closet. There wasn't much space available in the laundry area since the water heater sat on top of the dryer. If you have a lot of extra stuff and are in one of the smaller units, you're either going to have to downsize or cough up the money for one of their storage units.

Utilities:

All utilities and appliances are electric, and you pay submetered water service. The costs with PGE were low year-round. There was a billing issue with the water service at the beginning, where residents were getting billed $100/month even for a one-bedroom apartment. This issue was corrected after three months and everyone was retroactively credited. I didn't experience any billing issues after this. Both cable (Comcast) and fiber optic (Verizon Fios) service is available here, and this was one of the only apartment complexes with the fiber optic Internet service available when I moved in. There are also Ethernet jacks in the living room and bedroom for great connectivity.

Parking:

Parking was not a problem, but this might change as the complex reaches near capacity. The spaces were a bit small for anything other than a compact car, so keep that in mind. Any uncovered parking space is free, covered parking and garages have an additional charge. I would recommend a garage if you have a larger vehicle.

Grounds and Amenities:

The workout room was nice, and it's open 24 hours. The pool area and courtyard was under construction the entire time I lived there, so I never got to use those facilities. I drove by the area earlier in the year, and it had been completed and looked alright.

There were only two dumpsters and recycling bin areas for the entire complex, and that was a bit limiting especially with lots of people moving in and out. The dumpster always seemed to be more full than empty, with people leaving their garbage bags next to it. Also, if you live in one of the buildings on the Cornell Road side, expect a bit of a hike to the dumpster.

Noise:

The complex was always eerily quiet, and I never experienced any noise problems.

Other:

The Orenco Station area is very nice. There is a Starbucks and New Seasons Market (natural foods grocery store) across the street. There's a shopping plaza within a 10-minute walk along Cornell that has the you-name-it fast food establishments and a WinCo (discount grocery store). The MAX Light Rail is two blocks away and offers fast transit to downtown Portland. The apartment is nearby the major companies: Intel, Nike, etc.

I would have continued living here if I didn't move out of the area.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 06/16/2008
I'm with you. That place looks beautiful, but if they're not going to be up front with the exact amount for water, sewer,etc., it can be kind of scary, especially with the cost of that place to begin. I think I want to wait for some more reviews, before I would consider moving in there.

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