Convenient
From:
-Anonymous-
Date posted:
12/2/2007
Years at this apartment:
2005
-
2007
I have been living at Pembroke Square Since July 2005, and will be moving for my job in January 2008. Overall my stay has been above average.
The leasing and maintenance staff are very friendly... any problems I've ever had, from changing lightbulbs(14 ft. ceilings) to fixing the kitchen sink, have been fixed in a fairly timely fashion.
The security staff were terrible a year ago, but the new guards are very nice. Security itself as far as getting into the building is an interesting process... You must swipe an access card to get into the front or side doors, swipe the access card again to go between buildings (Gayoso House and Pembroke Square are directly connected) at night, swipe the card to get into the mail and elevator areas, and swipe the card yet again to get up the elevator. It sounds tedious, but in a downtown apartment controlled access is a necessity.
There is a rooftop with a great view of the river and the bridge, and an adequately stocked 24/hr gym in Gayoso House with both men and women locker rooms.
The flower shop and market are no longer in the building. However, we now have a French cuisine restaurant (Circa) and a retail store for girls (Track Couture). There is also a sushi restaurant (Bluefin) which has been around for years in the building, as well as the Center for Southern Folklore (also has a restaurant) and the Belz Museum (Chinese artifacts). Next door are a coffee/pastry shop, a Chinese bistro, and Majestic Grille. Across the trolley line is Royal Furniture.
Sometimes people will book the Center for Southern Folklore for parties or meetings. It's usually not a problem, but sometimes drunk people from the parties will try to get into the elevator area and "explore" the building... to see if people really do live there. They've started putting a security guard nearby to monitor the parties but he usually walks between both buildings so you sometimes get drunk people asking you questions or asking if they can see upstairs if he's over checking on Gayoso House.
Pembroke Square and Gayoso House are right on the trolley line, which comes in front of the building roughly every 5 minutes for north or south. There is a small market on the trolley line to the north as well as a Walgreens (open until 8pm), the art district and the Civil Rights Museum are to the south on Main Street. The parking garage is located on the other side of the trolley line (less than 30 yards walking). The closest whole grocery store gives you two options... Take Poplar to Kroger which is not in the best area of town (about 4 miles away), or go to Walmart and Kroger over the river in West Memphis (about 7 miles away) and try to go through the construction being done over the bridge.
The parking garage has 7 stories. The premium parking is located on the first floor, which is about $85 a month. It's just a smaller version of the rest of the garage; there are no barriers or coverings to protect the cars, and anyone can walk into it. I personally park with regular parking $30 a month and fight for parking. It can be difficult to find parking spots during the day since there are so many businesses in a three block radius, and also at night when people come for the nightlife. Within 6 months of buying a new car, I already had 16 dents and pings in it from other people hitting the car, and my hood has a huge indention where it looks as if someone SAT on my hood.
On the weekend nights the elevators in the parking garage tend to smell like beer, vomit, and PineSol. Sometimes the trash cans will be overturned in the elevators, you'll find drunk people passed out inside, etc.
Every time I cross from the parking garage to the apartment building, I have to look and make sure that I won't be getting begged from or mugged. Though this is considered the "safest area of Memphis"... well, that indicates just how "safe" Memphis is if the residents still live in a bit of fear.
Sometimes getting into and leaving the parking garage can be a pain. I have sat in line to leave the garage for 45 minutes, on several occasions over the summer times. This is also sometimes common around holidays.
There are alleyways for loading and unloading your car on the sides of the buildings, with freight elevators. In a room by the security desk you can check out a dolley or a shopping cart if you have a lot of items, or a large item, to bring into the building.
The freight elevator in Pembroke Square smells TERRIBLE. For the past 4 months it has smelled like garbage. The staff says that people aren't closing the doors to the garbage area on the first floor, but every time I take a peek to see if it's true, those doors are closed.
There are laundry rooms on each floor, that also have a garbage chute in the corner. There is only one washer and one dryer per floor. The washer costs $1.25 to use and the dyer costs $1 to use.
The walls must be reinforced with a noise barrier of sorts, because I have never heard my neighbors make a squeek. You can sometimes hear people coming down the hall through the front door, but it's never been much of a problem. My apartment windows face Front Street, so I do hear a lot of noise from there. The windows do not open, so the lack of fresh air is sometimes a bit of a let down. The fire house is two blocks away, and on Saturday night you'll hear honking and subs bumping around 2am.
The location of Beale is convenient if you tend to enjoy having a drink or few and not having to drive anywhere. The FedEx Forum is about 3 blocks away, and you can throw a rock to the Orpheum. Peabody Place Mall is one block away, and has a full sized movie theatre as well as a Starbucks on the first floor of the mall.
This is definitely a location worth looking in to, as long as you are ready to take the good with the bad.
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