Interurban Building

Lots of little flaws From: dabears2007 Date posted: 2/17/2007 Years at this apartment: 2005 - 2007   Many things in these apartments and building are right. There are, however, a lot of little flaws that eventually add up. To name a few: Frequently when I'm checking the mail in the basement for the past few months there's a strong smell of sewage. It comes and goes and is stronger some times than others, but it's really obnoxious. When it first started they installed a hole in the floor near the freight elevators; not sure if that was to fix the problem or not, just an odd thing to do. Some contractors they used for various pieces of the initial build-out must have been lowest-cost types. For the first year or so the building was open a ton of things broke. The parking garage gates break constantly (and they're new), even to date they're frequently in need of repair (it's better now than at first, but still happens frequently; they at least fix it quickly now). I've visited some basement apartments (before move-in and after people have lived there; don't live there!) and the floors are so incredibly cheap I can't believe they're serious. I toured the basement apartments before they were finished and they were just plywood. You would feel like you were going to fall through them. Once the basement apartments were finished, they were still plywood but with "hard wood" laminate on top. So the floors still feel like you'll fall through them in parts, but now have cheap laminate on top of them. The non-basement apartments are sooooo much better. I can't imagine that the plywood floors are good for noise travel. At least the other levels have concrete floors. I'm glad the basement units weren't open when I moved in, otherwise I might have gotten one. Some people had a bad cricket problem during the summer. That's just sort of the downtown atmosphere, but from what I could tell a huge amount had gotten in. More than would get in from external doors opening and closing. I'm curious if that'll happen again when the next summer rolls around. The TV provider here is really pretty bad. It's Dish Network, which isn't bad by itself, but it's through a reseller that doesn't support the majority of Dish Network's options (DVR being one big one). TV's not the most important thing in an apartment choice, but it is confusing how AT&T Home Entertainment (the reseller) stays in business. The grocery store is great but only but 70% of what you'd need so you're still going to have to take trips up the freeway to get to a real store. Both the grocery store and cafe (and bar) suffer from the problem of nobody really going to the Interurban building late at night. They used to be open relatively late (10 on weeknights) but have taken to closing at 9pm every night. It's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy if you ask me. They're not doing enough to promote it to other downtown-ites so nobody is there after 8pm any night. The cafe has been closing 90% of their tables by about 8:15 or so (so only the tables near the bar and couches are open) so it's not a very inviting place to come to at night. I have a problem with apartment offices storing UPS/FedEx packages out in the open. If you have a package delivered, it'll just sit in the office and they'll just point you over to where it's stored. If there are more than just yours over there, you'll have the pick of whatever you want. There's no sign-out type of process or verification you're really taking your own packages. I've never gotten anything taken (honor system worked so far), but I started having my packages delivered to work instead (haven't in over 6 months, not sure if they still do that). Parking is both good and bad. It has been claimed that if someone is in your assigned spot they can be towed, but I sat in line behind 10 other cars one day (with a big buildup behind me) where a tow truck had gotten stuck towing someone out of the garage. I don't know why the car was being towed, but it got stuck nonetheless. I highly doubt they can really back up that towing claim. The garage is supposed to be secured at night, but they still leave the foot traffic gate open at night so it's still technically possible to walk in and get up to the cars with a little work (I went out with some trash the other day and it was actually chained and locked open). At least they finally secured the garage elevators so you can't get up that easily. I've lived other places downtown over the past few years and I've been in other buildings friends lived in. This building is about on par with all the rest with the benefit of having the cafe/bar/store attached to it.

Recommended: NO Overall Rating

Parking: Maintenance: Construction: Noise:

Grounds: Safety: Office Staff:

I'm the author!

Lived here?

Disclaimer: No attempt has been made to verify or assure the accuracy of the claims made by the author of this opinion or responses. You must judge the truthfulness of any review and accept responsibility for your use of this information.

Pets Not Accepted: Should You Sneak Your Cat or Dog In Anyway? - Sep 29    Apartment Move-In Inspection Tips - Sep 22    How to Get Rid of Mice, Part 2 - Sep 15    Decorating from Smart Garage Sale Purchases - Sep 08    When Your Apartment is a Cell Phone Dead Zone - Sep 01    10 Things Smart Renters Know About Apartment Hunting    How to Break Your Lease Legally