After four years of living in the same apartment, I finally moved on last October to move into my own home. The staff changed a few times, Gables came on as the management company, replacing the owner-run office from when I moved in. When I first moved in, the property was not full, and was not marketed well. Therefore, it was a much quieter property than it was when Gables took over. There were plenty of older people who were responsible and considerate of their neighbors, but that all changed when Gables came on. Once the property was marketed correctly, they attracted more young people, and this "hidden" gem became more prominent, and more noisy. The walls and halls are very thin, and we often could hear our neighbors word-for-word conversations through our bedroom wall, and could hear every step and every flush of our upstairs neighbors. And don't even talk about people leaving their dogs unattended and barking all day.

We were on the second floor, and the place used to shake when the people above us jumped or ran around, so much so that the people below us used to call the office and complain about our making noise when we were not even home. It was the people two floors up.

With that said, I did learn to tiptoe around, and the troublemakers upstairs finally moved out, and we got better neighbors.

This all may sound bad, but this was still a great place to live. Central Market was just down the stairs, shopping during the holidays was super easy, and once you found out about the back roads traffic was bearable. Also the office staff was great, no matter what you may have read here. Get to know the staff and you might understand where they are coming from. I did not have any fees and received 100% of my deposit back. It just takes a little care for the apartment, and they were fair in all my dealings with them. And maintenance is top notch...thanks to Tony.

If you know what to expect from an apartment with this location, with these amenities, in this price range (you will hear people, cars, dogs, bumps in the night, etc), then the Gael is a good value. If you are not a savvy renter, try and upgrade to a better apartment in this area and see what you will pay...most likely $400-500 more for the square footage.

Tips for this complex:

-Rent third floor ONLY. You will be glad you did. Be considerate of neighbors below and beside and consider yourself lucky.
-The higher the building number the better (further away from Central Market's dumpster, although they did a good job managing the smell.
-The further toward the front (Essex Lane) of the property the better (better for move-ins/outs, and the Central Market band on Saturdays and Sundays will begin to drive you slowly crazy after about 2 hours, and you can hear them well even inside)

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