As a tenant since the Park opened, here are my thoughts...

OVERALL

Definitely worth considering for the commute convenience and low-stress neighborhood. Most of my complaints are with the property management company and not the property itself. Things have definitely improved as the Park becomes more established (it's still only 3 years old). Please beware, many of the issues previous raters have posted were part of the complex's growing pains and are no longer valid. I'd disregard any review prior to summer-2006, a lot has changed.

PROS

Great location. Quick access to the GW Parkway means you're only minutes from downtown DC, Old Town Alexandria, Tyson's, and Ballston. And here's an little-known secret: You're just a few blocks from either the Pentagon City or Crystal City metro, where there's FREE evening and weekend parking available (Pentagon lot off of Army Navy Dr. or Crystal City Underground Parking).

Great location, part two. In addition to the great city and metro access, the Park still manages to be in a quiet neighborhood with low traffic and plenty of street parking. The parking lot issues mentioned by previous reviewers have been corrected, at least for the tenants living on 28th street. It has been over 9 months since that lot has been full at any time of day. I cannot speak for the 26th street parking situation though.

Plenty of Greenspace. There aren't very many apartments in the DC area that actually offer greenspace, and the Park is one of them. It's really pleasant seeing trees and a big yard outside your window, whereas most complexes offer nothing but a parking lot view. If you're lucky enough to land one of the ground level apartments with a patio door, it can really feel like a townhome.

Unique Kitchens. Another unique feature about the Park is the cherrywood kitchen cabinets, black appliances, and tile bathroom/kitchen floors. Most apartments in this price range still offer that bland white-on-white look. Having a little color warms the apartment.

Quiet. It's very quiet around here. You can hear people coming in/out of the front door of your building, but for the most part the apartments are very quiet.

CONS

Leasing Staff. As other reviewers have mentioned, they can be arrogant, but that's on par for the DC-area. When the Park first opened they were poorly manged and there was high turnover, which led to horrible miscommunication. However, over the last year the Park's staff has dug-in a little bit and is pretty consistent. They're not the best staff in the world, but they're adequate and you rarely have to deal with them (hopefully).

Property Management. Gates Hudson & Associates, which owns the Park, is incompetent. It is brutally obvious that they made several horrible investment decisions regarding the Park, including the idea to build a four-story for-rent parking garage attached to the clubhouse which is an unreasonable walk to most apartment buildings in the complex. Their solution: Raise garage space rent for the few tenants who live close enough to use it and lease most of the spaces to a nearby dealership. GHA has a long record of screwing tenants to compensate for their own financial mistakes. As a result, they've failed on many promises during my tenure here. For example, GHA lured it's original Park tenants by advertising no amenities fee an offering $30 in metrocard credit per month - a year later they "changed their policy" by slamming down an amenities fee and removing the metrocard perk. My advice to anyone getting a move-in perk: Get it in writing if they tell you the perk will last beyond the first 12-months.

Pets. Some people take advantage of the liberal pet policy at the Park. There's a chance you'll live in a building with someone cruel enough to own a 100-lb dog in a 600 sq-ft apartment, which can be quite noisy (mostly when they sound like a freight train coming in/out of the door). It also gets annoying that the Park staff constantly has to put notices on the door scolding people who don't pick up after their dogs. I really wish the Park would ban dogs, because I'm sure us non-pet tenants pay for them in one way or another.

Maintenance. In my experience it takes 2-3 requests before the maintenance people actually get around to fixing anything. My toilet was broken for 5 days once and they didn't act with any sense of urgency. Of course, the staff always provides an excuse.

Conceirge. The Park tries to provide a great service with the conceirge. It's really convenient being able to pick up your packages at any time during the day. Unfortunately most of the conceirge employees have bad attitudes and speak poor english. The only exception is this one pleasant conceirge woman who works afternoons - she's always helpful and happy to see you. The others seem like they hate life.

User Responses
From: MLB545	Date: 08/24/2007
Thank you so much for taking the time to type your very thorough and helpful post!
From: Leigh-in-DC	Date: 01/23/2008
I love that girl at the front desk- I think her name is Carmen.

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