Good, Bad and Ugly
From:
Think2X
Date posted:
7/20/2007
Years at this apartment:
2005
-
2007
The Good - Belltown is an amazing place to live, in an amazing city. This building is two blocks from the waterfront, two blocks from the Space Needle (in Seattle Center), and within short walking distance to dozens of great bars and restaurants, two grocery stores, Key Arena, and other amenities too numerous to mention here. Downtown shopping is on a par with Magnificent Mile in Chicago. The maintenance person is a good, honest gentleman, and the a pastor of a church.
The Bad - The building itself is spottily maintained. There are ongoing problems with vandalism of the north elevator - it happens almost every weekend. I can affirm many of the isssues mentioned elsewhere in these reviews, including fire alarm tests, dogs who use the building as their toilet (the place sometimes felt like a kennel), tightness of parking (many cars show the battle scars of their scrapes with the ill-spaced columns), and debris left in corridors and public places. One particularly disturbing event involved an individual who attempted an assault in the coutyard. Another was the loud, electric guitar playing by one tenant at 7:00 am every Saturday and Sunday morning. The units are not air conditioned, and 1st Avenue is one of the main north-south corridors through town. It's a Harley-Davidson festival on summer weekend nights, from about 11:00 pm - 3:00 am. Very loud.
The Ugly - the management, unfortunately, is proactively dishonest, using the guise of fake smiles and calming words to mask their true intentions. First, they "accidently" leased my apartment out from under me when I expressed an interest in moving into something larger within the building. Luckily the person was convinced to take another unit in the building. Ultimately, I moved out due to job relocation. While I could have waited until my lease expired, the management, Anthony and Brandi, released me from my lease, saying it was OK to move out early, they had a waiting list of potential tenants and would lease my apartment within a week, at a higher rate. A month after I left, and a day after they called, requesting a forwarding address where they could send my deposit, I received a letter stating I owed them for two months's rent, including a month that hadn't even started yet! Amazing.
Conclusion - there are plenty of places in Belltown and Queen Anne, the adjacent neighborhood. Look carefully at all the options. I enjoyed my time there, but not because the building itself was anything special.
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