This has to be the most horrible rental experience of my entire life. The building is an old run down nursing home that the new owner's simply put a coat of paint on it. Shortly after the new owner's took over they got rid of the building security staff and an old woman was murdered in her apartment. They recently settled with her family for around $2 million in compensation for her death due to their negligence. All they have now is a lame security patrol that could not protect themselves, let alone the tenants.
Also the building is heated by a central heating system of forced hot water throughout the building. But to save money the system is shut down at least half the days of the week and the building is frigidly cold. I have heard many elder residents (left over from nursing home days) that they are freezing and the building is too cold. Each unit has a very ineffective little wall heater that doesn't do much except to increase your power bill.
Many residents in the building smoke and smoke is constantly encroaching into other tenant's units. The management has even put out a flyer notifying tenants to stop throwing cigarettes out their windows, because the prevailing winds blow them back into other tenant's units below (yuck!). Many people have tried ionizers, hepa filters, etc. but the smoke encroachment into your unit cannot be stopped and it is horrible. I know a resident who is allergic to smoke and the management does nothing to alleviate the smoke problem in his unit from neighboring units.
Furthermore, the office staff has to get the award for the most ineffective, most rude office staff ever to manage a building. When you go to them with a concern they just say yes, okay, sure, we will get to it and then nothing happens. They just tell you what you want to hear and ignore you. Than if you mention it again they get all offended and start acting in a very belligerent manner. The building is also supposed to have a "concierge" but she quit or got fired and they have made no attempt to replace her.
If you want the convenience of a washer and dryer in your unit do not live here. There is only a central wash room on the 2nd floor that is constantly busy as it is not large enough to accommodate the size of the building. Plus you must pay $2.00 for a laundry access card and you can only add value with a credit card. If you do not have a credit card than you cannot do your laundry here. Plus the room is never cleaned. You are basically washing your clothes in filth, and people put their dogs on the folding tables.
This building is also infiltrated by dogs. Dogs are everywhere. Tenants do not leash them and they run around the building unsupervised. There is a garden on the 3rd floor but it is always mired in dog crap so you feel like you are negotiating a Cambodian mine field when you step out there. Plus the stench from the dog crap does not make for a pleasant experience. There are barbecues here also but they are never clean and who wants to BBQ with the fragrance of dog crap in the air anyway.
One of the worst things is that AFTER you sign your lease you are given a leaflet from the Environmental Protection Agency about lead poisoning in the water. It turns out that the building has lead soldered pipes and you can get lead poisoning from the hot water. Lead poisoning is a very debilitating disease and can be fatal. They say the cold water is okay because it is heat that leaches the lead from the solder, but that fact does not give me much comfort. Needless to say, I spend a lot of money on bottled water for my drinking and cooking needs.
When you tour the building they show you the great media room, workout room, computer center, and board room. The media room is always being used by people to cheap to buy their own TV, so good luck using that one. The computer center has 486 based machines that HP discontinued over 5 years ago. Plus they are always in disrepair and someone has installed key logging software on them, so any sensitive information you type is saved and sent to a remote computer for hackers to use later. Aint that special' The board room is ok if you call an empty room with a white board, a table and some chairs a board room. No internet access here so not really that functional for real world business use in today's world. Now for the great workout room. That room seems to never be heated, so working out there is like working out in a Siberian gulag. I would love to use that room but cannot bear the frigid temperatures in the room even for the shortest period of time, so for me working out there is simply not an option.
Also the mailboxes are tiny and constantly open up dumping your mail on the floor. Some boxes do not even have locks. They claim that in January they will build a new mail room, but I am holding my breath on that one.
Plus the parking garage is horrible and you have to pay $100 per month for the privilege of parking there. The spots are tiny and negotiating into them is horrid. Also it seems that hey have oversold the number of spots so even though you paid for parking you are not guaranteed to find a parking spot when you need one.
There are many other things I could say about this building but I am getting depressed thinking about them. Just a word of friendly advice, if you are thinking about moving here, stop thinking and go look elsewhere or you will have the most horrid living experience of your entire life, bar none.

User Responses
From: Anonymous	Date: 05/03/2007
An honest review.
From: Anonymous	Date: 09/13/2008
Its 2008 now. Business Centre has Vista machines. New Laundry systems, new Gym machines, good security and good caretakers, caring management, excellent neighbours, good website.

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