Review for Imperial Gardens Apartments

These apartments were taken over by Kushner Companies, a billion dollar corporation in 2001. Imperial Ridge and Imperial Park are also owned by them. Since they have taken over, many improvements have been made to the properties, but more still needs to be done. Imperial Gardens is the oldest complex of the three, completed by 1985.

Biggest downfalls:

The complex lighting is somewhat substandard. Some areas are very well lit while other areas are somewhat unsafely lit due to poor maintenance.

Laundry facilities are inadequate. It takes at least two drying cycles before clothes are dry. Equipment is old and run down. Unfortunately, apartments are not equipped with washer/dryer hook-ups. Don't even bother complaining, as your complaints will be disregarded. Bottom line- avoid the laundry rooms, period.

Expect very little from management, and take what they promise you with a grain of salt. They will promise you whatever you want. For YEARS they have been telling the residents that a central laundry facility will be built, with state of the art equipment, but it never materialized during my residency. Complaints of almost any kind will be ignored.

Expect a 6% increase in rent a year. They only sign 1 year leases.

Kids are very noisy and destructive, especially during the summertime. Where I lived, flying baseballs constantly hit my car. Kids overall have no respect for other people's property and are obnoxious. For your sake I hope you don't own a Lexus or a Mercedes. Whatever you do, NEVER leave a mop, snow shovel or anything outside your door unless you want it stolen.

Ask to see what an ACTUAL apartment looks like. DO NOT rely on the model apartment they show you in the leasing office. The model has wallpaper, wall mirrors, nice fixtures, new cabinets and appliances. This is highly deceptive because the actual apartments look NOTHING like the model. Only in your dreams.

While I cannot comment on a Park or Ridge apartment in terms of sound proofing, I lived in a Gardens apartment and I could hear everything my downstairs neighbors said and did, and vise versa. You could literally feel the impact of every door slamming. Forget about keeping pictures on the wall level. However, there is a cinder block wall that separates you from your next door neighbors, so you will hear nothing from them other than their door slamming too.

Apartment painting is sloppy. The painter does not know what a "drop cloth" is.

They charge extra for the use of the pool and exercise facilities.

Office staff and management are mediocre at best. The leasing agent they used to have was excellent. She was fair, understanding, had a great personality and had a genuine concern for the residents. She resigned in August 04' which is a great loss. Since the new leasing agent took over, I have noticed a difference in the quality of people moving into the complex and it has not been good. The office/business manager does her job well, but that's about it. If you have a problem that is outside the realm of rent or maintenance issues, you are wasting your time talking to her. Her apathy is disgusting. The property manager only seems to care about the bottom line and filling vacant apartments at any cost. This has its consequences as it leads to having neighbors that are filthy, rude and cause plenty of trouble and noise.

READ YOUR LEASE CAREFULLY: This company did not get to be a billion dollar company by accident. If you break your lease before it is due, you ARE responsible for any and all charges relating to preparing the apartment which includes painting, carpeting, cleaning, etc. The minimum you will be charged is $250. Oh, did I also mention that you ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RENT UNTIL THE APARTMENT IS RENTED BY A NEW TENANT.

It is my opinion that this is not a very safe complex, at least in the Gardens. I lived here for almost 6 years, and in 2005 I had seen the complex deteriorate in terms of the quality of people living there. There is a lot of drug use (they did it right on the steps leading to the 2nd floor apartments), vandalism, loitering, crime, and quality of life issues in the Gardens area. Management took a completely unrealistic, fairy tale position on it. In previous years, there was a security patrol at night that helped control the above mentioned problems. For some insane reason, they decided not to have security in 05' and it showed. Additionally, there was a rape in a Ridge apartment in the summer of 05'. Avoid taking an apartment in the Gardens if it is in or near buildings 28, 27, 26 or 19. These apartments are near the swimming pool, office, fitness center and basketball courts. With that, there is plenty of noise and riff-raff during the summer months. If you have children, you may like being near these things, but if you have no children and like peace and quiet, avoid this area like the plague.

Strong Points:

The Gardens 2 bedroom apartments have the best layout. The living and dining areas are ample, although the bedrooms are small. In the Ridge apartments, the living/dining areas are smaller but the bedrooms are larger.

Neighbors are generally very nice, but could be nosy. One of my neighbors knew when I go to work, when I came home and what days I was off.

Maintenance staff was very competent. They usually fixed things right the first time, but are severely limited by the cheap replacement parts that Kushner Companies purchases. Plumbing issues such as faucets and stems may need to be replaced several times before being fixed correctly. You cannot blame the maintenance staff at all; they can only work with what is made available to them by the company.

Snow removal is prompt and cleaned up well. Just be prepared to dig your car out. It can't be helped though. Winter 05' snow removal was fantastic, better than 04'.

Final Analysis:

This is a nice complex compared to others in the Middletown-Walkill area. I recommend it, but with the exceptions that are mentioned above. Use plenty of caution and good judgment when choosing an apartment here. It wasnt all bad during the 6 years I lived here, but it reached a breaking point for me this year with the range of serious manintenance issues in my building as well as the seedy and distateful individuals running around. Never before in the previous years did I ever have to leave nasty messages with the office staff to get a maintenance issue fixed. A lot of improvements that need to be made to prevent this complex from going downhill. It is not so much the apartment complex itself, but staff and management play a large role in the living experience/quality of life here. Providing canned responses to complaints is annoying and nothing gets done to address residents concerns. Some people just dont know HOW to be nice or handle complaints. I personally believe that if they removed the current leasing agent and office manager, things could improve. However, no matter where you rent though, there are going to be problems.