Review for Palazzo At Park Center Apartments

I have lived at this property almost two years now as a renter. Overall for me the convenience has outweighed the downside of living here. I am listing the pros and cons below. Even though the rental has worked out OK for me, I would not recommend this property to someone considering buying a home ebcause the CONS outweigh the PROS.

PROs:

Convenience

-- Convenient location at 395 and King Street
-- My two cats were welcome

Amenities

-- Fitness center (small but adequate)
-- Pool
-- Covered parking (no scraping snow off your windshield)

CONs:

Package Delivery Arrangements

-- Appartments have only tiny mail boxes. Only standard letter mail will fit; even some large envelopes are too large.
-- Although the property management office would sign for packages and keep them in a room for you if delivered during working hours when the property was managed by Archstone, the new company will not accept any packages/deliveries. You must make your own arrangements to be home, re-deliver, or pick up from the post office/shipper.

Leaky parking Lot for Buildings 3 & 4

-- I have had no security problems and do not feel unsafe.
-- However the lot is poorly constructed and leaks whenever it rains/snow melts.
-- Archstone initiated a construction project to waterproof the lot, which meant the courtyard was ripped up and construction going on for most of the time I have been at the complex, but the garage still leaks.
-- The leaks have come through layers of concrete and construction material and the resultant caustic fluid can damage the paint on your car.
-- Although during the time I have been renting we were free to park in any open space in this lot, under the condo regime you will be stuck with a deeded space (two for the two bedroom and den model) and if you are unlucky enough to get a leaky one (and there are a number of those) there will be no alternative for you to parking in it.

Property Management Hours

-- Under Archstone the property management office was open Saturdays and also until 7 pm.
-- The new management cancelled the Saturday hours and intially was open no later than 6 pm, which meant anyone with a job would have to take off work to go see them.
-- The property management office then summoned everyone to come and pick up parking stickers, without making arrangements for better hours.
-- I protested and the hours have been extended to 7 pm most evenings, but still no Saturday hours.
-- Archstone also had online work orders for maintenance, but the new company does not.
-- So if something goes wrong in your apartment or you need to speak to the management, you will most likely have to call from work or take time off to deal with it.

Inflexible Floor Plans

-- I have a two bedroom plus den.
-- It looked good on paper and was OK for temproary rental, but the design is very limiting and would drive me nuts over the long term.
-- There is only one place in the living area where the TV can go (because of placement of doors, windows. outlets and cable hook ups). So I cannot move the furniture around for a new look.
-- The master closet opens out of the bathroom not the bedroom, so you risk misdew/water damage to delicate clothes.
-- The master bedroom is not rectangular, it has a strange slanted wall on one corner (den is on other side) which means there is only one possible orientation for my king size bed. Even a full size would have been a tight fit in any other orientaton.
-- The cable hookup in the master bedrom is placed on the same wall as the one the bed must rest against, so there is no conveneinet way to hook up a TV wihtout tripping over the cord (barring some long cord attached with bracktes to the wall over the bathroom door and alf way around the room).
-- The bathrooms are tiny and do not provide much space for hampers/storage units.
-- The hall closet by the front door is miniscule, really too small for coats.
-- There is no linen closet.
-- The den looks cute on paper but it is the oddest shaped room you will ever find, all bizarre angles and walls of odd lengths. I am trying to use it as an office, but finding furniture to fit the design is a challenege, and not worth it for someone who is not permanent. If you have the same idea. take measurements and compatre to your office furniture and you will see the problems making it fit.

Sidewalk Maintenance in WInter

-- They don't put down salt on the walkways. If you walk to the bus stop, you rik slipping on the frequent dangerous ice.

Noise Level

-- My cats ger excited by the noises form overhead,; they think the epiple walkign around are mice in the attic.
-- You do hear doors slamming, etc.
-- Sitting in my living room I clearly hear normal conversations in the hall; assume everyone hears all my phone converstaions.

Quality of Workmanship

-- The molding over my door and the stirps along the floow in the walk way cam loose within weeks of moving in.
-- The carpet is the cheapest possible and very poorly installed -- I see frayed edges sticking up in several places.