John T. Chance

Posting anonymously but DM me for receipts. Management is running this place into the ground. They charge you for everything and the parent company, AIRCO, proudly boasts rising revenues from resident fees to investors. AIRCO's investment strategy focuses on growth properties and value-adding investments, and as they target higher risk investments like Locust (which was converted from a warehouse), they promise investors higher return rates. They deliver on these higher rates in part by passing on as many costs as possible to residents. You will pay for everything--and some of the monthly fees, which can clock in at $200+ per month, will be characterized, e.g., as "monthly service fees" without any further description. If you complain, as many residents have and continue to do, management will revert to the old adage "we disclosed these fees in the terms and conditions." Common area bathrooms are constantly a mess, the soap dispenser in one of them has been empty for months, and the apartment bathroom finishings are cheap. The walls are also very thin. Again, you need to understand what kind of property this is before you sign a lease. AIRCO's investment strategy compels it to do the bare minimum to keep residents just happy enough to pay rent and all the fees each month. The idea is that Locust's location and the attractiveness of the neighborhood, as well as the structural features like the high ceilings and large windows, are the primary selling points and the gamble is that these features are compelling enough for residents to swallow the cheap finishings and high fees. Pay attention to what other reviewers have said. Many residents share these feelings but don't write reviews because they're busy or because it's worth less to them to complain than it is to keep paying. If that's the kind of experience you're okay with, Locust does have nice qualities like the ones I mentioned above. Management will probably respond to this with a similar response to previous reviews. They'll rattle off platitudes like "we pride ourselves on customer service" but these are empty statements. They'll selectively respond to complaints while ignoring others and generally give you the run around without addressing your complaints head on and really listening to you. If customer service was really a top priority as is claimed, I find it really hard to believe that the same complaints would continue to come up over and over again. Management does not listen and learn--they placate and defend. I read many of the negative reviews before I moved in and reasoned that every apartment has a few bitter tenants and surely it wasn't that bad. It's not inherently awful to deal with bad management, but it is awful when you pay this much to live here. And when management replies that they charge "market rate rent," go look at the reviews for other complexes of similar caliber. Turns out, a lot of the issues listed in previous reviews have been experienced by us as well. Do your homework and know what you're getting--and what you're not getting--before you sign a lease here.