Hunter Rich

If you have incredibly low standards for how to be treated as a tenant, I highly recommend you check out North Park Apartments. While North Park Apartments was under prior management, I loved living here. The building was constructed in the 1970s, and there are certainly some signs of wear and tear that accompany that, but on the whole, my roommate and I had a great experience. Then Air Communities bought the property. I'm not going to blame the trash compactor fire, constant hot water outages, flooding due to pipes bursting, elevators doors that occasionally freeze up during the ride, or neighbors that smoke constantly and make our entire closet smell like weed and cigarettes. But I will absolutely blame Air Communities for their poor mitigation of these issues. As these issues persist, Air Communities also implemented a payment portal that includes a hefty processing fee. For the first couple of months after this new payment portal was incorporated, they allowed payments by check to the office (you know, like what you do when you have tenants). And naturally, given the processing fee, everybody and their mother chose to pay by check. So Air Communities stopped allowing check payments, and required all tenants to use the portal. In addition to increasing rent for new tenants by about 35% and hiking utility fees. As I write this, my roommate and I are about five months into our 15 month lease. We love the apartment itself and the Friendship Heights / Chevy Chase community, hence the second star. And to be fair, the 1,000 square foot one-bedroom floor plans, rooftop gym and pool, balconies for every unit and inexpensive parking ($125 compared to $200 or $250 for most garages in DC that I've seen) are all amazing qualities of the building. However, the positive qualities of the building, at least at this point in time, do not make up for the disappointment I've felt with the new management. And hopefully, this is helpful for anyone looking to move into North Park.