Hancock Square at Arlington Station

Horrible, dishonest staff. I wouldn’t recommend Hancock to anyone. The staff is dishonest and overcharge. I feel absolutely horrible about all of the elderly residents that are being taken advantage of.
Hancock has a process of ‘billing’ residents for monthly utilities (this is ON TOP OF YOUR MONTHLY COMED BILL) which charges residents for gas and electricity in community areas. Hancock takes the their energy bill each month and then divide it up for the residents to pay each month. However, you never see the calculations and Hancock was billing us $ 100 a month! After many people complained, they gave us a small refund and blamed their 3^rd party billing service for overcharging. They were charging us for heat in the summer?! I desperately tried to get the calculations for their divide billing to make sure we and other residents were not still being overcharged because the monthly bill was still so high. Our lease said Hancock would provide the calculation if requested, however they refused. It’s very deceptive and a lot of people in the building don’t understand it, so they just pay it without question.
Hancock charges a $ 350 yearly amenity fee, even if you do not use them
They also tried to charge us for several other things. It’s disgusting and quite exhausting always having to deal with it.

Do Not live here. The rent is comparable to Chicago rents, the building is old, smelly, and ugly on the inside. The utility system would overcharge us constantly, and after numerous complaints by residents, they realized they did overcharge! They reimbursed everyone (took longer than supposed too) and didn’t even apologize. The elevators never worked right, people are always moving out because they don’t like it there, and the layout of at least my unit was awful. Just one big large room with another room right next to it. Extremely small kitchen and bathroom. There is also a bug problem here. The windows are so cheap and old that they have an easy way of getting in. No garbage disposals either. Last, they are trying to take advantage of us by saying the tile floors (literally 20 sq feet of apartment is tile floors) «had some scratches by the front door so they had to replace for $ 350.» Thank God I didn’t do the security deposit and won’t be letting them rip me off! Don’t believe the reviews of the empty nesters who are fooled by this place. This place is bad. You have options, do not settle for this!

I recently sold my house and moved into Hancock Square at Arlington Station. I can’t say enough about the building and management. What a well run organization. In this day of robotic workers and uninterested «customer service» the management at Hancock Square takes the Gold Star Award. They are conscientious about maintenance. The building is always kept clean and regularly maintained. The staff is very friendly and always seem concerned about our every need. Living here has been like an ongoing vacation. Kudos to Lincoln Management staff and kudos to Hancock Square owners. You’ve created a wonderful place for people to live and enjoy! I would recommend anyone to live here.
The maintenance staff is excellent. They have been so helpful and responsive. Everyone has been more than accommodating. The décor in the apartment is more than I would ever expect. Having just moved from our home that we put a lot of effort into upgrading and decorating I was anticipating having to get used to mediocrity once again. I was so wrong! The kitchen has beautiful wood cabinets with granite countertops and stainless appliances. The baths have granite topped sinks and the deal breaker for me was the washer/​dryer in the unit. Fabulous!
The pool is well maintained as is the exercise center. And we have access to an indoor AND outdoor pool. How decadent is THAT? Love it!!! Another bonus is the sky walk that attaches the building to the parking garage. What a wonderful feature when it’s raining or snowing and you’re bringing groceries home. As a senior that is most appreciated.
Needless to say I love living here and hope to be here for several years to come.

Been here almost a year. Complete disaster and way overpriced. Office did not say that they were doing huge overhauls of the building-​elevators, fire alarms, etc. The noise has been horrendous for people who work from home or have small children. Every «project» has taken 3x as long to complete as they stated. Only one operable elevator, constant fire alarm testing and all was supposed to be finished end of Jan 2014. Now they say they will do new fire alarms in 6 week period– probably will take them 12 weeks of drilling holes in floor and ceiling of every unit. There is no security at the rear entrance– door does not lock securely and they keep fixing it. Bike room broken into in June and tenant lost $ 5000 in 2 bikes. The officde didnt tell anybody– we had to spread the word amongst ourselves for protection. The noise from the churchbells across the street is 4x a day for 5 minutes of unnecessary loudness. The gyms which they charge $ 300 a year for are small and do not have sanitary wipes available and are only cleaned once a day. It is difficult to regulate individual unit temps. Everytime they have contractors working they are loud, messy, and constantly discussing how messed up the project is– the new elevator couldn’t pass inspection, etc. They are also trying to upgrade the remaining units so you get daily noise and dirt from that also. Add the weird septic gas smells on the lower floors to the negatives. This is a horrible place. Only good thing is the location and the maintenance men try to do a good job. You can rent a condo or a single family house in this area for the same rent.

I moved here from downtown Chicago due to a change in employers, sad to leave the city and somewhat unsure about living in the suburbs. I looked at about two other places and nothing compared! I have lived here since October and have not had one issue or complaint! All workers are friendly and helpful. Paying rent, submitting work orders are easy and are both seamless processes done all online. They have covered parking, a workout room, pool and in unit washer and dryer which is hard to find anywhere else! Pets are welcome, there are even rooms in the lobby for hosting parties or simply to just hang out in. The location is great and close to good restaurants, the train and shops! I am a young, single girl living alone and I always feel safe here! The rent is a little high but you get what you pay for, all the other apartments in the area are not much less and do not even compare. The complex is up to date, well maintained and always clean! I would recommend these apartments to anyone (and I have high standards)!

I moved to Arlington Heights from Dallas for a work promotion in July ’13. I visited 2 rental properties in downtown AH. It was very clear to me when I came for my appointment in May that Hancock would be my home for the next two years. I had the luxury of not needing the space for 2 months, so I was able to wait on a corner unit with upgrades.
The amount of light and the layout of my one bedroom + den is lovely. The amenities are great. I use the gym and have also used the beautiful resident’s club room for a work gathering
The proximity to the train, shops, grocery, and restaurants are all walkable.
The office and maintenance professionals are responsive, polite, and always ready to assist.
Definitely two thumbs up!

There were just too many problems during my short leasing term here to give a better rating.
Let me start by saying that when I moved to Arlington Heights, I was coming from out of state, so I was doing everything remotely. From the webstie and the pictures, I was expecting something of a much higher standard than what I got. From the beginning there were problems with the Leasing Office. First they promised me a room in their first tower but then they informed me that the occupant was not leaving that unit so I had to be relocated into a unit on a lower floor. To me, it really wasn’t a big deal, but I did think it was strange that they went through all of the paper work with me without knowing the occupant was staying there.
When I finally moved in, there were a lot of amenities that were advertised in the website that were not fully constructed yet. For example, the big gym in the first building was advertised but wasn’t fully built when I moved in. The business center hadn’t been built yet either.
Living in the unit was more or less fine. You can hear everything from outside and the church bells ring very loudly starting from 9am, but my unit was facing a church, so this probably isn’t a problem for most. The temperature control was also a problem in my apartment. I also had a sewage smell coming from the toilet for the first few weeks of living in the unit.
I agree with Brooke that this place is WAY overpriced. I did not have time to research the places around me, but I wish I did. I mean, I live downtown now and my unit now is less than what I paid in this place. Plus my place now has updated appliances and fixtures. It just doesn’t make sense to me, I thought suburbs were supposed to be cheaper.
The final straw for me was the fiasco that ensued during my move out. BE SURE TO READ YOUR LEASE CAREFULLY. When I moved in, i specified a 4 month lease, but in my contract it said that I was supposed to give the leasing office 60 days notice prior to move out. Now it is entirely my fault that I didn’t realize this 60 days rule was in my contract, but that was because every place I’ve lived in before gave me some sort of notice before my lease expired to either extend or terminate. Anyways, when it gets to my last half of a month, I call the leasing company to ask why they charged me for the full month and they let me know of this rule. Basically there was no way out of it.
So then I ask if I can try to sublease my place, and I meet with them to figure out my options. They said I could sublease the place, I asked them if they would show my apartment, so they said I should turn over my keys. I think there was some sort of misunderstanding here, i thought I was giving them my keys to show the place so they could fill it right away. Then when i got responses to my ads to sublease it, they were like, oh maintenance may be in there and it would cost $ 300 for your keys back. I was like, WHAT, I am still on the lease paying rent, why the hell is maintenance in there? Luckily, they hadn’t started painting, so I got my keys back to show the place to a few people. I had one person interested and he said he called the office to set up move in. He said that he called several times with no response and got fed up and found another place. Basically, it was a huge fiasco. This of course isn’t the normal situation, but it is a warning for people to beware.
Anyways, needless to say, I didn’t enjoy my stay here. There were just too many problems and I urge people to look elsewhere.

Lived here for just under a year. You really can’t beat this location and it’s the only for-​rent complex in downtown Arlington Heights. Overall, I enjoyed my time here, mainly because I loved the area. I was paying almost $ 2,000 per month, and while the apartment was sizable, it did not have any of the upgrades I would have expected for that price. I think they are upgrading the units as people move out, but linoleum, white cabinets, and very basic appliances do not seem worth the price to me.
Pros: Excellent location, extremely thick walls and ceilings so you don’t hear anyone, two thermostats in some units, pet-​friendly, elevators, in-​unit washer/​dryer, two pools, gym equipment, bike room, really well-​insulated so we hardly ever had to turn on heat/​AC, thick doors that are extremely safe, literally walking distance to METRA
Cons: Leasing office employees would tell me they would call me back about something and they rarely if ever followed through, our dishwasher wasn’t working and we had to put in maintenance requests twice… finally, we just made do with a half functioning dishwasher, no garbage disposal, no upgrades in certain units, no balcony in certain units, the water is incredibly expensive here for some reason – like $ 40 dollars a month
Overall, if you want to live in downtown Arlington Heights, this is really the only rental complex. However, the staff needs to be a bit more customer oriented, since people are paying A LOT of money to live here, in my opinion. The little socials for residents are great, but it takes daily follow-​through to really make a complex resident-​centered. I’ve heard that since management changed in 2012 that the service has gotten a lot better, but I would say there is still a lot of room for improvement.

As a former apartment manager, I’m EXTREMELY picky about where I rent and very critical of any apartments and leasing staff. We chose Hancock Square (although it was Avalon when we moved in during early January 2012) mostly because of the location and despite the staff that was in place — the new staff seems to be much more organized and friendly. I work in Chicago and my husband works in Lincolnshire so it was convenient for both us as it’s less than a 5 minute walk to the train and about a 20 minute drive from his office.
I don’t really have any complaints, we chose our apartment basically because it was cheap and even though we are by the trash chute and stairs, it’s really not any noisier than you expect in high-​rise building or any other apartment building. I rarely hear my neighbors and the maintenance staff keeps the hallways very clean (they were just painted this year also!).
The new fitness center is great and everyone in the office is friendly and helpful (and they were even accomodating when we had packages being delivered pretty much every day for 2 months before our wedding). They did change the office hours after they changed management, but they’re not any different now than any other place I have lived/​worked so I don’t find them inconvenient. Any time we had a maintenance issue, it was handled within 24 hours and no mess was left, and they always left a note/​work order stating what was done.
If we weren’t purchasing a house, I could definitely see us staying here for a while. It’s an awesome location, and a good price for the size, amenities, and convenience to transportation (you’re obviously going to pay a bit more to be able to walk to the train/​restaurants/​shopping). Living here also enabled us to save money by only having one car, which was great! I would definitely recommend this place to anyone looking to rent in the area!

My wife and I moved in here for convenience to the train and to shorten the commute to my place of work. We are moving out shortly into a single family home but would most definitely stay if this were not the case.
Moving in was a little confusing but Avalon was the management company at that point so I won’t go into that. Lets just say it has greatly improved since then.
We have had very little problems with our apartment but those that we did have were taken care of quickly. We wouldn’t have even known that the maintenance people were in there if they had not left a work order sheet.
Our unit was directly over the loading dock so we can hear when the garbage men come to collect (twice a week) but we purchased a $ 20.00 white noise machine the 2^nd week we were here and have not had a problem since.
The washer and drier are on the small size but that is what you have to expect in a one bedroom apartment. As long as you don’t stuff the machines completely full of clothes, you should not have a problem with them working as well as any other units do.
The renovation of the lobby, gym, leasing office and community rooms have just been finished. It is too bad that we are leaving because they look really nice! There is even a billiard table which is something I really enjoy.
The pool area is not huge but the only time we had an issue getting chairs was on the fourth of July weekend, which is to be expected.
The personnel in the leasing office have always been more than glad to help us, we just had to ask. The maintenance guys have always been nice. Every time I saw them in the hallways they would smile and say hello.
I would recommend Hancock Square to any of my friends or family if they were looking for an apartment. You are walking distance to restaurants and bars along with the train. Frontier Days is right down the street for the 4^th of July celebration and downtown Arlington Heights is a really nice area with a ton of stuff to do. The location is awesome!

If you would like to be transported back to the freshman dorms at your Alma Mater, this place is for you!
My husband and I chose this complex because of the proximity to the train station. I work downtown and my husband drives to McHenry. So the flexibility to walk to and from the train was extremely appealing.
When we toured the complex, the units were decent, but no where near the «updated» state that they advertised. Like I said, we didn’t chose this complex based on living space or the amenities. We need to be close to the train.
We just moved out and cannot be more relieved!
This basically sums up how the leasing office operates:
Even though we were not surprised, the leasing office was completely belligerent during the moving-​out process. When we called to ask simple questions, like, when do we have our walk through, or can we reserve the elevator and loading dock, we were outsourced to other people, even other companies.
Everyone who moved us out (the same group who moved us in) thought the apartment looked cleaner than when we moved in (AND IT IS). However, we won’t know for three to four weeks whether or not we get our deposit back. We were told that the company who does the end lease walk-​throughs will «probably do it Monday» and they «might send out the summary Friday», but maybe the week after. Then, they’ll take our last ISTA payment out of our deposit. After that, if they had deemed that the apartment only had «normal wear and tear» (which they never defined), we would get a check mailed to our new address. Hmm… We are guessing we will never hear from them again. But, what else would you expect?
So, here is what we have come to expect and experience during our stay at Avalon turned Hancock (It may be ugly, but these are the facts.):
–The temperature is never consistent or comfortable. It constantly fluctuates, depending on the decisions made by the leasing office and poor building insulation.
–There is hair painted into the walls.
–Sewer smells seep from every drain and NO ONE knows what the problem is and they would NOT call a plumber. They would only pour bleach down the drain, which we subsequently spent at least $ 50 on bleach to poor down the drain. I forgot to say that this lasted for days, and the stench was so awful we had to air out the whole place with four fans and keep the bathroom door shut.
–Poor construction of internal doors that consistently get stuck or fall off the track. You must have a 13″ stool to stand on in order to put them back on track.
–30−45min of trash removal everyday. They forget to tell you that the loading dock is not only for apartment trash, but for the restaurants and store fronts.
–Consistent sounds of the trash chute.
–The dryer is broken and never dried a load of laundry in less than 3 hours. Even though we put in a maintenance request, they told us it was fine. It not only takes a full THREE TO FOUR HOURS to complete a cycle, but also eats and ruins clothing (shirts get stuck in between all the crevasses. When you take out the load of laundry, it is too late. The material is shredded.)
–HORRIBLE leasing office service (in what is suppose to be our HOME).
–Guards on all the windows, so nothing opens up over four inches. NO air circulation!
–Minimal amenities. The gym (if you could call it that) was small, inadequate, and always full. The outdoor pool does not provide space for enough chairs, and the attendant was a joke.
Some helpful background:
This complex used to be Avalon Apartments. Now, it’s Hancock Square at Arlington Station because it was acquired by Hancock Life Insurance Company. Since that, they have made several changes to the way the leasing office works. There has been a complete staff overhaul, and for the worse. They no longer alert you of you packages (Avalon had an email system in place that Hancock said they would replace and never did), and the hours have been shorten. This is more than inconvenient for the average commuter. After dealing with the new staff, I honestly believe that not one of them is aware that this is your HOME. They have never once done anything above and beyond to help tenants without a request.
Also, this complex is completely overpriced. I honestly recommend looking into renting a condo in the area. Don’t be fooled by Hancock’s «renovated units.» They may look pretty, but you will never be able to control the temperature in your unit. All the pretty in the world doesn’t outweigh being uncomfortable with the temperature in your «home» and not being able to change it. One room will always be hot and the other cold, and then it is complete madness during the spring and fall when they prematurely flip the A/​C on and the Heat off or vice-​versa.
When issues arise, the leasing office and hotlines are just useless. This complex truly is a glorified dorm.
After living here, we really have only one good thing to say about this place. — The maintenance men are nice.