Halstead Danvers

My fiancée’ and i have been here at Halstead for over three years. We arrived here when the complex was under the Avalon Management and I must say that Halstead did save this place. While under Halstead management we have seen and experienced a positive turn around as to how the complex is being managed as well as the additions and up grades to the amenities provided AT NO EXTRA COST.
Among other amenities provided there’s a top notch indoor virtual golf room that transport you to some of the best professional18 hole golf courses at the press of a button. There’s also a sports room where you can enjoy rounds of billiard, table top shuffle board and arcade style golf while enjoying sports shown on a flat screen t.v. which you control the channels. This is all on first come first serve basis which we have never had an issue with over crowding. The swimming pool area is great, extremely clean and overseen by very professional life guards. There are a few rules to the pool area when it comes to bringing outsiders but i found management to be extremely professional and flat out nice, when it came to making people aware of these rules.
As for the apartment, we love our 1 bedroom loft on the fourth floor. On a couple different occasions we have had to contact maintenance for regular wear and tear things, as well as the effects of last winter, which these things were tended to right away.
Enough cant be said about the hospitality of the staff, there was one time when i needed assistance with my vehicle in the parking lot and Alex aka MacGyver (maintenance) went out of his way to assist and we were able to get my vehicle started again. On another occasion I had gone to the front desk to pick up a package that i was notified about and upon arrival i was greeted by a sign which read «Will return in 15 Minutes», come to find out the concierge had left the front desk to assist a tenant whose vehicle was stuck in the snow.
Last but certainly not least, are Adam, Fred, Holly and Leah. Not only do they bring the meaning to «Service with a smile» but they consistently think of ideas to bring the community together. They plan gatherings for the tenants during big sports games, Halloween, Christmas as well as the third Wednesday of every month. My fiancée and i have met many nice neighbors during these gathers that otherwise we would never have met. These are genuinely great people who have done and continue to do a lot for this complex and its tenants.

My experience at Halstead over the past two years has been very good! The office staff is friendly, Fred and Adam have been very helpful when we have had some small issues. Maintenance is always quick and professional. Best part: I love the new gym!
A few issues: pet waste and rent increases year over year, but being pet friendly (which I support) I understand this and every community I have lived at has had rental increases unfortunately!
Overall good experience so far :)

This is unusual for me to post about my residence but I feel compelled to when I here horror stories at other communities.
I’ve been here coming up on 8 years and I must say they (Avalon/​Bozzotto) have made the transition from single family home ownership to apartment community living a walk in the park.
The current ownership has a #1 management team on site, Fred, Adam, Joe and the super helpful staff have been nothing less than fantastic,
If I have a question… BAM, it’s answered on the spot!
If I have a maintenance issue… BAM it’s fixed within minutes, not hours! (BTW, I’ve only had less than a handful of issues in 8 years)
The new amenities are 2^nd to none and it’s a pet friendly community, some of the dog owners could pick up better after their dogs but you get that everywhere.
I have to rate this Halstead Danvers property 5 stars without any hesitation!

So far Halstead has been 100% consistent in being unhelpful and dimwitted. If you call the main office you will never get an actual answer and if you do its most likely incorrect. They have proven that they care way more about pets than people. Never mind the high cost of rent and shoddy construction of these Apts, these people are great at acting like this is a luxury apt complex, it’s really a façade! I give the maintenance team a 5 star rating for doing their jobs and putting up with this shitty office staff.

Here for 1 year. Extremely expensive and horrible quality.
I’ll start with the biggest issue we had here, the management. They are rude, unhelpful, and seem to just not know anything about their job. We had a major issue with our upstairs neighbors (we were on the 2^nd level of the townhouse style units). They were extremely loud and disturbing at all hours of the day and night. They marked up our cars when we parked next to them, and they poured a bucket of water onto our deck when they didn’t like the smell of our cigar smoke (smoking is allowed). After months of emails, meetings, and countless attempts of contacting management, even bringing in a lawyer, the general manager basically told us we were making everything up and they were going to believe whatever our upstairs neighbor was telling them. Not one meaningful attempt to alleviate or accommodate our situation.
Aside from that topic, they just seemed to not care about the tenants or their job. They didn’t know answers to simple questions. I asked if we could rent the cinema room for a private party, I was literally told «I don’t know». A package I ordered was received by the office but I was never told they got it (were suppose to receive an email). When I finally tracked it and realized it had arrived, they just said «yeah I guess nobody sent the email». The worst employee is the manager, Adam. He’s arrogant and condescending. He spoke to us like we were children and looked at us like we were idiots, literally smirking at everything we would say. He did literally NOTHING to help us out.
Interior:
The tiles in the kitchen and bathrooms all came off. The threshold where the carpet met the tile popped off and a nail was sticking out. The paint is matte so it scuffs really easily. 1 of the 2 bedrooms didn’t get heat and was freezing in the winter. The grout in the shower tiles began to disintegrate less than a year in and was absolutely disgusting.
Exterior/​Amenities:
Dog poop and pee EVERYWHERE. They started offering reserved parking for an additional monthly cost so a lot of the parking spots have been taken. They just implemented a no smoking policy in or around the complex, so no cigarettes OR cigars. Amenities are constantly over run by unsupervised young kids.
BTW there’s only one 5-​star review written by a «jason p.» and there’s also a staff member by the name of Jason P. that works in the leasing office. I’m just saying.

Due to a job change, we had to quickly move to the area. Taking an apt here was a pressured decision we totally regret. Cheap, shoddy construction means drafts and noise. The management is useless and doesn’t enforce the the community rules/​regulations. This means that kids run amok without parental supervision, cars get dinged, and outside areas are eyesores.
There are a lot of «characters» living here. Regularly the repo, police, emt, and fire depts are on the property. It is not unusual to be awoken late at night by someone screaming, «F*&%!, f*$#!» at whatever demons are taunting them.
Other people are just completely inconsiderate. Dog shit everywhere, people coughing up and spitting, dog owners letting their pets pee on their wood decks. DISGUSTING.
The new gym and amenities designs are awful. The management should sue the designer. For example, the gym has all new equipment with little tv on each machine. However b/​c of the huge skylights, you can’t see the screens with the glare. Another screw up: the old gym had a useful side room set up for kids that is now gone. Parents used to be able to keep an eye on little ones while using the treadmill. Now the kids room is in a separate room and floor from the gym. Useless. The pool room has been un-​usable since the renovation — the HVAC is not working. So now it’s a sauna with a pool table.
This place is a total mess.

We’e lived here for two years and couldn’t wait for our lease to be up in February. Avalon (original company that destroyed this once beautiful place) did lousy, cheap CHEAP CHEAP construction, The heating/​A/​C system is running CONSTANTLY and if you’re bothered by noise, the heating/​AC system will drive you positively INSANE. The walls are cracking from settling, the ceiling fans look like they haven’t been cleaned since the place opened 7 or 8 years ago.
We had a particularly bad summer with a bee infestation in 2014. Numerous complaints to the staff resulted in nothing, they patronise you with sweet talk so I reported them to the Code Enforcement at Town Hall who in turn involved the Health Dept. Halstead had been ordered to fix a hole in the side of our building right under a bedroom window and replace the screens that do not fit-​they took more than their sweet time doing that (3 months). Bees were getting in the apartment through these cheap screens. They kept insisting that’s not possible even when their own pest control told them yes it IS possible. The screens were never replaced-​we got some lame excuse per usual, they put packing tape around them. This is what you’re paying two thousand bucks a month for. This is «luxury apartments»? I had a shoebox apartment in NYC that was far more luxurious than this dump.
The water in my bathroom smelled like sewer back up and for two thousand dollars month, their response is to buy bleach and pour it down the drains. The auto ice cube maker is unusable as the ice comes out smelling like freon. They can’t notice a problem… so I guess I must have been hallucinating all these issues. The garbage disposer clogged with macaroni-«You put too much down» I was told. No I didn’t, they use plumbing about as wide as drinking straws.
The best way I can describe this place is Designer prices at dime store quality. Steer clear… it’s overpriced. The ONLY thing this hell hole has going for it is the sunset views. If you think that’s worth 2 thousand dollars a month, good luck to you. Your car will be destroyed. My tires were slashed last summer-«Did you call the police?» was their response. Yes, because it happened in the middle of the night, and I didn’t see anything-​the police are going to be able to do a whole lot-​of course I didn’t call the police, had I seen it happen I’d have handled it myself. But leave wet shoes or umbrella in the hall and you’ll never hear the end of it.
The walls are painted MATTE so any scuff or any mark leaves a stain when you remove it (they’ll see this as damage I’m sure-​what idiot paints walls MATTE? Wood work is eggshell finish which scuffs and only way to fix is to get paint from the office to repaint. They maximised the profit they will get by doing all this so they charge you for repairs that didn’t have to be if this place had been constructed properly. Nothing but money hungry greedy corporate fools. No, we’re the fools who chose to stay. It’s not worth it. Take a look at their ads-​theyONLY show the main building-​you don’t see the ugly cookie cutter buildings that are the majority of this place until you get up there and look around. The place is UGLY.
Halstead also played games releasing our security deposit so then had to give the complete amount back. WATCH YOURSELF. These people are scam artists and crooks. This is NOT a nice place to live, and according to my Lifelock alerts, there are many sex offenders in the area. You really want to walk around this place or let your children play knowing that? We had a shooting next door our first summer (2013). The emergency exits are never secured, always propped open by ignorant renters. Numerous complains to management resulted in no action. Our apartment was right next to the emergency exit stairwell-​anybody could have gotten in at any time. You are NOT safe in this place. I thought the suburbs would be a better place to live. I’m back in the city-​they can keep the ‘burbs and as much as I loved what used to be the old Danvers State Asylum, this hell hole is no prize. Find a better place.

My first year lease is coming to an end. Here are my experiences at Halsted (previously Avalon) Danvers Apartments:
The good: The property is beautiful. I mean, beautiful. It’s safe. It’s quiet at night. I’ve never had an issue with parking and it’s free. The concierge is AWESOME. They are so nice and helpful, I can’t even tell you. The new fitness center is really nice if you’re into that kind of thing. Halsted buying the property was a major improvement.
They did a great job with snow removal all winter. Maintenance shows up relatively quickly during business hours and they are polite. They’ll even take off their shoes if you ask.
The bad: Everyone uses every inch of grass for a dog toilet so my child can never run on the grass and must be confined to the play area. Shouldn’t that be the other way around? My car was accidentally left unlocked and someone rummaged through it and left the door open. The walls are very thin and you hear everyone in the hall, upstairs, and out side. (I have very loud and rude downstairs neighbors that argue outside) The paint is CHEAP. Fixtures are CHEAP. Windows leak. Construction is CHEAP. Utility bills are high, due to leaky windows and bad insulation. Maintenance’s window «fix» was caulk. A water heater in another apartment burst and flooded my master bedroom and bath. I had to insist they removed the soaked insulation and drywall to avoid mold. They attempted shortcuts in the whole process. After hours/​Emergency maitenance people are very offputting, RUDE and inexperienced. And… my rent is being raised over $ 100 after only 1 year. This is what REALLY irks me. Over $ 100? I’m just not happy about this and I don’t think it’s a fair amount for the quality of the apartment.