Island Square

I loved living here but I moved out right when new management arrived, and that did not end well for me.
My refundable deposits added up to $ 400.00. I had also paid a pet fee of $ 400.00, and an admin fee of $ 300.00. Although this is exorbitant, I was hopeful because this was the third unit I’d lived in at Island Square and the first two times times I moved out of my units I was returned most of my deposits.
I was given $ 44.18 back out of over $ 1,000.00, just for general maintenance. Granted, just $ 400.00 of that was refundable (and they said they returned $ 200.00 of the nonrefundable pet deposit to me, but this was an accounting error.). Be careful with the new management.

Best apartment community I’ve ever lived in… although that might be a bit biased because I had a sweet top floor corner unit with a large balcony, idk the other apartments here are prolly nice too I guess. Being a neat freak, I liked how well manicured this place always was (i.e. no lingering trash or dog poop anywhere, which was oddly common at the last couple of places I lived). But for real, Mercer Island is wicked rad, ‘specially this place since it’s a block from i90 in either direction. 5 – 10 min to either Seattle or Bellevue. Qfc across the street is awesomely convenient, especially between 12am and 1:59am. The dude that runs the place is pretty cool too.

I lived here for 10 months as being in a good neighborhood.
3 months after moving out I still receive calls from collection team asking for money. Though I made the payment next day of the bill generated.
The building management are really dis-​organized and lazy. Never return to any of the requests.

My boyfriend and I lived at Island Square for 1 year and have mixed feelings about the experience. The location was excellent for Mercer Island, and our decision to move was based on the desire to live somewhere more urban. In the end, if we hadn’t found a better fit for us, we would have been content staying at Island Square. Living here was mostly pleasant, but over our year here, little things built up that made us less and less satisfied (see cons). At the end of our lease, there was no rent hike, and we were even offered a free carpet cleaning for re-​signing. Here’s the breakdown of our pros and cons:
Pros:
–Location. 24 hour QFC, Einstein’s Bagels (staff there is SUPER nice) in the building, good bar and restaurant selection (although everything closes pretty much before 9pm). Farmer’s Market down the street in the summer.
–Great staff. Maintenance requests were answered promptly and were usually done right the first time. Office staff is very pleasant and they do a great job to be welcoming and helpful.
–High end fixtures. Very nice appliances, cabinetry, flooring, and counters. Our particular unit featured TONS of storage space in the kitchen, hallways, and bathroom.
–Washer/​dryer in unit and behind doors (your very own laundry room!).
–Garage. Huge spaces (my large car fit in the majority of the «compact» spots) and free-​for-​all parking. Bike racks too on both lobby and residential level. There’s also tons of room at lobby-​level for short-​term guests, and availability to print overnight and longer-​term guest passes from your computer or at the office.
–Courtyard area was pleasant to be in, with 2 grills, nice new lounge chairs, and a fireplace/​fire pit strip.
–Residents. Overall, pleasant to share elevators/​communal spaces with. Apartments were pretty much soundproof and the only thing I heard from our neighbors’ unit the whole time was vacuuming. Never heard talking/​TV/​music from within the building, and even when we could hear things because our windows were open, sounds never went late into the night.
Cons:
–Double-​decker hot tub. This should be a pro, right? Nope. Hoards of kids would come out unsupervised and scream and jump from the second floor of the tub to the first. Sometimes people would be in it pretty late night as well. It was basically a noisy, obnoxious pool.
–Key fob. I loved having a no-​battery key fob to get into the garage and most doors. Problem was, it didn’t get you into all doors — not all of the areas in the building accept the key fob, so you get to carry around another key that looks virtually identical to your room key to open certain spaces. It just seems like it wouldn’t be that hard/​pricey to install the fob openers everywhere.
–Courtyard was the only outdoor gathering area (no roof), so it could be very noisy depending on the day and time. The courtyard was one large fenced in area between all buildings, so some courtyard facing units may be better than others, depending on which building the unit is in/​which area of the courtyard the unit faces.
–Poor ventilation, especially in the bathroom/​laundry room. Nothing short of washing our towels every few days could keep them from smelling musty. The bathroom fan is on a 30min timer, but the heat lamp is an on/​off switch??? Not exactly the brightest engineering. It also got very hot in the unit over the summer and when the oven was on.
–When it rained, water came in through the windows (even if they were only open a crack) because of the angle they had been placed in the wall. The only way out of this was to shut the windows, making the unit stuffy and hot due to the «heat» lamps in the light fixtures.
–Garage. Very dim lighting that brightens with motion. Often, one garage door is broken in the up position, allowing free access to the resident’s garage. Even though it’s on Mercer Island, which is really safe, my boyfriend’s car got broken into and robbed once during one of the periods where the garage door wouldn’t close. Good news was that one of our fellow residents called the cops because of suspicious activity and Island Square contacted us as soon as they knew. Not like we got anything back, but it could’ve been worse.
–Recycling. So, there is a chute, but they don’t utilize it. This means that you have to cart recycling to the ground level and across the parking garage to get rid of it.

Island Square is awesome. I worked in the same building for CB Bain Real Estate, Wes, Sarah and staff were phenomenal, we had to break our lease due to a job transfer for my husband, they were very accommodating in getting our place rented, we did have to pay a fee, but it is in the contract. Over-​all, place is wonderful, staff is exceptional, we would live there again if we return.

I love living there. They have great maintenance staff and the front office staff work hard to make it a community. They have events that they host frequently. Very clean. And upscale common areas. Business center and great area to catch games and shoot pool. They have a great gym and they keep cold water stocked in the gym and they have a sauna, hot tub, and mini pool.
Extremely convenient location with 90 right here and the bus as well. I absolutely recommend this place to friends and family.

Island Square is an apartment located in a great location on Mercer Island. It is across the street from QFC and it has a lot of other restaurants nearby too (Starbucks, Einstein Bagels, McDonalds)
This apartment was not bad overall although there are some quirks as with every other apartment.
PROS:
–Wes is the nicest apartment front desk staff I have ever met and I have lived in a lot of apartments already. He bends over backwards to accommodate your requests! He actually lives in the apartment so if you have any questions about living there he would know best.
–Office is open on weekends too
–LOCATION! I basically went to QFC everyday. The QFC is open ²⁴⁄₇ so it was super convenient.
–Spacious bedrooms. Our 1 bedroom was 925 square feet or something ridiculous like that.
–Washer/​dryer in the unit.
–Community hot tub is cool (although I haven’t used it)
–Courtyard with BBQ grills
CONS:
–The recycling had to be taken downstairs to the recycle room. The room was a bit smelly and not very convenient to reach. The trash rooms on each floor should have recycle bins in there!
–If you live on the courtyard level you have a patio but you have to hop your fence to easily get to the courtyard. Or walk around the hallways to get to the courtyard.
–The courtyard and other common amenities do not have key fobs — they have a second key and it’s really awkward to insert the key and turn the handle at the same time especially when your hands are full
–Pet rent and fees are pretty high. Check the fees before you bring your pet.
–The default lights in the room are mostly heat lights so if you leave them on the room tends to get very hot.
–The garage door is consistently broken. I see that it’s up a lot meaning that any cars can get in.
–You enter in the garage on the LEFT hand side (and exit on the left).
–The gym is not that big. Also most of the equipment was quite old. I had the pedal fall off the bike one time.

Dear UDR (RE: Island Square mgmt and staff)
After 5 years living at Island Square and putting up with mediocre customer service, it doesn’t surprise me that they couldn’t get my name right in emails back and forth while we closed out our final account. Tells me they didn’t really care so long as they got their money.
I was charged for putting holes in the wall and patching them to save your staff time and money. You shouldn’t allow your lessees to put nail holes or screw holes in the wall if this is the result after a move out. This is a heck of a way to be treated given our loyalty to the community. I never expected to be slammed with a charge for normal use of an apartment, considering I’ve patched holes at other properties without ridicule or petty back-​and-​forth by their staff.
We’ll make sure our friends, family, and the social media/​online community avoid your property.
#1 Island Square staff is rude and unprofessional. We gave negative feedback one year, and for some reason the feedback goes to the property manager who then disputes everything you write. That’s not how you learn from mistakes or listen to your residents. It’s ok to mess up as long as you’re improving your service afterwards.
#2 Crystal (associate) shouldn’t be allowed to work on your staff or speak to residents. She told my wife to shut up over the phone in July, and should be fired for how she talks to everyone. We have never had a positive interaction with her. Frankly, after Jenn Mueller resigned, we dreaded coming to the office because the service was unbearable.
#3 Island Square staff talks down to elderly people, whether about dues or simple questions, as if they’re second class children. They would never admit to it, but I witnessed it on multiple occasions.
#4 Island Square claims to be a «green» building, but they removed the recycling bins from every floor of the entire building over two years ago, and now they force residents (including elderly or disabled) to walk or take an elevator 5 floors, and walk clear to the parking garage dumpster because they refuse to pay your maintenance staff to clean, yet rent goes up and up every year. Makes no sense. I doubt corporate mgmt would agree with their practices with how environmentally mindful they are.
We’re not the only ones who feel this way either. Many young and old residents we knew, and past residents we’ve kept in touch with, are displeased by the treatment from the staff and the setup of the community. I hope they all have the guts to tell you how they feel, just like I do.
That old saying, happy customers tell 3 people, angry customers tell 3,000 people. It’s the little things that avoid the latter…
We’re certain UDR doesn’t want its reputation damaged over one property. Island Square needs a 100% staff and property manager turnover.
Have a fantastic day.
*****I would have given 2 or 3 stars if Jenn Mueller was still there. She was a great assistant property manager — she left a year or two ago to do private real estate.

I just moved out from this apartment after living there for a year. The apartment itself is OK but not sure if it’s worth the price. Living there was brutal during the hot days because the units (not just my apartment) get really hot! The hallway is moderately air conditioned so I“ve seen a lot of people leaving their doors open (that’s how bad it is) but my side of the hallway somhow got no air. They do rent out ACs but ridicuously expensive.
Leasing office staff — the person I liked the most (Jen) left and they hired a person whom doesn’t seem to «fit» with the rest of the staff. Wes is nice and always pleasant and that’s how Jen was, too. The new girl (Crystal) is rude — she yawns on the phone every time I talked to her (she happened to answer my call 3x), her answers are inadquate (too many I don’t knows) and doesn’t make effort to help the residents out like the rest of the staff does.
I understand that they had to hire someone quick to back fill Jen’s position but I wish they had gone through a thorough training with to educate her to be a better represent of the apartment.
Note: Be careful, they get you to move in with a great promotion/​deal then after your 1 year lease is up, they jack up their rent. I moved out because the amount they increased was insane.