Roosevelt Square Apartments

Fees fees fees, this apartment complex will go out of their way to nickel and dime you for every penny you have. Over priced and completely outdated you’ll most likely realize your mistake once you’ve already moved in. At that point good luck getting out of your lease with the mandatory 60 days notice and additional move out fee, all said and done your cost to leave may be well over $ 4000! I would not recommend this apartment complex to anyone looking for a place in Phoenix. There are far nicer and cheaper options right down the road.

PROS:
* The location cannot be beat. The place sits between a gorgeous little park and the edge of the arts district. Everywhere you look there’s incredible food and interesting events just a short walk away.
* The neighbors. Being in the Downtown Bubble means you’ll run into the same people over and over again, as well as their pets. For the most part, everyone living at Roosevelt Square is fairly young, active, and friendly.
CONS: Everything else
* The property is poorly maintained, despite first glances. The entry gates are constantly broken — either permanently locked with a malfunctioning fob detector, or permanently wide open. The parking garage gates are the same story. Several times I found myself either locked in or out, with no clue how to get through. I advise you to get to know your neighbors so you can call them in these situations and have them let you in. This will happen a lot.
* Management is AWFUL. Every day you will receive a poorly spelled, poorly written update on some kind of emergency event (water shut off, gates not working, fire doors malfunctioning).
* Maintenance is a toss up. The staff themselves are great and very knowledgeable and friendly. But it may take anywhere from a few hours to a few days for them to show up. I had a malfunctioning smoke alarm attached to a vaulted ceiling going off for 5 days before management sent someone. This was after sending multiple service requests and pleading with office staff to take it seriously. Maintenance staff will also show up unannounced, so beware of wearing headphones or taking showers during the day because more than once I was surprised when I found a stranger hunched over in my living room.
* From 2014 – 2016 our water was shut off 45 times for «emergency repairs» (see image). In February of 2016 alone it was shut off 7 times.
* Bike theft is rampant. If you have a bike, do not leave it locked up in the stairwells.
* Although the parking garages have security cameras at the entrances, they are non-​functioning. I discovered this after my husband’s car was backed in to and we asked if we could review the footage. There was no footage.
* There are two enormous dumpsters in Building C’s garage labeled RECYCLE and CARDBOARD ONLY. Turns out they are neither and everything in them is picked up by the regular garbage collector. The only true recycle container is in Building A’s garage.
* The first floor hallways are prone to flooding (see image) and are rarely, if ever, cleaned. This place is very pet friendly, but many of the animals seem to have trouble holding it and are known to relieve themselves inside. Poop is only cleaned up if enough of the residents begin to make a fuss over it, and often times other residents give in and take care of it because they’re just sick of seeing it every day. Urine is never washed away, so beware the discolored areas.

I seriously love this place. The whole deal is awesome — price is great, location is amazing, management and maintenance are nice and easy to work with.
I can wake up in the morning, walk less than a block, and grab a cup of coffee. How badass is that? I’m also less than a block from entertainment, restaurants, bars, everything I could ask for.
One thing I love about my apartment is it’s totally soundproof. I live in a really high traffic area of the building (near a door and an elevator), but I never hear anything. My boyfriend plays guitar but we have had zero noise complaints, which is a huge step up from the paper thin walls of our last place.
I can’t say enough nice things about the manangement and the maintenance teams.
I also think it’s super cool they have trash rooms so you don’t have to walk outside to take the trash out. It’s a little thing, but hey, I appreciate the little things.
Some of the stuff other people have complained about is petty– yeah, the water is shut off occasionally, but it’s usually during working hours so it’s never inconvenienced me at all. I have seen a rat, but it it was in the trash room, and after all, we live in an apartment in a large city. I live in building b, the location of one these supposed rat infestations, and I have seen zero rats in or near my apartment. Saw a cockroach outside my door one day, but it was the American sort that doesn’t cause infestations, and it had just rained, and like I said, we live in the freaking city, so these things happen. A lot of the people who live here are kinda snotty, but I just ignore them.
Overall, I give this place a strong five stars, and that’s not something I take lightly. I hope this review helps.

Shit we almost considered getting a 2 bedroom here. Not after the rat stories. Thanks people

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Just because the buildings are being painted to look all shiny and new, it does not reflect what it is to live in this community.
Rat infestation in Bldg B & C. The management will blame the new construction that started in May ’15 but this has been a known issue since Oct ’14 in Bldg C. After they were reported to city & county agencies they began working on the problem but it is so bad it is going to take a very long time to eradicate.
Pets relieve themselves (pee & poop) on the elevators, in the hallways and at the corners of every entry way. The poop is typically cleaned up by tenants who have it at their door or get tired of looking at it and the urine is NEVER cleaned up. Also, many tenants do not pick up after their pets in the grassy area everyone uses for walking their dogs and you’ll find yourself constantly stepping in poop. Any complaints will get a ‘we rely on the residents to tell us who is doing it’ — if we knew that, that is the information we would be sharing — and, it’s not the residents responsibility to find the irresponsible tenants.
This community is very dirty & grimy. It is in desperate need of an overall power washing of all walk ways, painting of interior hallways and cleaning of all interior hallways, stairs, rails and elevators.
Don’t be misled by the «gated» community, you sign in your lease that you acknowledge the gates are solely for the benefit of the property «and any benefit to the resident is purely incidental» and there are always gates that are open or malfunctioning.
Don’t be misled by the «package acceptance service». Again, when you sign your lease, you release the office of all liability for any lost, stolen or misplaced packages — and, yes, it does happen and you have no recourse for replacement.
An ‘updated’ unit has newer kitchen & bath lighting and plumbing fixtures, new ceiling fans and faux wood flooring in kitchen, bath & entryway — BUT, you will still have 15 yrs old appliances, formica countertops and laminate cabinets. Bldg A does have concrete floors. The lobby is recently updated and the property «tour» will take you by all the areas that are kept up. Ask to see the sky patio in Bldg C and the fountain areas in Bldg C and pay attention to the cleanliness (or lack of) as you’re walking.
The outside of each building is public sidewalks, I suggest you walk the property and see for yourself — look closely at each entry way, go up the steps to the gate — walk the grassy areas to the north if you have a dog — look at the gravel areas and sidewalks for dog urine & waste — walk through the unsecured part of the parking garages.
Also, you will have additional charges not stated on your lease. The tenants pay $ 3.50/mo for pest control and $ 25/​mo for «trash service» which will put your monthly waste, water, trash bill at $ 50+/mo — this is in addition to your rent and electric (thru APS). The cost of this trash service helps generates revenue to the property by giving a kickback to the property. As a gauge, any other complex I’ve lived in, the ‘trash’ portion of my utilities is ~$ 5.
Overall, poor property management, overpriced for dated units and unkept property — very unimpressed with this community…

I lived here for 2 and a half years, and I can say that I have very fond memories of this place. Details are a little fuzzy as it has been over a year now since I lived there — but I recently went back to Phoenix on a trip and I made sure to visit Portland Park and Roosevelt Square.
Just to be up front, some issues that we had during our time there were 2 giant rats that were crawling around and making noise in our air vents which my husband set traps for and killed (gross). Also, appliances were not very up-​to-​date (washer/​dryer, dishwasher, refrigerator), and the fire alarms went off in the C building many times, sometimes in the middle of the night. I had a few very sleepy mornings going to work because of these fire alarm issues which were never explained to us by management. Also, management clearly valued potential tenants over actual tenants. Every time I went to retrieve a package and one of the office people was with a new customer trying to make a sale, I was always ignored for at least 10 minutes until I was begrudgingly granted my request. And all I wanted was my package!
However, despite all of that I will still leave a 5-​star review. Simply because the location is the best, the park across the street is great, restaurants and businesses are popping up everywhere, and if you want to live in downtown Phoenix, or Phoenix in general, there is no better place to be. It felt like home to me, and how can you give your home a bad review?

Please beware this complex has a serious rat issue. I have seen them personally. I’ve lived in AZ my entire life and never had this issue anywhere else. They are this places mascot apparently. Roosevelt Rats!
The office will avoid talking to you at all costs. I have left voicemails and emails when I can I go into the office but they just make excuses and won’t take any responsibility.
They just look at you with a blank stare and say What do you want me to do? Answer: provide a safe and clean living environment.
They raised rent by 9% when inflation was right around 3%. There is zero chance of my renewal and I would recommend you find another place. New apartments are being built rich across the street and there are other options nearby along the light rail. Cityscape is really awesome!
Smell ya later Roosevelt Rats!!!

Here we are again. It’s 2:30 in the morning and the fire alarm in building C is going off. There will be no communication about what happened, and the complex won’t care to comment at all on it, and it almost certainly will do nothing to resolve the problem.
A lot of the life safety equipment is broken. This complex does not take life safety seriously.
I will follow up with a full review of how awful this place is tomorrow. Suffice it to say for now, this is an extremely frequent occurrence.

Its now been officially two years at Roosevelt Square for me, so time for an update. Year 2 was a little more mixed than year one. A few issues have crept up this year, though I would still absolutely recommend Roosevelt Square for those looking for a great place to rent Downtown. Virtually anything you need is within a mile of the complex and there is now a seemingly unstoppable momentum of new businesses, residential complexes, hangout spots, and overall youthful energy down here. And Roosevelt Square is a great place to be apart of it.
A couple of developments since last year. For one, there are now a pair of construction projects that surround Roosevelt Square. To the north on Portland Street, a new 10 story condo complex called Portland In The Park is being built. While its great that they’re finally filling in a long vacant piece of land, it has also meant that several street parking spaces have now been swallowed up by the construction. So far the noise doesn’t seem to be too bad as crews have largely worked only during the mid day. We’ll see if that holds. That project is supposed to be done in about 2 – 3 years. Additionally, a new apartment complex is filling in another piece of land just south of Roosevelt Square on Roosevelt Street. That complex will be called Union and is supposed to be done in a couple of years as well. So far, no major disruptions from these two projects (knock on wood). Hopefully it stays that way.
The bottom floor business spaces have been filling up with new life as well. Most notably, FEZ moved from its original location (Central & Clarendon), to the bottom floor of Building A. I’m not sure what effect that’s had on those living above FEZ in Building A, but its definitely brought bigger crowds to the neighborhood (especially on weekends). There’s also a new salon (Coiffeur’s) and there’s rumors of another new restaurant moving in soon to the old Centurion space. If you’re a resident you can still get parking in the gated area of the parking garages (particularly the east garage) pretty easily, but street parking is much tougher to get with all the food traffic and development coming into the area now.
I will admit to a couple of annoyances during year 2. For one, the gated car entrances in the east garage have had issues. Sometimes the gates don’t work or are busted, or sometimes the complex just gives up and leaves them open for anyone to use, rendering them pointless. Additionally I’ve noticed the lighting in that garage has been a little bit glitchy to where it can be almost pitch black at night. The workout room is pretty well maintained, but they’ve been a little slow to repair or replace a couple of busted machines (though it hasn’t hindered my workouts yet) and they need to do a better job of keeping the disinfectant towels stocked. My building (Building B) has also had a number of days which the water has been temporarily shut off due to a leak in one of the units. And lastly, my rent did take a pretty good jump for the start of my third year. The Phoenix rental market has been skyrocketing in price due to low vacancy rates and Roosevelt Square is not immune. My rent went up about 5% (a pretty standard increase in this current market). Downtown has about 3 – 4 apartment projects that have broken ground or are in the works so hopefully that’ll ease the market pressure a bit going forward.
Still, I would echo pretty much everything I said about Roosevelt Square last year. Great location, responsive maintenance staff, respectful neighbors, good security measures, and a fun area. The neighborhood has gotten even more pedestrian and biker friendly with streetscape improvements nearby, there are new spots to explore pretty much every week and there are now more full time residents Downtown than at any point in my lifetime. The staff at Roosevelt Square have largely met my expectations and so has the unit I’m in. I can’t recommend Roosevelt Square as a cheap rental option (though there really is no such thing Downtown anymore), but if you love this area and want to be in on the action, you’d be hard pressed to find better.

Updating since I have moved out. I still stand by my previous reviews but will note that assistant manager D did a great job handling my move out inspection. She Made it easy and painless, and I wasn’t nickel or dimed (unit was left clean and u damaged).

OK so I am seeing all of these terrible reviews for Roosevelt Square and I am confused. I have lived here in a studio apartment for about 10 months now and it had been nothing but a good experience. The leasing office staff is great. I agree sometimes they are a little under staffed but that is the case in every single apartment complex I have lived in.
The apartments inside are a bit outdated but is worth it because of the prime location. I have an apartment with a pool balcony and i feel like I’m at a luxury resort sitting on my balcony looking out at the palm trees and pool.
I want to make a special and LOUD note here about the maintenance staff: They are absolutely wonderful. My fridge stopped working last month and I freaked out– put a request through the online system for maintenance. I got home the next day and everything was fixed like new! Not only did Eric fix the fridge but also took the time to clean the ice buildup from my freezer. The same week my garbage disposal stopped working and again a note from Eric with everything fixed to perfection.
I really love living here and am complimented every time I have a guest over on my apartment and the complex itself. Also, rent is easily paid online through the resident portal which is very convenient.
I really don’t know what kind of crazy ass standards all these people have that are writing these terrible reviews. Roosevelt Square is gorgeous outside, decent inside, fun loft style apartments. You can walk to Hance Park and the dog park, the library, Fez, Fair Trade, Lola, Pita Jungle, Forno 301, The Nash, Carly’s. Also, right in the midst of Roosevelt Row and all the First Friday fun.

Not a good place to live.

I have glanced over the other reviews and generally speaking I can attest to and agree with the other ½ star ratings. With that being said, I will only speak to my own unique personal experiences with this apartment since the other reviews covered some of my complaints adequately (shutting the water off for hours at a time on a weekly basis with no warning, checking the fire alarms at least on a monthly basis, low quality appliances, etc.). This review may be a tad on the long side but believe me, if you are considering moving here, it is all stuff that would be beneficial to know.
First things first, this complex is woefully under-​managed. The property manager and front office staff are the most incompetent, unprofessional people I have met in all my years of dealing with rental property. They are rude and will talk junk directly to your face (the customer is not always right at Roosevelt). If they aren’t out back smoking cigarettes in the parking garage, they’re busy sending out emails riddled with grammatical errors. At one point, I even had a staff member of the complex admit that they get DAILY complaints about how terrible the property manager is.
I moved to this apartment from out of state, therefore I had all the paperwork done through email and fax in order to facilitate a move in date that matched up with the date I arrived in Phoenix. I was told multiple times that everything was in line and I was good to go. I get on the cross country flight to Phoenix with my dog and suitcase and take a taxi to the apartment. Once there, I was told that the paperwork would not go through and essentially «sorry about it, not our problem.» This left me homeless in a new city with which I had no clue about. I had to rent a hotel room and a rental car for a WEEK, before the management fixed whatever issue they were having with the paperwork. I knew from that point on it was going to be a horrible experience but believe me, I called around and all the other apartments in the same area were booked.
Next thing is: THIS IS NOT A GATED COMMUNITY. Sure, there’s a gate in theory, but the key fob access only worked about 25% of the time that I lived there. It must truly be the most difficult, complicated thing to keep running properly because the doors broke on a weekly basis. At one point the gates weren’t working for around 8 months straight and I guess the word got out to the homeless community. Other tenants and I found multiple homeless people wandering the halls checking doorknobs as well as homeless people sleeping in the corridors. There was also gang graffiti that began to appear in the hallways. Don’t get me wrong, this is a safe community IMO, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that there is a lot of vagrants that do walk through this area. The gates are needed to ensure safety.
My last and final complaint is that there were multiple instances of the front office staff stealing and/​or withholding my packages. I would get an alert from the office or a slip from Fedex that said there’s a package in the front office. When I would go to pick it up the office workers would look for a brief minute and claim sorry it’s not here. (Very helpful I know). They would say its not their problem, despite ya know legally it is their responsibility since they sign for all the packages. I eventually filed a mail fraud claim with the local postal office and the issue of missing packages ended shortly thereafter.
Overall, this community has a great location and some friendly tenants. But for $ 1,000 a month the quality of the apartments is way below value and the management is simply not worth dealing with. Heed this review and the others. This apartment doesn’t have a 2 star rating for no reason.

I loved living in the Roosevelt Square apartments. All in all this was one of my most pleasant experiences with an apartment complex. After hearing great things from former and current residents, I caved in and took a tour of the buildings. Though slightly higher than my target price range, I was quickly swayed. The amenities and prime location allowed me to save money in transportation, gym memberships, gas, and even groceries (it’s just a block Away from the Phoenix Public Market).
The same apartment in such a prime location of Boston (where I lived previously for several years) would run around $ 2,500/month. I love the urban feeling in the area, without the typical level of noisiness that comes in downtown areas. It has the feeling of a quiet town, with the city at your doorstep.
Overall, the area is clean and well-​kept, though my apartment was not thoroughly cleaned at move-​in (the floors were dirty and the tub needed additional cleaning). This is the reason for knocking off one star. I’m pretty sure that the management would have had the cleaning folks come back out, if I had told them about it immediately. I waited a couple weeks to mention it, so they offered me a discount on something else I requested to make up for the inconvenience.
I recommend this apartment complex, while encouraging folks to make sure to go into the front office and have conversations with the management as soon as issues arise. Most of the management team is helpful and responsive via phone and email.

Love the area– too bad management was horrible.
Too many stories to post, but will give you 1 just to convey their mindset.
I go out of town, have my dad check on my place and my pet, which he has done before.
He calls me to let me know the call box code wasn’t working and he couldnt get in.
I call the manager the next day and ask what was up and am told–
«we disabled the codes a few months ago»
…ok well were you going to let the tenants know?
«we figured you guys would have figured it out by now»
…uhhhmmmm, well I didn’t until just now and now my dad can’t get into my place to check on my cat, so can you guys turn it back on so he can or give him a fob so he can open the gate and get in
«you can mail us a money order for 50 dollars and then we can give him a keyfob»
…I’m in another state, and that will take at least a day or 2 for guys get it in the mail, is there anything you can do to fix this and am in shock that your only solution is for me to mail a MO to you guys…“
it went on and on and I thought it was a prank it was so outlandish– THEY disable the call boxes, they don’t let us know, then want me to mail a MO to them so my dad can get one for 3 days…
insane
when I left that horrible manager was promoted up… and the good people in the office were on there way out
no matter how cool a place looks, NEVER move into a place with management this incompetent!
2 years there, was going to stay another, but when this was going on (and one of MANY crazy issues) I told them the way there were handling it, this would cause me to move
«do what you got to do»
ok– in Tempe now= :D

I’ve only been a tenant here for 2 days but I’m already very impressed. I put in service requests to fix the ice maker, change the ac filter, and to inspect the ac as it wasn’t cooling that well in the afternoon. All 3 request were complete in a matter of hours after submitting them and all items work to our satisfaction. The people in the office are also friendly and more than willing to help.

Lived here for over a year. I moved in with previous management (Greystar) still here and a really nice guy named Anthony I believe helped us get settled. He jotted down numerous problems with my apartment when we moved in such as: unevenly lined wooden cabinets, broken side window (hinge was cracked and never attached) and chips in the new faux-​wood floor.
Since the new management, I have been very disappointed. Seems that the floors in the hallways have become more dirty (maybe from new tenants) and the ever-​annoying elevators broken/​glitchy buttons. I was also emailed on a Friday night right when office was about to close, about not having proof of renter’s insurance (when the old management apparently just didn’t give paperwork to new management.) Why email me right when you leaving for the weekend?
I also am unhappy the church attendees across the street parks along the parking garage’s side walls. Along the side where you have to pass people, in fact i’ve seen cars hit each other trying to turn around when they notice our locked gate on the 3^rd floor. Also, do they not know the fire boxes are along the garage walls for a reason? Oh ya, probably why two ended up broken on the concrete last year.
Probably not renewing when our time is up. The cost to live here has increased and I don’t see why it is worth it with our 2001 appliances and the problems I listed. Will raise hell if they try to charge us for anything though that was noted back in Dec. 2011. What keeps us here is the location of the light-​rail, our neighbors and the restaurants near by.
P. s. I give complete kudos the the handmen/​handywomen who work their butts off with this giant complex.

My husband and I have lived in this community since 2008. We love the location, the amenities and the price. Mostly we love that they helped us out when my husband lost his job in 2009. We had only been here a year and he knew he was going to be let go. We went to the leasing office to see if they had a less expensive apartment or could cut us a break until he got another job. We still had 6 months left on our lease at this point and couldn’t afford to break it. Fortunately they did have a much cheaper apartment in the C building which was the same size as the one we had been renting in the B building. All we had to do was transfer the lease and move. They didn’t charge a transfer fee or require an additional deposit. (And this was with the former management.) We’ve been there ever since. As long as rent only goes up by $ 25 – 50 a month were staying cause I hate packing!
The community has been under a new management company for about a year. We have not had any problems with the new management company. The new management updated all the equipment in the gym and updated the floors. All the staff changed but the new staff are good. We’ve never had a problem with our neighbors. Maintenance issues are taken care of in a reasonable time period. (Unless its an emergency then they’re there ASAP.)
I personally like that there is a little park on Portland where our neighbors take their dogs. I don’t have a dog but it’s nice to live in a pet friendly community. There are also tons of trash cans and doggie bag dispensers so no one has an excuse not to clean up after their dog. If I didn’t actually see the dogs every day, I would have no idea that anyone owned a dog downtown.
We recommend this place to everyone.

I loved this place when I moved in. I thought it was perfect. I had a great view from my balcony, steps away from Pita Jungle and Lola Coffee. There was a park right across the street for my dogs to run around in. I didn’t think much of it when then management changed from Greystar to Birkshire. Didn’t see any huge differences. They seemed really friendly… until I decided to move out. And then they make it their job to screw me out of every last dollar to my name.
I will admit, I had a fast move out. I forgot a box in the apartment and I didn’t have a maid service come in and do a professional cleaning. I figured paying a few hundred dollars wasn’t that big of a deal to save me the hassle.
And then I got the $ 1300 bill. Yes you read that correctly. There are two zeros at the end of that number. They charged me $ 1300 to clean a 700 sf. apartment. I did what any sane person in my situation would do and I refused to pay it. That is until I was sent to collections and faced destroying my credit and rental history.
So I settled it with the collection agency and moved on with my life. I genuinely thought that Roosevelt Square was done ruining my life. I was wrong again. Almost a year later, I put in an application for another apartment complex and was told that my credit report shows that I STILL owe money to Roosevelt Square and that they cannot rent to me unless I can provide them with documentation that this debt was paid.
So I called Roosevelt Square and SURPRISE, they have no record of my settlement with them. In fact, they came up with another $ 500 that they claim I still owe them. My only option at that point was to contact the debt collection agency. They were able to provide me with a copy of my settlement in full letter in under an hour. A debt collection agency was more helpful and more competent than this joke of an office.
Roosevelt Square looks really nice, is in a great location and has a bunch of really awesome amenities. But so do all of the other apartment complexes in the area. Do yourself a favor. Move somewhere else and stay away from this bottomless money pit.

Dear god, The incompetence here is astounding. So after having a less than stellar fourteen months at Roosevelt Square, we move out to our new home in Ahwatukee and are now happy as could be, but wait! Roosevelt square is still haunting us, as they sent us to collections, without notifying first, for cleaning of the unit we were in and repainting of the walls, which is surprising given the fact SUE and BRIDGETT both said this would not be necessary due to our move in date being completely messed up and us having to move into a unit that had not been cleaned or prepped in any way, but when you’ve hired movers and made plans, you do what you have to do.
I want to say a big thank you to Roosevelt square for this because I can now have fun with you since I have in my possession SUE’s voice-​mail reminding us there would be ZERO move out fees associated with the cleaning or repainting, as well as pictures of the unit upon move out that we HAD CLEANED EVEN THOUGH WE WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO. Also, Roosevelt square should check the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, as they screwed the pooch, by sending us to collections without first notifying of the debt ;) I appreciate the negligence in this becasue now you have given me recourse above and beyond what I thought possible.
Congrats,
John
EDIT: After dealing with an oh so scary debt collector from FCO collection agency, Amanda from the New Staff at Roosevelt square I have had most of the debt knocked down to, but this could all have been avoided given that ON OUR FILE IN ROOSEVELT SQUARES OFFICE it is noted we would not have these costs associated with move in, but they are still charging for cleaning the oven better than we had it done and DUST on the ceiling fans. I REPEAT — DUST ON THE CEILING FANS, to the tune of $ 123.00. Small price to pay to know I will never have to deal with them or the staff of scam artist FCO collections, who I have filed a complaint against.