Sitka Apartments

I recently moved into the Sitka a few months ago and have been very happy with the professionalism of the staff, condition of the unit at move-​in, safe feel of the area, and of course the location! This building is right in the Heart of the Pearl and near parks, transit, and many good restaurants.
At this price level (income restricted), it is hard to find a better value in this area than at the Sitka. I did have to sit on a waitlist for nearly two years, but the timing worked out and the wait was definately worth it. A six month lease is all that is required and then it goes to month-​to-​month. This is very helpful considering most other apartments require long lease signing and will not do month-​to-​month without charging a lot more.
There is currently construction on both sides of the building where a 28 story condo and market-​rate apartment complex are coming up. This has increased the daytime noise/​dust level in the area. Fourtunately my interior apartment facing the courtyard provides some quiet relief. Room assignment is purely based on what they have available at the time so I think I just got lucky here! When the construction stops the outward facing apartments will be more desireable again.
One suggestion for management is… please allow Rent to be paid online. Coming down to pay with a paper check is very «old school».

I recently moved away from The Sitka (into a house) but I still miss it! I lived in the West building for three years with my little dog, and never had any issues. And! I just got a fat deposit check back (always an unexpected yet awesome surprise in the rental game). Jen and Barb are super easy to work with, and have been there since before my time. The comment made on constantly changing staff is the one person up front, who has been rotated out three times, but is an assistant not the leasing agent. Repairs were always made promptly, notice was always given before entering the apartment, and they were kind enough to make a partial garage space available for my motorcycle at a super low price. My rent only went up about $ 5 per year, and utilities are wonderfully cheap (roughly $ 25/​month for power and $ 10/​month for water).
We all use Unilocal for bashing, but you should know there are those of us who loved living here! Mostly late 20s-​30s singles and couples sans children (a few kids here and there, but none on my floor). SUPER dog friendly!

Maybe my expectations are too high because I run a small business where service means a lot. I feel that although the apartments are nice and the area is also nice, the experience is also based on interactions with the landlord. Maybe it was my car getting vandalized in their «secured» parking garage and Sitka had the guy holding my stuff on their cameras and chose to do nothing about it. Maybe it was that they forced me to clean up my own broken glass after said incident… or when I got my bicycle stolen from under their cameras with similar follow-​up. Perhaps it was the fact that any time I called to the front to have something solved or to get a question answered I never got a return call from the management. Not once. I had to pester them to bat an eye at me anytime I needed anything which mind you was not much. As a low maintenance, paying tenant I figured I’d have a bit more significance to them. And in all of this I really don’t know know who’s responsible because their staff had changed almost every time I walked in the office. This place has potential but there needs to be more responsibility at the front office. There are other specifics but I’ll keep it general, this place has a huge waiting list of people waiting to take your spot. I think maybe it’s gotten to their heads. If you want friendly landlords I’ll guess you’d probably have to look somewhere not in the city… I know. But still… there were times I was left with a pretty bad taste. I’ll miss living at the Sitka because it is a beautiful building and in a beautiful area but that’s the extent that I’ll miss.

Don’t plan on getting your deposit back at this facility. The manager claims that it costs nearly $ 200 to clean a 600 sq ft apartment. Keep in mind, the apartment was cleared, by the management, as having no damage and considered in normal condition.
I’ll let you decide as to what a fair price is for cleaning 3 small rooms, but if its $ 200, then I think we all need to change professions.
To be fair, the move-​out is way less critical than other aspects of the experience. However, this business is unequivocally gouging the very customers that support them. Having lived in other apartment buildings in Portland, my advice is to go somewhere else.