AVA Cortez Hill

I have lived at Ava for about 3 years now and it’s been a great experiance up until Shawna Rizzo the office consultant did something illegal. I won’t go into detail but stay away from her! She is bad news, if you’re looking to rent here go to Jennifer or Sherry they’re awesome! But Shawna needs to get fired, she’s not even qualified to work here, she has no education or experience to be working here. She got this job by her husband who use to work here as a property manager. She is very rude and has an attitude, even when she answers the phone. Also, the other reviews about her sending random emails out is exactly right, you get 3 – 4 emails from her a week. I really hope they do something about her because she does not belong in that office! I have hired an attorney to look further into what she did.

I lived here for two years, and I must say that I enjoyed it here, but it was far from perfect. There were plenty of pros to living here, but there were some pretty big cons, too.
PRO: Location. It’s within easy walking distance of most of the places downtown where one might want to go. Theaters, concert venues, bars, restaurants, shopping, the trolley… all are within very easy walking distance. The Convention Center, Petco Park, and Balboa Park are all a bit longer of a hike, but still fairly easily walkable. The 5 and 163 are literally a block away, making this place easy to access. Plus, it’s far enough north that it avoids a large portion of Downtown and East Village’s sketchiness.
CON: Location. It’s still close enough to downtown’s periodic sketchiness that some transients and less-​than-​savory characters still make their way up here from time to time. They’re generally harmless, but I can think of one occasion where one managed to break a first-​floor window.
PRO: The employees. The ladies in front office were always friendly and professional. The folks that clean up the hallways and common areas always do a pretty awesome job of cleaning up after hundreds of residents, their visitors, and their pets.
CON: Some of the folks that live here. There are a lot of folks that will stand out front of the building and talk loudly, argue, and smoke a wide variety of things at all hours of the day. Some of the residents are pretty discourteous in regards to how they treat the common areas. Confoundingly, there are a LOT of people here that won’t evacuate the building during the rare fire alarms, even on the one occasion where someone managed to drop burning materials down the trash chute in the middle of the night. Further, I could almost count on, at least once a week, having some sort of mysterious and offending-​to-​the-​senses smell, debris, or puddle on the floor of the elevator.
PRO: The price. When I moved in, it was about $ 1500 a month for a one-​bedroom, one-​bathroom apartment. Given the neighborhood, I figure it’s a fairly good deal.
CON: Price jumps. I renewed my lease for a second year, and the price went up about $ 75 a month. I figured that was fair. However, when it came time for me to consider renewing for another year, I found out that my rent would go up by a whopping $ 300 a month. Not a great way to keep loyal residents, I would think.
PRO: The maintenance guys. Seriously. These guys are awesome. These guys work hard, they work long hours, and they’re always professional and honest. I cannot laud these guys enough.
CON: The building. This building was constructed, from what I’ve seen, in the 1970s, and it’s been remodeled many times since then. I personally don’t mind that part, but I wasn’t a huge fan of how a lot of the fixtures, especially my upstairs neighbor’s toilet, seemed to leak and cause mild damage to the walls and ceilings. The building was built back before ideas like green construction came along, so there is little insulation and the heat and cold get in very, very easily.
PRO: The downstairs shopette place. A tad pricey, but they stay open late and carry most of the stuff you might find yourself needing. They’re awesome for those «Oh crap» moments where you realize you need, say, toothpicks, Q-​tips, or peanut butter. More routinely, though, I went down there to buy lotto tickets and drinks of both the alcoholic and non-​alcoholic variety.
CON: The temperature control. This alone knocked a star off of my review. My apartment faced the west, which means that it always receives the afternoon sun during months where the sun is more northward-​oriented. In other words, it got a lot of sunshine during the summer. The bedroom is dark grey brick on the outside, and the living room’s outward-​facing wall is literally all single-​pane window, which means that it was absorbing heat in both rooms. This is made even worse when you take into consideration the fact that only the living room has an air conditioner, so I had to buy a window-​mounted air conditioner and mount it myself in order for the bedroom to be at what I consider to be a livable temperature at night. As time goes forward and the temperature gets hotter, this is only going to get worse.
OTHER PROS: While small, the gym is pretty well-​equipped and is generally fairly well upkept with nice gear. You can hang stuff on the walls, which is nice. The parking garage is secure and is pressure-​washed and repainted fairly often. I liked the automated notification of package delivery.
In summary, I really did enjoy living here. However, a better place popped up that fits my current and future needs more effectively. That, combined with the rate hike, lack of air conditioning, and aging nature of the building combined to dictate that my time here come to an end.
Still, it’s a good place for the money if you want to live downtown. I wouldn’t recommend living here long-​term, but for a year or two, this is an awesome place.

I lived in ava for a year from aug-2014−2015.
the pros–
–on site maintanece team (but trust me its needed)
— the location right next to the freeway 163 and 5, so you get to be in downtown but no t stuck too much in the mix.
–quick walk to gaslamp rest. bars etc
cons
the building is extremely old. there was a leak in my roof for most of my stay making it look run down they even had a loud generator there blocking my door inside my place, this is just one sxample that happened throught my year stay. something is always broken
foreigners like to put cigareets down the trash been and cause fires
if YOU do NOT have a dog then I wouldn’t suggest living here, poop and pee everywhere.
to top all this off they applied my 199 deposit and still decide I owe 171 for them cleaning? !
that would be a total of $ 370 on move out. (this currently still being in dispute)
overall I say stay away !
I could keep complaining but I am extremely happy i am out of that dump and hope I save someone the headache and grief.

I’ve lived at Ava for over 3 years now and I have to say that it’s the best residential apartment complex in Downtown San Diego, for the price.
As a Real Estate Professional in Downtown San Diego, I’ve been inside EVERY residential highrise in 92 101. AVA is a bit older than most of the others, but the management company has recently renovated the interiors and common areas and modernized the amenities. The pool area is one of the best in Downtown, and no other building has a tennis court or basketball court. I kept my membership at FIT, but even the gym is totally usable, perfect for most.
Staff-​wise, the office crew at AVA is top notch. Sheri, Shawnna, and Jennifer are always SUPER helpful anytime I need to visit the office and are very friendly in the halls. Angel is the man on the maintenance team, he is always smiling and friendly. I’d HIGHLY recommend this community to anyone looking to experience the Downtown lifestyle.

The staff here is super professional! Special thanks to Sheri, Shawna and Adrian who have made the move in more than enjoyable!

Lived in 3 different places here. Great place great location. One of the biggest pools you are going to find downtown. Some people might complain about noise but I never had a problem in the 3 different apartments here. The walls are cement so it really blocks out your neighbors. The office staff is always great and maintenance is super quick to address any issues. The place is always doing some sort of happy hour or food truck event to get people together. It’s a great place to meet people if you don’t know anyone in the area. Overall for the price you are paying its hard to beat this place with all of the amenities. If you are looking for a fun place to live with all of the amenities you could ask for this is your spot.

Having a fire inspection maybe mandatory but having a moron walk in unannounced while ur in the bathroom brushing your teeth is NOT. WTF happened to privacy, I never had this happen before usually people wait after they knock they don’t just walk in. This is an apartment not a hostle. It just ruined my day. And the rude bastard didnt even apologize. Maya

DO NOT LIVE HERE.
Luckily, I have since moved out of AVA to the LA area. My husband and I went down to San Diego this weekend and passing right by it made me cringe and think of how absolutely horrible this place was. I was so upset with this place when I left that I didn’t even bother to leave a review; probably because it would have been rejected due to the language. After some time has passed, I think I’m ready to leave my review.
I lived here for three years. At first it was not so bad because I was so close to downtown, entertainment, bars, restaurants, etc. What more can you ask for? Then you start to realize what a disaster that place is. There are about 6 – 8 foreign pedi cab drivers that live in one small apartment. They are loud, rude and probably due to not having enough keys will sit on the hallway outside using their computers until somebody with a key comes home. I constantly used to find puke, trash and who knows what else on the elevator floors. You can’t leave your window open because your place will smell like smoke or it will be way too loud. The hallways constantly smell like weed. Your rent significantly goes up annually, and not by a small margin either. I don’t know how they retain any long term residents. My breaking point was when they toed my car from the parking garage. IT HAD A PARKING PERMIT. I’m not sure if the «security guard» or whoever it was was blind or whatnot. I had to spend $ 370 to get it out of the yard and was NEVER reimbursed. I thought maybe the permit had fallen off and they didn’t see it, etc. Nope, when I went to pick up the car it’s right where it should have been. The ladies at the leasing office said there was nothing they could do. Whatever…
The people at the leasing office can play the nice card, however, I have seen them make their snarky comments and faces at the other residents. I’m sure they did the same to me as well. This place may seem like a good idea and they try to sell you on all of the «great» amenities. I guess they have to if your apartment is constantly leaking water or you can’t use your garbage disposal for it’s purpose. I got repeated notices to not put any peels or anything down the garbage disposal. Ummmm… okay. I would stay away from this place. It’s worse than living in a college dorm.

Visited my friend at the Ava Cortez hill downtown, wow! Place is like a resort! Friendly residents, gorgeous view of the city, and amazing facilities! Tennis, basketball court (full size) pool, jacuzzi, many places for lounging. Swimming pool! Just amazing. Zino and sammy, congrats on your new place!

This place disappointed me on SO many levels.
I moved here January 2014 and have to say this is the WORST place I have ever lived. The leasing office girls are SO RUDE and have the WORST attitudes. I could understand if they treated me poorly if I were a super annoying resident always complaining, but I avoided the leasing office at all costs so I don’t understand what their problem was.
— Normally they would send out an email saying there was no more guest passes available for residents (mostly on holiday weekends) but they denied me a guest pass almost every time saying there was no room! When there CLEARLY was plenty of space.
— I lost my FOB key and when I went to ask for a new one Jen told me she wouldn’t be able to get around to making me another one until the end of the day! So I couldn’t LOCK my apartment and had to stand in the parking garage for 45 minutes until someone came through the door to get in! (I get home from work late)
— They gave me MULTIPLE complaints for smoking on my balcony and I DONT SMOKE!
— ALL the air conditioners leak. I came home to 2 maintenance people IN MY APARTMENT with no warning when I wasn’t home because my air conditioner was leaking on the store’s sign! (there was NO way to avoid this)
— They totally screwed me on my security deposit. Jen said they would charge me a MAX of $ 200 to replace the carpet. They charged me $ 521! I had to pay out of pocket $ 321.
— The office would randomly be closed for hours during the day. If you were expecting to get a package, grab a parking pass or talk to anyone in the leasing office you’re SOL.
The only nice things I can say about this place is that the family that runs the store downstairs are AWESOME and the maintenance people were on point and friendly as well.
Oh and if you decide to move in, expect at least 3 cheesy emails a week from Shawna who tries WAY too hard with her use of Urban Colloquialisms.
I wrote a move-​out review to Avalon expressing my discomfort living at this place and no one ever reached out to me. Terrible. DONT MOVE HERE!

I have lived here for almost a year now and had awesome experience with the staff. Specifically Angel and Adrian on the maintenence team. They are great! If anything ever needs fixing they are incredibly fast and very professional. They go out of their way to make it fast and easy. My A/​C started to smell funny and they came up and brought me a brand new unit! They are really nice to my dog as well. Extra points for that. They get my 5 stars while some of the neighbors bring the rating of the building itself to a 4.

I’ve been living here now for just over a year and I can’t complain about anything. Shawna, Jen, and Sherry have been very helpful with every question and concern I have had. And Angel in the maintenence department is great he goes above and beyond. My kitchen sink has backed up and overflowed onto the floor a few times and he is very professional and courteous. And Angel has always dealt with this problem quickly and even came from home to rectify this issue.

My name is Abel and I have been living here for a couple years now and have had no complaints. Everything about this complex has been exceptional and has made living in Downtown an amazing experience. But the best thing about this place is the customer service from the ladies in the front office. They are three of the sweetest ladies you will ever meet and are always available and willing to lend a helping hand on anything and everything. Huge shout out to Sheri, Shawna and Jennifer best leasing agents I have ever had!

Hands down the best property management staff I’ve ever dealt with. Sheri, Shawna, and Jennifer were the most helpful people while signing my lease, welcoming me to the property, and making sure that ever need I had was taken care of. The property has many different amenities and it’s quite the bargain considering the high price of downtown living. Plan to stay here for quite a while! I know that the girls will take great care of me! :)

Say goodbye to your deposit. No matter what condition you leave your carpet in when you move they will replace it at full cost to you. So live it up and drink cool aid on the rug cause it doesn’t matter.

Seriously the worst management ever. They are rude, security has no clue what they’re doing. Extremely overpriced and smells of dog urine a little too often. Parking is a nightmare so expect to get towed even with a garage sticker. The concept is great, the execution, not so much.

I’ve been living here for almost 10 years now. Time flies. In the last few years the place has gone through a lot of renovations, all for the better. I love the look of the new lobby, halls, etc. The exercise room is a lot more updated now and has great machines and equipment. There is keyless doors now (only need to swipe your fob) which is great.
Most of the renters here tend to be on the young side (20 – 30 year olds) which gives a nice upbeat feel to it.
The staff here is excellent. Every month they try to arrange some type of resident event (whether it be food downstairs, or restaurant outings, etc). The office staff (especially Sherrie) is wonderful to work with. They are good at addressing concerns promptly and they do sign for packages, which is wonderful, especially when one is not home to be able to receive packages.
The maintenance staff is friendly, courteous and they take care of service requests right away. For example, today I had issues with a plug outlet. I went online to fill out a service request and within an hour, Angel (one of the maintenance staff) was up to take care of it. He was able to diagnose the issue quickly and completed the repair in a very timely fashion. They are also always cleaning and making sure the common areas are clean and neat, which is great.
It is also nice to be able to pay your rent online which saves stamps, checks and envelopes.

i have been living at AVA for almost 6 months and I cannot think of any cons that this place has.
The leasing office staff are very helpful, Jennifer, Shawna and Sherry are always on top of all matters, you get the vibe that they try hard to make residents’ lives easy and pleasant.
The property is well maintained and seem to look in a good and clean shape almost always.
maintenance and cleaning staff are doing a fantastic job keeping this place look nice and clean.
The property has the best amenities among all surrounding buildings.
Security is always available .
The crowd in this building is very diverse, which gives it an interesting non-​boring flavor and everyone seems to be nice.
It goes without saying that the location is very convenient, everything is within walking distance.
Glad I made the choice of moving to AVA@ Cotrez Hill, this place is highly recommended.

Prices Are Cheaper for New Residents than Current Residents that is why they constantly have high turn over.
If you decide to stay at AVA over a year expect a huge rent increase each year. Our rent went up over $ 100 per month if we wanted to stay.
After finding a new apartment I decided to inform the management about our intention to vacate a month early on our lease. I went to the office with my paperwork and told them I left the date blank because we were not sure what day we were moving out either Saturday or Sunday. She said ok that’s fine they will try and rent the apartment out early and if they can we would not be on the hook for the month’s rent. They ultimately rent it after our lease is up because I left the date blank even though I told the same woman when we were moving out. I was then stuck paying for another month. I then check online apartments for rent at AVA, our current apartment shows up on the listing of available apartments for rent.
The AVA website had OUR CURRENT APARTMENT LISTED FOR MUCH CHEAPER RENT THAN WHAT WE WERE OFFERED TO STAY. After that I decided it was important for new residents to understand their business practices.
Internet — Cox Is Expensive and Only Averaged 2.83 Mbps When We Paid for 25 Mbps. I was by Cox everyone shares the connection after they sent out a tech multiple times and they said the connection was fine. So only pay for 5 Mbps.
You are given very limited options at AVA. Apartment complex’s across the street offer Uverse Tv and Internet but AVA does not, they only offer DSL speed Uverse internet not TV. You can only get Ygnition or Cox for TV.
The first floor hallways are a blood orange color. They also did not re-​paint the hallways of the other floors. They painted the door and around the door but the hallway color wasn’t painted and is an off white yellow.
Pop Corn Ceilings. The apartment has «pop corn» style ceilings that went out of style when people stopped using Asbestos when building apartments.
Fake Vent and Rust. When they remodeled the bathroom they decided to cut a hole in the wall and put a fake vent over it. No fan just a hole with a vent cover on it. Also because there is no vent in the bathroom, you will notice rust forming, especially around the sprinkler system. It will rust more and may stop working that is is probably why they have fire alarm tests every month.
When they «remodeled» the bathroom they also did not replace the shower/​tub or re-​tile. All they did was refinish the tub, which is putting a thin cover over it. Not actually remodeling the shower/​tub.
The bathroom and kitchen fixtures are cheap. Our sink broke at least 4 times because the water pressure for cold water would become weak, while hot would stay strong. What we noticed was happening is something was collecting on the sink some sort of gunk, and if you cleaned it off the water pressure would go back to normal. I don’t know what was collecting but it was something, so please filter your water.
Cabinets. If you care about cabinet space this is not the complex for you. The cabinets are small and are almost worthless. Also the drawers only provide like 5 inches depth. They have a closet in the living room which is very needed. The cabinets are made of what seems like partial board with a thin plastic cover over them. The counters are not granite they are Linoleum.
Gym. They gym from far away looks nice but in actuality it is really lacking. There are not enough treadmills. There is 1 flat bench to use weights on and it wobbles. Perfect for those exercises where you want to have to stabilize your core and keep from falling because the bench wobbles. There is no traditional squat machine.
Air conditioner/​Heater. When they «remodeled» the apartment they did not install new air conditioning, you can tell just by the color. There is no air condition in the actual bedrooms just the living room. I do not understand why you would install a heater in southern California but not air conditioning.
Community Furniture is Not Clean
Every day AVA has someone cleaning the apartments. Unfortunately that doesn’t help. You will see vomit, or dog poop in the apartment complex. There is always trash next to the trash shoot because it clogs every weekend. Outside the apartment smells like dog pee because the owners let their dogs pee right in front of the door. AVA power washes the front frequently but that doesn’t stop the smell.
Before we decided to get TV, we used the community TV room on the second floor. My roommate complained saying someone spilled or got sick on the couch. The janitorial people came in used a broom and swept it off that’s all. No disinfecting or anything just cleaned it with a broom.
Washing Machine/​Dryer. There is only community shared Washing Machines and Dryers. Other residents will take out your wet clothes and leave them on top of the dirty machines.
I would not recommend living here to anyone.

Do not live here.
The people living here have no respect for the building THEY also live in. They throw their trash all through out the building, Let their dog pee in/​out of the elevators and they don’t pick it up. I’ve even seen a trail of blood leading into someone’s apartment. After several talks to the leasing office about it, they do nothing. The only time the leasing office is aggressive with tenants is if you have any type of glass or alcohol at the bbq/​pool area. You will be called to the office for counseling like a teenager. .
The noise is out of control. I’ve heard the building has gotten notices from the city from neighboring aparments because they are so loud. This is due to the countless foreign college students that live here and party all hours.. The walls are paper thin as well as the windows. You can hear everything.
READ YOUR CONTACT CAREFULLY! The Maintence crew is allowed to enter your apartment at ANYTIME WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE. I was in the shower when I heard two men in my aparment. I never requested a repair. They opened up a wall in my bedroom, they finally scheduled a time and a day to come back. DIDNT MATTER! Showed by two weeks later unannounced to fix it.
I’m literally counting down the days until my lease is up so I can get out of here. The prices are misleading also. They try to tell you it’s 1475 per month, but that does not include trash, water, and gas. My 1475 rent some how comes out to be 1600 a month. You can live at way better apartments for the same price, that have same or better amenities.