Bridgepointe

After living at Bridgepointe for 11 years, I’ve never thought of writing a review, but after my encounters with Jamie in the front office, I decided it was time! In all my years at Bridgepointe and the ample about of front office staff I’ve dealt with, I have never came in contact with a more dedicated employee. She is caring, helpful, professional and responsible. There is no problem to big or no problem to small, if there is an issue she will address it immediately. She is a perfect example of what type of management that should be in every company. I hope you stay at Bridgepointe for a lifetime!

Worst managed apartment complex I’ve ever lived in. Complex is understaffed and it takes forever for maintenance to arrive, they usually don’t make repairs correctly which necessitates a return visit (which you will have to call to request service again, taking another several days). The property is poorly maintained, but it’s stuff like storm drains and other non-​visible things that you can’t tell when you tour the property. In addition, the building we live in has had numerous false alarm «emergency» evacuations in the 1.5 years we’ve lived here and I’m sick of it. I’ve never lived anywhere so many «emergencies» have happened. Either the people who live here are not safe neighbors to have, or there’s something wrong with the fire alarms (neither being a good scenario). Glad we are moving out soon. Don’t let the external appearance of this place fool you — pay a few extra bucks and go to one of the better managed complexes instead.

Dear Unilocal Journal,
Run! Run far away!
This complex is a sinking ship and the employees are trying to keep it from sinking by straining the water out with forks.
What was a livable, yet not perfect complex, managed by Prometheus is now an incompetent garbage heap with puke on it. Let’s start with this «short» list of offenses.
1. I was attacked by a dog that was off leash. I gave the description of the owners and the name of the dog. The staff tried to downplay the situation. There was a puncture wound, but they said it didn’t look that bad (because they’re doctors, right?) Anyway, they told me they would find out who the residents were so they could confirm with me that the dog had a record of vaccinations. NEVER HAPPENED. I went to the doctor within 48 hours and to get a professional to look at it. The doctor asked if I knew the owner or if the dog was up-​to-​date on its shots. Umm, nope. That was something I was waiting for before I came in. Great job! These residents are still on the premises and they STILL let their dog off leash.
2. People vomit in the court yard and the staff does nothing. I guess they are waiting for rain in drought stricken California to wash it away. They don’t have to deal with the stench and they’ll probably just tour their new victims, I mean residents, in the other buildings.
3. Those neighbors in the other reviews complaining about people leaving garbage in front of their apartments… Yes, they’ve now implemented a solution to that. A $ 25/​mo valet that will take your garbage from Sunday to Thursday. This is non-​negotiable. You have to pay this fee even if you take out your own garbage like a normal, considerate person. They’ve said they’re going to lock the refuse rooms (so even the good neighbors can’t have the convenience of taking their garbage out on their floor, but have to go down the garage). Others have resorted to tossing their garbage into the community trash cans when the valet service isn’t available.
4. Maintenance requests means you’re going to solve your own issues. This is only if you’re willing to deal with the issues of getting the «repair.» Example: my clogged tub that they didn’t respond to for almost a week. They came in and ripped the hardware out then left it on the counter. Cigarette smoke (from my neighbors) permeated my bathroom and towels. Second day, a plumber comes in to wash the pipe out and leaves black goop on everything and says he’ll let maintenance know to come and clean it. Third day, my maintenance request on their portal says the job is complete. The hardware is still sitting on my bathroom counter, there’s black goop all over everything, and I had to put cling wrap over the holes in my tub to decrease the cigarette smoke. When I went down to ask why maintenance closed the ticket, they told me that they finished it already and I hadn’t been to my apartment (I work from home). GOOD JOB! The cigarette smoke never stopped.
5. Management loses your rent check and they politely call you about it. You eat the fee to cancel the check and write them a new one. They find the check 5 months later and cash it. Speechless… At least they didn’t charge a bounced check fee to our account.
6. They’re a non-​smoking complex. But don’t worry, they won’t enforce it to stop the people smoking in their bathrooms, sitting on the benches, or hiding like a creeper in the garage in the corners where nobody can see them. They’ll do ineffectual things such as caulking around your medicine cabinet to try to plug the odor, but your neighbors are pretty much untouchable.
7. I got a 28% increase to my annual rent. Just an extra $ 10,000/year to stay in an apartment that I couldn’t even breathe in because of all the smoke. An extra $ 10,000/year to stay where all the above mentioned points happens… Thanks, but no thanks.
So if you’re willing to pay a whole lot of money for a horribly managed apartment where the only priority the staff has is to get as much money out of your wallet in addition to your rent, please stay at Bridgepointe.

I love living here and just began my forth lease.
I like that its quiet here, we’re far enough away from the 101 that traffic noise is rarely noticeable. It feels a little less crowded out here on Fashion Island. The shoreline trail is 2 blocks away. You can cycle north to SF on paths and streets and south of Palo Alto.
Things work.
And if they don’t they are quickly fixed. Office and grounds staff are friendly and efficient. Not only are the buildings and grounds kept up, but the infrastructure too. By water heater was replaced w/​out my having to complain.
A comment on the valet trash. This a 500 unit apartment complex. Its a long way from your apt to the trash. As such people left their garbage out overnight by their door. We have raccoons. Valet trash means no more trash strewn over the pathways. They pick up nighlty by the door. There is less trash piled around recycling. It amazes me that there are people who don’t know what «breaking down a box means»
If you like here in the bay area and rent just accept that your rent is going up more than $ 25 a year EVERY year without any services added.
My one negative is size. BP is a 500 unit complex. Its owned and governed by holding company that holds 100s of 500 unit complexes. Don’t try negotiating a price. Anything you might want to use around the plex has a price except whats in the lease, like the pool.

UPDATE — I was contacted and asked to call to resolve the issue. As usual, I called in and surprise surprise, no one answered the phone. I left a message with all of our information and no call back or acknowledgement of the issue.

We lived at Bridgepointe for about three years and overall had a positive experience.
PROS:
1. The floorplans are large
2. Location is great mid-​Peninsula, convenient to get on 101
3. Alex in the leasing office is fantastic to work with. Always very responsive and reasonable. She was pretty much the only one I would go to, as the others in the office were much less knowledgeable, so my review would be much lower if it weren’t for Alex.
4. Maintenance is generally responsive. There was only one time that it took over 1 week to repair our microwave.
COULD USE IMPROVEMENT
1. If you are in a two bedroom apartment, you get one assigned parking spot and one unassigned. Unfortunately, this almost always meant that if you were planning to park in an unassigned spot and got home after 9pm, you would not have a parking spot at all and would have to hunt for one in guest parking or worse yet in another building. This really peeved me.
2. Rents were raised close to market rate each year. Maybe this is reasonable, but it was still a bummer to have rent raised $ 200 in a year.
3. There is only one recycling area, so if you live on the other end of the building, you still have to trek across the entire complex to recycle. I did not make use of their valet waste program, as they were very specific about the hours you left out your trash/​recycling, and I always got home too late to put it out.
4. As another reviewer mentioned, their recycling area was constantly overflowing. If you tried to take out your cardboard the day before pickup, there wouldn’t be a bin available for you to leave your stuff.
5. Wish they had composting
We did live on the highest floor, and while we paid a premium for it, the high ceilings, airy feel, and lower noise levels were well worth it.

Everything about this apartment is awesome! The floorplans are unbeatable. I moved from a 4 bedroom house to this apartment. It never felt like an apartment. Even though there are so many houses here, it is exceptionally private. The walls are insulated very well. You don’t hear anything outside your apartment.
Their maintenance staff are good.
Last, but not the least, Jamie, who works in the office is the best! She is very friendly and addresses all your problems instantly. Unfortunately, I had to break my lease. She went out of her way to find means to find another tenant.
Overall, you out will not regret moving here. It’s the best in San Mateo!

I lived in Bridgepointe for a little over 3 years. The only reason I am no longer there is that I have since moved to Ohio. Here are some of the great points about the apartment complex:
1. It’s in a great location. Whether you have to go to the city or San Jose, it’s perfect.
2. The units are beautiful, especially the renovated units. I lived in both.
3. Very pet friendly. My pooch loved it.
4. The pool, spa, theater room, and exercise room are amazing.
5. My neighbors were very friendly and helpful.
6. The maintenance crew (Tino, Hector, Nestor, etc.) were always friendly and very prompt with any issues that I had.
7. Last, but not least, the leasing personnel are amazing. I would always swing by the office to visit. I have nothing but great things to say about Yahaira, Alex K., Jaime, and Alex. Always friendly and very helpful.
Overall, I would highly recommend this place.

My husband & I have been living here a year & one month & honestly we are happy — for us Alex has been very helpful & we truly appreciate all her concern & understanding.
Other staff & even the maintenance guys are good too.
Yes it is expensive but the location is good & if anything goes wrong & I call they always come fix it.
Unfortunately some residences are not clean but management is trying their best. They are pressure washing & painting the buildings & doing all they can.
I respect the staff & am happy with the new management.

I’ve lived at Bridgepointe Apartments for over 2 years now. When I moved to the Bay, I was a bit overwhelmed by all of the densely packed in cities, particularly on the peninsula near my new job. So many options, so hard to narrow down the commute I was comfortable with. Eventually, I settled on the notion of picking something close to work and then considering a move later on. Out of the three places I saw my first day of apartment hunting, Bridgepointe was the first and it was also the one I immediately preferred.
Since I moved in, they have: done some pretty heavy construction and renovated a large chunk of the units, changed property management companies, started a new ValetTrash service that actually works pretty well, and had the usual change in leasing office staff. There have been two constants though: Alex and Blas (the latter being one of the head maintenance guys), and they’re both awesome. Throughout all that stuff though, it’s remained a comfortable place to live.
Look, it’s a pricey bay area apartment complex. They probably built these as condos to sell in the 90s; the floor plans are huge. Neighbors aren’t super friendly. It’s dog friendly but I don’t have a dog so that’s not a consideration. In the end though, I’m really at ease here. The gatedness and gated parking do create the illusion of security. I’ve never had a maintenance request drag on. The people in the leasing office, despite the changing of management, have been terrific. Alex, in particular, is to-​the-​point, impressively knowledgeable about the property, always fast to solve problems, and – at least for me, since it was her and Kelly (who’s no longer there) who moved me in during a rather overwhelming transition in my life) – really helps make it feel like home.
Anyone who moves here and complains about the cost is a fool. Move to east bay if you want to pay something reasonable. Judged objectively, against the other complexes and properties, this place is VERY comfortably situated between San Mateo and Foster City, is well maintained and offers large floor plans, and seems to always have nice people working here.

it’s expensive, so is the rest of san mateo and peninsula at large so if i had to deduct a star it would be from the real estate market in general — no real use in blaming bridgepointe.
At any rate, the units are large and spacious. the grounds are kept up pretty well especially when you consider all the pets.
like other people who have complained here the garbage was a problem mostly due to some neighbors who are a rare combination of lazy, inconsiderate, and stupid. While I wasn’t a big fan initially of Valet Waste as a solution it seems to have worked remarkably well! The halls are clean, the elevators are clean and my apartment is consistently free of discarded packaging from all the
stuff we buy. It’s only been a month but I think it was a good call on management’s part since the only other viable alternative was to over-​police all the residents because of a few bad apples which I would have not appreciated.
Maintenance is solid and the maintenance folks are super friendly. Big fan of Alex who has helped me out more than a few times; don’t know the other office staff so can’t speak on their behalf yet.
If you can afford the rent i’d recommend living here: good location, spacious and well maintained units. Additional plus Target on one side of you and Home Depot on the other side, I’m in wannabe handyman heaven.

I just moved out of Bridgepointe after living there for nearly 4 years. Overall, it was a great experience and I’d recommend this place to anyone thinking about moving to the area.
I’m not going to write a review about the amenities since plenty of other people have weighed in here, but I did want to state that the management and support staff always treated us extremely well from the day we signed our lease until the day we moved out. Especially Alex, who was always helpful and quick to respond to our requests (and demands… haha). We were probably more demanding than most residents and had to deal with a unit-​to-​unit move in the middle of our tenure here, but our experiences dealing with her and the rest of the staff were always fair, courteous and timely.

They have started something called Valet Waste. Essentially, you pay an additional $ 25/​month for having someone pick up your trash. Sounds good on the outside. However, in reality, it’s just another scam. They have trash chutes on every floor, which now they will be locking up. All units have an ugly trash bin next to the front door which will be overflowing with packaging boxes and trash, to welcome you home. And, THERE IS NO OPTING OUT!
Come on, Alliance (the «management»), stop this arm-​twisting. Other properties that have something like this service make it optional. And they don’t lock their functional trash chutes that people living there have been used to for years! Isn’t $ 3000 for a 1BR enough to satisfy your greed? Stop stealing from us already!

I lived at Bridgepointe for a year. Would not recommend.
** THE GOOD **
— Nice amenities: small gym, heated pool, hot tub (usually not too busy), spacious garage (good if you have multiple cars).
— The location is nice-​close to 92 & 101; parks and convenient shopping near by. There is a free
shuttle (runs weekdays in the morning and afternoon) right outside the complex that takes you to Millbrae BART (in about 15 min).
— The apartment itself had nice features: in-​unit washer/​dryer, spacious deck, solid floors/​walls (hardly heard my neighbors).
** THE MEH **
— During my tenure, the management changed from Prometheus to Alliance and this seemed to come as a surprise to both the staff and especially the residents. I don’t blame the management for some disruption, but they were too (openly) eager to blame the previous management. Frankly, I paid a lot to live there, and I don’t care about blame, I just wanted things to be made right.
— If you have a pet, you’ll be charged «pet rent» ($ 60/​month now) in addition to an extra security deposit.
— Regarding the neighbors, I echo the sentiment of other reviewers. There are a lot of families with young (sometimes screaming) children and barking dogs. There are also a lot of lazy people that seemingly cannot clean up after themselves.
** THE BAD **
— Excessive landscaping for minimal vegetation. The equipment they used, especially the gas powered blowers would hit 85 db, from within my unit with the windows open. This would go on for hours (not an exaggeration) at a time. Meanwhile, the cleanliness of the second and third floors was neglected-​cobwebs near the doorways would build up over months.
— The appliances are not the cheapest, but they are definitely on the lower end. The bathroom fan in the unit itself is loud, and I could hear (and feel) the vibration of the fan from the unit underneath and adjacent to me. The kitchen appliances were just ok but obviously cheap-​ovens with no window, low end refrigerators, and cheap fixtures (I was in a «classic» unit). The clothes washer is a top loader-I’ve never used one that tore apart and put holes in my clothes like this one.
— When I first moved in, the water pressure was incredibly low-​especially noticeable with the shower and clothes washer. The washer took 15 minutes just to fill. What I discovered was that the terminal end of the shower head and the filter on the water hook-​ups to the washer were filled with some sort of sludge. It seems like something had backed up sometime in the past and deposited this gunk into the pipes. After cleaning this out, all was well. But it makes me wonder how maintenance didn’t notice the ultra low pressure before having someone move in.
— Like other reviewers have mentioned, the fire alarm does go off from time to time. It’s unclear if they were results or a prank of defect. During my stay there, it went off at least 4 times and sometimes in the middle of the night (1am). Each time they turned out to be false alarms. The management was generally uncommunicative about it.
— As another review mentioned, even though Bridgepointe is gated and «secure», people seem to make their way into the complex anyway. One of the exits in a garage had a broken lock-​you could walk into the building from the outside. I had repeatedly reported the issue to the management to have this fixed but it went ignored for months. Solicitors would always find their way into the complex knocking on doors.
— The management is hard to get a hold of. They were unresponsive to calls, voicemail, and email. If I really needed something, I would have to go to the office.
— You likely will not get your full deposit back. I’ve never had a place that would take money from the security deposit *to clean the apartment for the next tenant*. This place will charge a minimum cleaning fee of $ 250 after you move out even if there is nothing to fix after the final inspection.
— More people are recycling, which is great! But management seems unable to deal with the volume. More often than not, the recycling rooms are literally overflowing.
— Renewals basically require a year commitment otherwise you will pay out of the nose for any shorter term. Rent increases are not small-​around 7% for 1 year. I understand «market rate» adjustment but are you prepared to pay 7% more next year?
— The thing that bothered me the most were the inspections, which seemed to happen quite often (I can recall at least 5 times within slightly less than a year). Early on, I was able to schedule appointments but half the time they would show up and enter unannounced because the appointment was never recorded. Towards the end of my stay, they offered no appointments at all-​just a 2 day window. It’s the management’s right to enter, but because it happened so often, I never really felt like this was a «home».

So sad… live here at the Bridgepointe Apts. Put Mr. Snowman right outside my door… overnight some one took it. I thought I was in secure living in secure apts… but obviously thieves are everywhere… not feeling very safe:(

Oh guess what guys? We had to live out of hotel and a friend’s house because our apartment flooded with raw sewage AGAIN and this time revealed the most disgusting carpet padding ever. No wonder I’ve been sick so often. My doctor says my frequent sinus infections and vertigo are directly related to the state of my apartment. On top of this they put sewage soaked items on our bed and ruined the bed, on the sofa and ruined the sofa, and generally knocked things off shelves into the sewage (like my clothes, my yoga mat, and pretty much 90% of my shoes). Please for the sake of your health and your family’s health DO NOT LIVE HERE.
PS. I’ve noticed that some of their employees are writing fake positive reviews on Unilocal as well as adding commercial pictures. Especially a user named Mario S.

Bridgepointe and Prometheus are amazing. I’ve lived here since 2011 and even the idea of moving out makes me sad. I hope when I move out it will be into my own house — I don’t want to leave Prometheus for any other reason.
Yes, it’s expensive. There’s no getting around that, but that’s the truth of living in the Bay Area. The staff is extremely friendly, the pool is clean and large, and the landscaping is my personal oasis.
If you’re looking for a place that’s quiet, respectful, and very pretty, I give it my highest recommendation.
There’s also a target across the street, which helps.

OVERALL
* Almost all of my Unilocal reviews are 4 and 5 stars, so I rarely write bad reviews
* This is the worst apartment I’ve ever lived in over the past 10 years
* There are some nice aspects to the complex, but the negatives far outweigh the positives
* My toilet flooded over 20 times, and flooded 3 times with raw sewage
* The management tried to charge me rent while my apartment was flooded, which is against the law
* I’m stunned that a company like this is still in business and hasn’t been shut down by regulators
PLUMBING
* There is a shared plumbing line that multiple units share
* I lived on the first floor, so the people above me shared the same plumbing line
* If they clogged the toilet, then my toilet would get clogged
* This resulted in my toilet being clogged literally more than 20 times in a 1 year period (probably far more than 20 but I lost count)
* The maintenance men are incompetent and never actually fix the issue hence the toilet clogging 20+ times
* It also resulted in our apartment flooding with the raw sewage of our neighbors, which flooded my entire apartment with feces and urine
* The apartment only cleaned the hallway and not the rest of the apartment, then insisted that the apartment was habitable (with raw sewage still throughout the apartment) so that they could charge us rent during this time, which is illegal
* It was so bad that we had to move out
* While moving three of us had to wearing medical masks to avoid breathing in the fumes from the raw sewage, and we all got sick from it
NEIGHBORS
* There are multiple families with children that do whatever they want throughout the complex
* Several of our neighbors would have children screaming all day long, which you can hear even with all your windows closed and noise canceling headphones on
* Every morning I was waken up by screaming children next door
* Every night our neighbors would curse each other out with their windows open
* I was actually genuinely concerned for the well being of some of these children who seemed to have very dysfunctional families and parenting
* Other children would ride really loud motor scooters by out door for hours
* Sometimes the children would go around knocking on peoples’ doors
* Neighbors would leave trash in the trash room rather than putting it down the shoot (see other’s photos)
* Other neighbors would regularly decide to move furniture and other things with shopping carts taken from Home Depot at 11pm at night
* Overall, while there are multiple people who are perfectly nice, the large number of trashy neighbors ruins it for everyone
APARTMENT
* Parts of the apartment were nice, but the negatives far outweigh the positives
* There were regularly spiders that would appear and bite me while I was sleeping
* The apartment said there were no spiders, but my doctor confirmed that I had multiple spider bites on multiple occasions, and other reviewers had similar experiences
* The carpets would strangely turn black after a few weeks likely because of previous cleaning issues below the carpet not being addressed. We got the carpets cleaned again, and then shortly after the carpets turned black again. note: this hasn’t happened at apartments I lived in before or after Bridgepointe
MANAGEMENT
* In general, when we had issues with the apartment, the management would respond in a timely manner, but would never actually fix the issues
* They hired incompetent maintenance people probably because they were cheap, who would only solve the problem temporarily, but never actually solve the problem (hence the problems happening over and over and over again)
* They refused to pay us almost all of the money they owed us from the deposit and rent that they cannot charge us while our apartment was uninhabitable
* Again, I’m stunned that a company like this is still in business and hasn’t been shut down by regulators

I don’t know what kind of Mickey Mouse operation is being ran here as far as the leasing office goes, but whoever was in charge of showing condos on March the 2^nd at 1pm seriously lacks professionalism. When you make an appointment for potential future residents, people expect you to be there if at least give a courtesy call of some sort. The sign said you’d be back at 12:15pm. We got there at 12:53 and waited until 1:15. I left a couple messages: one a little after 1pm and another informing this agent, we no longer had time to wait
We never got a call back from ANYONE in the office after these messages.
Thanks for wasting our time on a beautiful Saturday afternoon! We came all the way from the south bay for this lackadaisical nonsense!

Sadly, Time to downgrade a star. I’ve been living in this complex for 20 months now and where I loved living here the first year these last 8 or 9 months have been not so great. Few things I still can’t fault:
— Excellent location! There’s so many shops, restaurants, Parks and walking trails all within walking or for me Running /​Cycling distance too. It’s also right in the middle of the Peninsula so only takes about 25 minutes to get to either San Jose or San Francisco and a short drive over the San Mateo bridge to East bay.
— Maintenance guys are lovely. They’re quick at coming out when issues are reported and are all so friendly.
— Facilities. There’s now a newly refitted Gym which is a huge step up from the old one we had. Ok, it took 10 months of them telling me ”it’s coming next month” but the new fully working equipment kind of makes up for that.
There’s also the huge outdoor pool which is heated all year around along with the hot tub, business center and Theater room which you can book in advance with a deposit.
Ok. now onto the negatives.
— Trash everywhere! I blame the sort of people they are letting move into the complex. It’s become a common habit for residents to leave their trash outside their front door, on their patio and even right outside the trash room rather than take those extra two steps and put it down the chute. I have seen very few steps being made by management to stop this.
— Old kitchen appliances. When we first moved in we reported that our Fridge /​Freezer combo had a broken shelf and didn’t keep things at the correct temperature but wasn’t replaced. We never bothered to follow up on it so I guess we’re part to blame for that.
Oven is a nightmare to cook in, a Roast Chicken takes about 4hrs when it should only take about 2 and a half and baking a cake? Forget it! It burns the outside while still leaving the middle raw no matter what temperature you try. I’m an experienced Baker so I’m certain it’s not my skills to fault.
— Security. The whole complex it meant to be only accessible with a key fob yet gates are often left open or broken. The garage gate is my biggest issue here as it’s left open way too often even the maintenance guys have a habit of putting a cloth over the sensor so that anybody can walk in.
— Still no air con in the Gym. Bleugh! Also after many reports I still have issues with residents bringing their Children, Babies and even Dogs in the Gym while I’m trying to workout.
I can barely tolerate the trash and the couple that live over from us screeching at each other at 2am but f**k with my workout and we have a problem! Note to these people:
* The Gym is not a day care. The Gym is not a place for a crying baby.
* It is also not a playground for you to allow your Children to climb and play on the equipment when other’s want to use it.
* And those that tie your dog up to the leg press while you get on the Treadmill. (oh. walking at 2mph for 30 minutes? Pah.). Some people have allergies! Here’s an idea — take your dog and go OUTSIDE for a walk.
Overall, my time at Bridgepointe has been fair. It can be a nice place to live there just needs to be a few changes made. Pricing for the apartments have gone down recently and a 2 bed 2 bath just under 1,200 square foot will run you $ 2,700 — $ 3,000 a month which although sounds like a lot is about right in comparison to other complexes. I’m just a little glad our contract is up in May and we will be moving out into our own House. Yay!