Elliott Bay Plaza

Worst management ever!

This is for the apartment complex formerly known as Elliott Bay Plaza or «EBP» and now called The Berkshires on Elliott. This is a duplicate of the review I posted on a new Unilocal page for «The Berkshires.»
I’ve been a renter for 25 years and this is without question the most disappointing experience I’ve ever had with a landlord. I wouldn’t normally write such a long or scathing review of a business, but since this may be read by potential renters who will be signing a year or longer lease I think a detailed disclosure of my year living at this property is warranted.
Here goes:
The sales pitch last summer went great. My girlfriend and I were really excited about the location and the amenities (hot tub, pool, sauna, gyms, community center, rooftop, etc.). The leasing agents were friendly and helpful, and to this day I’ve never had an issue with any of them, they seem to be doing their best working for a horrific parent company headquartered back east. It must really suck coming to work everyday knowing you are making empty promises and signing someone up to live in a sub par environment. Shame.
Not long after moving in announcements started circulating that a major renovation was scheduled to begin and that it would take the better part of a YEAR! We were never told this and we would NOT have rented the apartment if we had been. And when I say major renovation I mean stripping the building down to its bones, covering it in a mesh «cocoon» all winter, scaffolding everywhere, and the loss of access to amenity after amenity. The package and «lifestyle» we signed on for was unavailable and we found ourselves instead living on a construction site.
Picture waking up to half a dozen construction workers staring through your 3^rd floor windows at you as they banged and hacked and drilled away ALL DAY. And that went on for many months. Horrible, messy, and dirty. The air quality was/​is severely compromised. We bought a $ 400 indoor air cleaning machine and have run it on high ²⁴⁄₇ for months now trying to combat the air that is always filled with something: mold, particulate, dust, chemicals, paint, etc.
In addition to the undisclosed construction, the level of service in general has declined steeply. There are bodily fluids and broken bottles left uncleaned in the stairwells and hallways. There is apparently no cleaning being done in the common areas. The building and parking garages REEK of rotting trash. The brand new paint and flooring surfaces are very light in color which would be fine if they cleaned but instead it all just looks disgusting. I’ve had to repeatedly ask the management to remove trash and debris from the common area just outside my apartments front door.
Our screens were torn by the construction workers when they ripped out our windows and haven’t been replaced. Our drains back up almost weekly in both the shower and the bathroom sink. The scaffolding has finally been removed on our half of the building – but ZERO cleanup of the exterior was done and our windows and balcony are filthy.
HERE COMES THE BEST PART… we just got a notice from the property that we have one month to decide if we are staying or not (our lease is up in 2 months). If we immediately agree to sign another year lease (can you imagine?) they will «only» raise our rent $ 200 per month (roughly a 20%) increase. But, if we want to just go month to month (which is typical after being a good tenant for the first year’s lease, always paying on time, etc.) then our rent will go up $ 700 PER MONTH! That’s a 60% plus increase! BTW, during the construction I asked two different leasing agents if they were going to raise our rents – both assured me that wouldn’t happen and that they would «make things right» by rewarding the people who had stuck out this whole mess with reasonable increases if any, and not to worry, there would be no surprises. Now I’m curious what they think a «surprising» increase would be. Double? Triple the rent?
And let me make one more thing clear… it’s not like the building is renovated and beautiful now. It’s not even close to finished. It’s gross. Why would anyone who’d been through this sign ANY kind of lease until trust had been reestablished? Why chase away tenants?
If you are looking at this property, do not believe anything you are told by the well meaning leasing staff. They simply cannot and will not deliver. I really wanted this to work, and even up until that notice they delivered, would have been open to trying, but instead we get to start all over and move again.

Poor management, facility caused damage to my vehicle, deposit refunds are a scam, management made up «repairs» on our exit form. Disputed and won. Location is nice.

Since being sold to new owners who stated in the Seattle Business Journal that they waned to increase rents by 33% over the next 4 years, the quality of onsite management has fallen significantly. Most recently I had an appoint with the property manager who stood me up and no one gave me a phone call to let me know I didn’t need to leave work early so as to meet her schedule.
But the biggest issue is that despite having construction workers on scaffolding outside my windows and on my patio for 7 months, being prevented from using my apartment’s patio, and having a neting over the building limiting the view and sunlight in the apartment, property management expects tenants to continue to pay full rents. When I renewed my lease a few months before construction began, there was no disclosure of the major 7 month exterior renovation project.

I have lived in this building since 2005. And I loved it when it was previously managed by Riverstone. I even lived off and on in this building from 1997 to 1999 and it was beautiful.
Everything changed once Berk“shyster” took over. Every poor review that has been written is to an absolute T. They are awful. It literally could not get any worse and I’m the kind of person who would never, ever write a review on Unilocal.After debating back and fourth with mgmt for several months I just felt compelled. Do not ever move into this building as long as you know that it is being managed by Berkshire.
Here’s a small list of things I have come up with just off the top of my head:
1) Broken trash chutes 2) smelly and dirty lobby 3) unfriendly staff 4) broken elevators 5) missing packages 6) not answering office phones 7) dirty pool/​hot tub/​courtyard 8) dirty sidewalks 9) dirty parking garage 10) dirty hallways 11) filthy fitness room 12) poor on-​site security 13) not returning phone calls and emails 14) threatening eviction notice on utilities I had already paid. I could go on and on but I think you get the point!!!

If you like management that has no clue what they’re doing, maintenance that is non-​existent, and renovation happening all day long, then welcome to paradise.
This is easily the worst apartment complex I have experienced. It’s not that the building itself is bad. It’s a good location, it has some good views, and while it has some age, it would be fine if kept up. However, the new management has absolutely no clue what they’re doing.
If you rent here, don’t expect to get proper notice on anything. Also, don’t expect your rent payments to be handled properly. There’s either some really creative bookkeeping going on, or these people just can’t add 2 + 2. I have never seen such poor maintenance. Even the simplest things don’t get taken care of — an exit sign was hanging by only wires for months before someone finally took the 5 minutes to fix it. And now, they have decided to do a remodel, which has resulted in covering all the apartment windows and noisy construction all day long. But, don’t expect management to care about your inconvenience. However, if they need in your apartment, you can be assured that they will do it without proper notice.
Enjoy!

Elliott Bay Plaza used to be a great place to live… however, once Berkshire took over things have progressively gone down-​hill:
* The rooftop grill was down for the first few months «due to inspection»
* Sidewalks are frequently covered in trash and broken glass — some of this is expected since this place is close to bars, but the staff seems to only clean the sidewalks once every few days (which is way too seldom given the location of this building). They also do a terrible job, just the other day I saw that instead of picking up a broken mug they just swept it under a gap in a light post!
* The lobby in my building (P2) often smells like garbage
* The hallways are frequently dirty and are only vacuumed once every few weeks (and I know this because there was a large spill of kitty litter outside of our apartment that sat around for 3 weeks)
* They set up a flat-​screen TV in my building to display package information and it worked for a grand total of one day (out of 3 months)
* Have screwed up my bills on more than one occasion
* Long waits to do simple things like pick up packages — they often only have 1 person helping tenants while the other 2 do office work, even when there are several tenants waiting.
…and the kicker…
* They just started a major 6-​month construction project which involves scaffolding all over the buildings, obstructing everyone’s views, blocking parts of the alley between the buildings where everyone takes their dogs, and requiring people to empty their balconies for a couple of months! And they only gave everyone 3 business days of notice that construction was happening! The construction started on a Wednesday and they left everyone notices the previous Friday afternoon! They are also not giving any rent discounts, but were kind enough to mention that the construction «would not block the parking garages for your convenience». Are you f****** kidding me???
To top it off, the rents in this place are definitely not cheap — go somewhere else, there are many places far more deserving of your money!

When this building was owned by Cornerstone, my husband and I were SOO happy.
But Once Berkshire took over the apartments building about 7 months ago, everything went downhill.
There are constantly holes in walls, leaks, mold (or at least the SMELL of it throughout the building!), broken items, missing packages, unfriendly staff, among a list of Other things.
My hallway hasn’t been vacuumed for about a month, and the trash chute barely opens because of a disgusting sticky substance on it. The staff has repeatedly entered my apartment to do «inspections» for the water heater, safety, fire alarm, etc… and its become annoying that they keep on entering. Its my home, not just a random room you can come in and out of!
Did I mention LOST packages??? This month is about the 4^th time they’ve lost a package… and they just stare at me and say «well its not here»??? my husband and I just got married and we’re getting sent gifts and now we’re missing one, we dont know what it was, what it was worth or who it was from so we can thank someone. Its just ridiculous. They don’t even TRY to figure something out. Its like they have something WAY better to do… in front of their computers.
I can go ON and ON about this company but i think you know where I stand on this place. Don’t come here. Its not worth it. Its gone from really nice, beautiful and classy, to trashy and worthless… its up to you, but remember that myself (among others!) have warned you!

Run, don’t walk, far away from Elliott Bay Plaza.
Like other residents, I loved living here when Riverstone managed it, but the new management is horrible. Here is just a sampling of what has happened since they’ve taken over:
1. The fire alarms have repeatedly malfunctioned. On the last occasion, the fire alarm went off intermittently for a full hour– despite there not being the presence of a fire.
2. Security is seemingly non-​existent. When the fire alarms malfunctioned, I called the emergency number after about 20 minutes. The man who answered told me that he had just found about the fire alarms when residents called him, and he was sending over someone who would be there in 10 – 15 minutes.
3. The elevators often break. The last time, it was broken for seven full days.
4. Staff members are rarely helpful. When I asked a staff member when the elevator would be repaired, she shrugged and said «I don’t know, I’ve been off the last few days.»
5. When I went in to sign my lease, the rent amount shown on the lease was higher than the rent amount on my offer letter. When I pointed this out to the person in the office, they walked around the office confused for a few minutes talking to other people, and then admitted I was right.
6. Emails to the office rarely receive a response.
7. The fitness center is not cleaned regularly.
8. The printer in the business center rarely works.
9. The office hours are extremely inconvenient. Residents who work standard, 9 – 6 jobs have no way to receive their packages, and are stuck waiting until the weekend; the office does offer to place the packages outside the door, which could clearly result in theft. When I once suggested that the office hours be shifted or expanded to accommodate working residents, the man I spoke to literally laughed in my face.
I can’t urge you away from this place enough. There are nicer, cheaper, better managed apartment buildings in the neighborhood.

Honestly, I love my apartment. I looked at a bunch in this area, and these were the nicest.
However, literally the weekend I signed my lease, they changed management, and they are absolutely awful.
The revolving door of front desk workers are rude, lazy and dumb. («Can you please show me where the business center is?» «I don’t know.» «You work here…» «Yeah, I don’t know.»)
They’ve given away our parking spots four times in three months to someone else. Really, how hard is it to document who’s parking where?
Our balcony door has been broken since we moved in, and it’s still not fixed, four months later.
There are numerous other issues, but you get the idea.

I love living here. If you move in at a good time of year, then you can get good rental rates for a great location. It’s walking distance to EVERYTHING! Downtown, the market, lower Queen Anne, the Space Needle!
Plus, it’s a really nice building. Both units I have lived in have new appliances, and great size and space. There is also a gym in both buildings, free tanning in each building, a really nice lounge area with a TV and nice furniture, fireplace, free wifi, etc. There is an outdoor pool and hot tub that face the sun in the summer. BBQ by the pool and one on the rooftop deck that guests can use.
The staff is really friendly and awesome.
My only complaints would stem from experiences that happen around the neighborhood, but that’s not the fault of EBP.

I really enjoyed my stay at Elliott Bay, especially with Juli the lovely assistant manager. The staff was always super nice and I stopped in to talk to them all the time.
The area has a lot of homeless/​transients, but so does every other area in downtown/​Belltown. I lived on Capitol Hill before EBP and it was no better in that regard.
All in all, just like any other apartment place, depending on your view, floor, layout etc it can be awesome or terrible. But, if you end up in a dungeon that has no view, that is your own fault for not paying a little extra for a higher floor and better view.

It’s been about a month since I moved in and I love it!
Juli (the EBP rep) asked us a few questions on what we’re looking for and selected the perfect unit for us. We wanted to stay under $ 1800 (including 2 parking spaces) for a 2BR, 2BA, over 1,000 sq ft, and quiet because I work from home. She was able to meet all the requirements and showed us a fabulous unit on the 2^nd floor, facing the courtyard (so it’s quieter), and with a fireplace. Yay!
PROS: 24 hour gym, rooftop deck, free tanning bed (not that I use it), fast response from maintenance, secured parking, 1 block from waterfront, 5 blocks from Pike Place and Space Needle, right off the 99 so it’s convenient to get out of the city.
CONS: Transients in the area. Also, our bikes got stolen the 1^st week we were here. (Hence the –1 star)
TIP: If you’re looking for a new place and you’re not from Seattle, use
to narrow down your search. Some complexes may look nice but are in the crappiest neighborhoods.

Man oh man, I lived there for a month and I gotta say, the location creeps the hell out of me. If that wasn’t bad enough, the noise level on the 2^nd floor is atrocious. I live at another complex now facing the exact same street and the noise level is waaaay better that EBP. And the rent is way too expensive. Would not recommend.

I’ll give this apartment complex one star for the fact it’s easy to get to downtown from Elliott and Western. I got an apartment at Elliott Bay Plaza (EBP) shortly after deciding to move to Seattle for a new job; the price seemed reasonable compared to SF but after a year in Seattle I realize it was overpriced.
My apartment was a one bedroom on the second floor; it was basically a dungeon since it faced north on to a court yard and got almost no light.
The noise level from the courtyard was unacceptable, one night I was woken up by screams from a tenant that had locked himself out of his apartment. The police had to be called and that ended with shouts of «hey douchebag, shut the f**k up» from various balconies.
The staff tried to be helpful and I appreciated that but all in all the quality of the apartment building is lacking. If you’re looking for a good Seattle experience and want to be close to bars; check out Lower Queen Anne or Capital Hill