Lock Vista Apartments

I’ve lived at Lock Vista for almost 2 years, and just renewed for a 3^rd. So far I have had nothing but good experiences. The managers and maintenance team are kind and prompt, the units have original 1950s charm and the amenities are great (including the pool/​BBQ and very well maintained landscape, which is totally worth the sound of a leaf blower once a week). I just upgraded from a studio to a one bedroom and the management team made it easy and seamless.

The management team woke me & probably others up with their noise at 6am setting up their annual breakfast to go. Who pays for this? is this what our rent increases go for? – mgmt. schmoozing with tenants? This isn’t what builds good relations. I’ve heard about 12 tenants go to the happy hours Management has hosted in various bars in Ballard or the BBQs they have by the pool. That’s 12 tenants out of the 192 apartments here, many of which have two tenants in them. For a conservative estimate, let’s say 230 people live here. So if ¹²⁄₂₃₀ people turn out, that’s about a 5% turnout.
Now it’s Friday morning. and the maintenance guy is out there with the leaf blower blowing a few leaves around. It’s been noisy 3 out of the 5 days this week. Tuesday the yard care people were here making noise with their equipment all day with their big lawn mower, weed whacker, and lawn mower. Wednesday, Management’s inappropriate-​for-​6am loud party-​time behavior complete with whooping and hollering, music, and even dancing by Management in the parking lot. (about ¹⁄₃ of the 192 units face the parking lot). I think this management team is all from the «Me» generation. it’s all about Me. They have even told us not to talk to them if they’re on a break or if they’re walking to their cars after work.
An hour and a half later, the maintenance guy is still blowing a few leaves out there – revving up the engine from time to time. i wish i had ear plugs. It’s a sad thing when you have to wear ear plugs in your own apartment.

I’ve been at Lock Vista just shy of 3 years and it has been the best rental experience I’ve had since living in Seattle for 10 years. The main reason for this is the management. Jenette and Jessica are THE best. Whenever I pop into the office to fill up my laundry card or grab a package mailed to me I leave with a smile from talking with them.
I’ve lived in both the studio and 1 bedroom versions. while it’s great having a bedroom I do miss my walk in closet in the studio.
Other Pros:
Swimming pool in the summertime.
Fast response and fix time for any maintenance issues.
Apartments kept in good shape so cleaning is easier. Nothing worse than trying to clean floors and counters in kitchens and baths of apts that are really old where the dirt is permanently stuck on. Don’t have this issue here.
The only downside is the noise that can be omitted between floors + ceilings, but that’s a common issue in apt living so it shouldn’t really come as a surprise. Luckily noise does not travel between walls so much so you shouldn’t hear the neighbors on either side of you.

After living here for a few months I feel like I can write a pretty solid review of my experience here thus far.
First off, the staff is great. I really enjoyed how friendly and helpful Jessica was. She’s since left the complex and I’m not sure who is in her place. I’ve never had to go to the office to complain before.
The apartment itself is not bad, but not perfect. With that being said I moved here from Magnolia and had a 1,200 sq/​ft one bedroom with a den and a huge balcony that overlooked the Cascades. I moved here to be closer to Ballard and things to do. I’m in my 20s so living in Magnolia just wasn’t for me.
The one bedroom apartments are pretty spacious… besides the kitchen which is tiny, but do-​able. I love the hardwood floors and the Swedish tile in the bathroom! It doesn’t have a balcony or a large kitchen (my 2 favorite amenities), but I’m okay with that for how convenient it is to live here.
This place is pet friendly, which is awesome because I have a dog. Now I feel like when you decide you are going to adopt a pet you have a certain responsibly to look after it. But people here honestly just don’t care about their dogs constant barking or picking up their poo. My neighbor has 2 small dogs which bark all day and all night. The walls aren’t THAT thin (I barely hear anything in my apartment), but I can hear her dogs barking and barking. My boyfriend left a polite note on her door to please put her dogs in a back room when she is away from home because they stand at the door and bark all day. We came home to find it crumpled in front of our door. And they still bark. So if you hate dogs this place isn’t for you.
Speaking of noise, if you want to live in a quite area this also isn’t the place for you. Lock vista is right across the streets from the Ballard Locks, so there’s always noise.
For me, I don’t mind.
Living here has defiantly had its moments where I want to rip my hair out, but overall it’s a pretty good apartment complex. It’s close to the center of Ballard and Golden Gardens. If you’re young and want to live somewhere «cheaper» this is most definitely the place for you. If you want a quite, large, peaceful apartment this isn’t the place you want to live.

I have meant to write a review about Lock Vista for 5 months and I am finally getting to it. I lived there for almost 3 years in bldg C. I loved my apartment. If you like older apartments with character, you will like Lock Vista. Hardwood floors, pedestal sink, all important for me. The walls are thin, so if you are sensitive to noise, you should think long and hard before moving in. If you are interested in problems being solved quickly and the staff creating a real community, this is the place for you. Jenette & Jessica are awesome in the leasing office and Quentin & Hector were awesome at fixing issues in a timely manner. I bought a house, but would have stayed forever If I hadn’t:-)

We lived at Lock Vista for 3 years and only recently moved out. I haven’t reviewed much of anything online in the past few years, but my wife and I had such a good experience here that I feel compelled to jump on Unilocal to give credit where credit is due.
Lock Vista was exactly what we needed at the time. We had a terrible experience with a slum lord (don’t rent from City Center Property!) in Lower Queen Anne and needed to get out quick. Thankfully, we landed on our feet. We prefer wood floors since we have dogs, needed something safe (see slum lord reference above) and hoped and prayed for a good management experience. Besides the slum lord, we had bad luck with a seperate management company. This is where I get to start bragging about Jenette, Jessica, Quintin and Hector. Jenette and Jessica are (were? hopefully the gang is still together!) lovely to deal with. I never had any qualms or dreaded calling the front office for a service request, picking up a package or just popping in with a quick question. In fact, they even helped us in our apartment search as we were moving on to our next stage. More on that later.
Quintin and Hector are the maintenance staff and are very friendly and quick to respond. We would often just stop to chat with them in the hallways since they were such great guys. They even went the extra mile to get to know our dogs. This may have been to make service calls smoother while we weren’t home, but it is just as likely that it is because they are good people.
Some pertinent details. We ended up in a second floor apartment in building C that faced the courtyard. Noise was never really a problem for us. We occasionally heard our upstairs neighbor walking in high heals, but that is to be expected in apartments with wood floors. Every once in a while we would hear loud conversations, but, to me, it never was anything abnormal for apartment living, especially in a building from the ‘50s. If you are sensitive to noise, I would recommend considering living in a top floor apartment. There is also a trolley bus line that terminates on 32^nd, so hang out in the apartment for a bit if you are thinking about an apartment in building D that faces that way. I know someone that lived there for 8 years that didn’t complain about it though. Also, to her credit, Janette mentioned the 3^rd floor recommendation to us when we were first looking at the apartments, but we never had any problems being on the 2^nd floor.
Also, they have a p-​patch! This combined with some long term residents and a barbecue/​pool area made it feel like a community. We loved living there, but could finally justify more amenities and space and decided to move on. Once it was time to move on, Jessica even helped us set up an appointment at another apartment complex that she knew of that fit our needs. Just another example of our great time there. Thanks guys!

After living here for over 6 months, I unfortunately don’t have many nice things to say about this complex. The only good things are the spacious layouts and the friendly staff. Other than that, there is no reason for me to renew my lease.
1) I was not told how thin the walls are. Side to side is alright, but up and down is terrible. I can hear my upstairs neighbors laughing, arguing, and every time their phone goes off. Also, if there are dogs living above you, forget about not hearing them. I can hear them playing, fighting, walking, barking, etc.
2) The management does not really care about the quality of their apartments. Upon move in, the property manager and I did the walk through. Multiple fixtures in the kitchen needed fixing and there is paint splatter everywhere. When I pointed it out, she told me that it didn’t matter. I couldn’t believe that the management doesn’t care about the appearance of their units.
3) The heat is not adequate to keep the apartment at a comfortable temperature. Because the heat basically is an «on/​off» with no temperature reading, you can’t leave it on all day. Because of this it takes forever for the apartment to warm up. It got so bad that I had to buy a space heater, which raised my electric bill significantly.
4) Despite each apartment having a separate circuit breaker, 3 of my outlets (2 in the kitchen) fritzed out one night. Because of this, my fridge was unable to be plugged in for at least 18 hours, causing all my food to go bad.
I am happy to moving out and honestly do not understand how people can live here for multiple leases.

Apartment living has it’s pros and cons, you just deal with it when you live in the city. Ballard’s wonderful, always has been. But what makes the Lock Vista a great place to live (going on 2 years for me) is the management and maintenance crew. I actually feel like the managers care about how things are going with regard to the building and residents are all always greeted with a smile.
Another really awesome part of living here is that the management puts on these resident functions; summer time luau, dog party for the dog owners, BBQs, appetizer happy hours often. It really makes a difference in feeling like we’re neighbors, and in turn makes the annoyances that can come with apartment living barely even an issue.
The bottom line with regards to price point, couldn’t be better. Really well kept grounds thanks to Hector and his crew, was built when buildings were build correctly, and management actually takes pride in the place and treats it as if it were their own home. (And there’s often fresh baked cookies in the office)

I have lived in the Lock Vista apartments for almost a year now. It is by far one of the coziest places I have lived in Seattle. The rooms are spacious, I love the oak hardwood floors, very quite, old style kitchen with checkered floors, old style bathroom-​but everything works well, giant windows, my neighbors are very kind. Whenever we have had any maintenance issues they are fixed next day!
The 2 gals who work in the leasing office know me, my roommate and pet by first name, they are extremely friendly! My roommate and I are always invited to fun apartment community parties and events. Walking distance to QFC and downtown Ballard. Red Mill is basically in our front yard (huge plus!). During the summer time this apartment is in the perfect location-​The locks, Golden Gardens, Dog Parks. not to mention an crystal blue swimming pool which is seemingly always quite-​great for relaxing! The complex itself is always well kept, fresh cut grass, planted flowers, not to mention a darling community garden! I pay a little extra for a parking spot and storage but its nice to have those available to me.
The down side is it is a bit pricey even for splitting a one bedroom, however if you can afford it, it is well worth it. You definitely pay for the location! I would recommend living here.

I really enjoy living at Lock Vista.
I have lived here for a month and a half and the staff are so helpful.
Above and beyond customer service.
The office staff is great, as well as the maintenance crew.
A clean, heated swimming pool.
Extra large windows with ocean breezes.
Adorable pea patch.
Pets are welcome and most owner’s are very considerate.
If not, the staff handles problems in a community friendly way.
Great location and there is a botanical garden and The Locks across the street.
QFC is a 10 minute walk away.
Aveda Habitude Salon is a 5 minute walk away.
7 Eleven is across the street.
Great senior center on the corner and if you are 50 and older you can join for $ 30 a year.
Ray’s and Anthony’s are around the corner.
Wood floors in all of the apartments and there can be a bit of high heel noise and
most tenants are aware and quiet.
Walls between the apartments are very thick with no noise.
Fun events monthly.
I do not work here, I live here and it is really lovely.
A strong sense of community is encouraged, due to the staff.
They have a win/​win attitude for all tenants.
There is new ownership and management.
Old reviews are due to the old owner’s and management.
I asked around and that seems to be the consensus
.

It was my first apartment in Seattle and after spending alot of money moving across the country it was a nice enticing place with reasonable-​ish rent and a small deposit. Oh, but once they got you forget about customer service. I actually did sign a lease for a second year and that is when everything went out the window.
Staff, smile but not really helpful. Tons of barking dogs around and the owners usually don’t pick up after them. Avoid the grass or poo on your shoe. The ads show rent for $ 750– whatever, but that is not what it will cost you to live here. Fees fees fees… $ 35+ wsg fee (even though they say wsg is included in the rent) depending on your apt size. $ 50 parking fee, that is just stupid. Then when no one else wanted to pay it really started getting hard to find a spot on the street. $ 35 storage fee for a crappy wood box people can see in.
Most recently an neighbor of my was harassed by a creepy tenant in the building next to ours (same complex). Even though its in the lease about behavior towards other tenants, the management did nothing for her. She had to get a restraining order and it took some scary frustration before anything helped. She has since left the complex. Three other people in my building left the same month. All good tenants and they lost us.
They really need more and up to date washer and dryers.
I work with Rental Management everyday and I will AVOID this management company every for the rest of my rental time.

–1 The walls are thin. My neighbors can hear us as tho we are in the same room if we are standing and talking.
–1 Lots of old single men living in the studios and they have gone absolutely crazy. They complain if there is any music or talking at all even in the early or late afternoon.
–1 They charge for storage unit, parking spot, pet, and additional persons living with you.
–1 It was army barracks at one point in time. So everything is made with just the crappiest material. They floor is the nicest part unless your neighbor down stairs complains about the squeaking of floor boards.
+ the new management is awesome. They take care of everything.
+there are some awesome people who live there. (Dennis you were the most awesome neighbor)
+ you are with in walking distance from everything.
The only things I can’t complain about is the location, price and maintenance. So there you go if you can handle it here. you can handle it anywhere.
I would say you live in an apartment get over it. The LV is pretty good for what it is. Thanks for the couple of years.

It’s sad. I’ve lived in Lock Vista for over 6 years. I was happy there, most of the time. I was glad when they made it non-​smoking as the people below me smoked & their smoke came up in my vents & windows. It is a wonderful neighborhood to live in, you can walk to Discovery Park, Golden Gardens, Dog Park, Downtown Ballard or Ballard Locks. I had a great experience, most of the years. However, over the last few things have changed considerably. It seems many of the people who have moved in don’t give a darn about the building. It’s not their home, it’s a transition place. They smoke in the halls & leave their garbage laying around. I’m really not sure what to say about management, except it isn’t what it used to be. I think now, if you are a young 20 something, this is the place for you.