Citra at Windermere

Nice units that are horribly managed. Everyone says the same thing, zero communication .
Also terribly noisy, you hear absolutely everything above & next to you.

DO NOT MOVE HERE EVEN IF IT’S THE LAST PLACE ON EARTH! If I could give negative stars, I would!
Around Jan 2015, there was a change in management and ever since then this apartment complex has gone downhill.
My washing machine has been replaced two times in 1.5 years. The first time was in 2014 (old management) and the problem was fixed within 24 hours. The second time, I called to follow up after my work order had been submitted and was told «the maintenance guys are out so I’m not sure if your problem has been fixed yet.» I asked if my problem took precedence since there was still water in the washing machine and electrical fire smell throughout the apartment, he said no.
Another instance: I had a tennis ball sized wasp nest on my patio and it took 2 weeks for it to be removed. The problem only worsened over these 2 weeks to the point that the wasps had created 2 more nests and I could not even open the door without wasps coming inside my house.
Among other annoyances: there is never any parking, the «valet» trash situation is horrible (i.e. the trash service people leave trash in the hallways and sometimes don’t even come on the scheduled days. Not to mention the weekends, they are off), the hallways are never pressure washed, the walls are so thin I can hear my neighbors’ TV, and the online rent payment charges you $ 2 every month to use it to pay your rent.
I am beyond happy that my lease is up! Save yourself the headache and troubles, look somewhere else!

What Citra has going for it is the unit itself. Love my apartment for the upgraded amenities found over most other area apartments. Appliances, lighting, laminate flooring, ceiling fans, etc. are all really nice quality for a rental unit. The unit alone would be a 4 or 5 stars to me.
The community I’m sad to say however has lost it’s charm from when I first moved in. Overall cleanliness in the public areas is severely lacking, to the point where I have to wonder if the management even observes the buildings outside of their «show apartments.» The stairs and corridors of the buildings are gross and in the year I have been here they have only pressure washed the corridors (not stairs) once. Gross. I don’t even walk past my door with my shoes on cause I’m so grossed out by the dirt, debris and stains I step on. Corridor lights are filled with dead bugs — like seriously filled to where I wonder how light filters out. I’ve never seen them once clean this.
The pool is nice, but pool BBQ area is often overrun with large groups of residents and their friends who just show up and lay claim all day. There should be some means of needing to reserve a block of time for larger groups, otherwise these large groups take over and no one else can enjoy that space. I especially love the Latin dance music that gets blasted in conjunction with the piped in music on the pool deck. Makes for a very relaxing afternoon…
And one of my favorites — the cheap advertising signs they have put up at both entrances. «Washer/​Dryer in Unit,» «Smoke Free,» «$ 50 Resident Referral» — tacky and really makes the community look cheap, not luxury.
As for parking, it is ok during the day, but does tend to get more difficult in the late evening/​night hours. Not many spaces are adjacent to the buildings, but I don’t think that’s the problem. It’s the guests and units with 3 or 4+ cars. I don’t really get why it’s so hard to establish how many spaces each unit gets, issue a small decal or hang tag, and any guests or additional cars park in further spaces. It’s not really rocket science, but seems like the staff get overwhelmed with these obvious and low-​hanging fruit issues.
Overall here’s the deal: units are great but the community needs some TLC. If you are really thinking about moving here, after you see their pretty «show unit» in the «show building,» ask to take a tour of the other buildings and see the cleanliness conditions in the corridors. Ask them why that’s not clean and how that should make you feel about signing a lease if they can’t even keep basic maintenance/​cleanliness in check. I’d be interested in what they would say, cause it’s been like that for going on close to a year.

Me and my wife paid deposit and admin fees to reserve a unit. They called us twice with available units but they didn’t fit or move in date. After a month of no calls we called them to check (shouldn’t they have called us?) and they said they had a unit available that fit our desired date. They said they would send the lease and they didn’t! Called them back the next day and they said they would send it again and they didn’t and now it’s been two days and they have not answered their phone once! What leasing office doesn’t answer their phones for two days? So they have our money and since we are moving across country we can’t go to the office or else I would’ve already! So far not a good experience I will keep you updated!
6÷30÷15
Move in: During the move in process things went pretty smooth. The property is beautiful. Everything besides the steps in the hallways look well maintained. There is a big mix of residents on the property and everyone seems friendly so far. The inside of my unit unit looks nice and clean although the patio could have been pressure washed, a lot of dead bugs and old cob webs. Publix is across the street and the area appears really safe and quiet. The office staff didn’t smile a lot seems like they were under a bit of stress. So far no regrets about choosing The Citra. I will update soon! Maybe it’s the euphoria of ending a long road trip but in upgrading the stars to a 4! To be continued…

My roommate and I have lived at Citra since last June (2014). The office staff has never been polite or impressive to us, but we opted to move here anyways because we like this area, and at the time Citra was our cheapest option– the promotion at that time enticed us to move here, but we couldn’t have made a bigger mistake.
Last June through the beginning of this year this property was managed by another company than who currently manages it. Only one of the «original» staff members transferred over to the new company, so one would think that any and all issues preexisting from the previous company would still be known and therefore taken care of. This has definitely not been the case with this property management team. The current manager likes to direct the blame to other places when in all actuality it belongs to her. She is the most unhelpful human being I have ever encountered. I’m usually at a loss for words when I’m speaking with her either by email or in person because her work performance is so incredibly subpar.
The Property Manager and Assistant Property Manager (the one employee who transferred to the new company) could not be any worse. They totally dismiss any challenges my roommate and I have with this property by never responding to our emails or phone calls (their corporate office is the exact same way). I have only personally spoken with the Manager twice, and both times were horrendous. She is under the impression that we have always had bad experiences with previous property management companies and therefore our complaints are without merit. First of all, that is untrue– this is my very first online review, and second of all our complaints have been VERY simple! My roommate and I speak up when residents are negating the «No Smoking» policy (and by that I mean when their smoke is becoming an inconvenience to us while being at our apartment– like people smoking under our balcony. We never complain when people are walking around the parking lot or around the pool). The new property management company should be taking some ownership over this simple problem because they have a sign advertising this property as No Smoking upon driving in! The fact that they don’t even try and put a stop to the smoking shows that they don’t care for this property or its residents. They are also aware of the fact that this property is indeed No Smoking, so that is false advertisement on their part. The manager actually told us the other day «ummm, yeah like I can control all the smokers.» …we’re so lucky to have her around.
Other issues we have spoken up about involves the cleanliness of the property. Cigarettes lay all over the grounds, litter is everywhere due to the laziness of the trash valet service (they drop trash on the ground and then drive away without collecting it), the hallways and ceilings of the buildings are always disgusting (again, usually to blame is the trash valet service for dripping trash everywhere, but the mass number of bugs that collect in the lights and the condition of the stained stairs and floor is unacceptable) so we ask that they clean up the place, and on occasion we have voiced our opinions on the lack of parking. There are/​were a couple of apartments in my building alone who have entirely too many people living in them and therefore the parking becomes almost impossible to get anywhere near the building. For example, the apartment under our’s (who just moved out recently) had 6 cars parked here for a 2-​bedroom apartment! Most of their cars were never moved, so day after day they occupied all the close spots. The office here agrees parking is an issue, but their excuse was they bought this property that way so there’s nothing they can do. Okay, that’s fine, but multiple apartments having THAT many vehicles is unfair to everyone else. Most complexes, especially in this area, are very strict on the number of vehicles a single apartment is allowed to have.
The only other issue we have complained about is the fact that the hot tub rarely works. It’s usually just bubbling cold water because the heater is always broken. Usually it takes the office at least a week to get back to us anyways, so we’ve given up on that argument– we’ve only used the hot tub a couple times, and it’s always been broken.
Most recently, the property manager disposed of our «month to month» rent offer and agreement (which was to be $ 1519/​month) and changed it to $ 1970/​month, and she is totally lying about changing it. She knows we know she is lying– you can tell it in her face when we accuse her of modifying our file, but she just laughs at us. I know of many past-​residents who have moved from this property for very similar reasons, so Citra’s reputation is definitely true.
This place has been my worst renting experience to date, and I would never recommend this property to anyone!

I checked out Citra and found the apartments to be very nice. The interiors are great — however, as marketed, they are urban living with all of the busy, noisy traffic. I just couldn’t see myself living in a sky rise apartment with all of that noise. However, if that’s what you are looking for check them out! Shera was great! Very professional and friendly.