Crescent — Attraction in Austin

If you are thinking of moving to this community, I would strongly recommend you read my observations over the last year. Many of the glowing reviews you’ll read about the community were posted well over a year ago, so I think mine is the most current. I have decided to move out after receiving a 20% rental increase with no improvements to my unit or the community. After negotiation, their best and final was 16%, which, in my opinion, is still ridiculous. Note: for the sake of transparency and objectivity, I had a conversation with Clarissa Marquez, the current property manager. Her feedback from that conversation will be in quotations.

THE GOOD:

My unit: Although it is not renovated, I think it’s the best unit in the building. Top floor corner unit facing downtown. The 20 foot ceilings and loft bedroom really make this place amazing. I had two balconies, both with the best view of downtown in the city. I am actually so sad to be sacrificing this amazing apartment, but that’s just a testament to how much I hate some aspects of living here. The rooftop: I have had many gatherings here. It is a fun space with a killer view. I have had to purchase a few propane tanks because the management is not on top of this. But that’s just how it goes. This is the crowning jewel of the building. IF you use it, which I did. Front office: I’ve never had issues with the ladies in the front office, which would be a huge plus if Roscoe Properties didn’t move them around like chess pieces. For example, during my application process I worked with Staci (she was great) but by the time I had moved in, she was no longer at Crescent! I cultivated a relationship with Sarah, but she was moved to a property in Dallas. Veronica is still there, which is a huge bonus. She’s one of the kindest people I’ve ever met! The transient nature of the employees isn’t a really big deal, but you can’t rely on positive reviews about certain staff members (Jesse the maintenance guy) as reflective of the quality of life because they’re not there anymore. However, the current manager, Clarissa, was very receptive and understanding when I spoke to her. She is kind, knowledgeable, and competent. Let’s hope Roscoe keeps her at this location long enough for her to make improvements.

That being said, they do the best they can. But there are certain things that no property manager can handle. And here’s where I’ll begin describing some of the frustrating things about this community:

THE BAD:

Amenities: If you’re looking at this community right now, there’s a good chance that you’ll be paying over 2k for an apartment. For that sticker price, I think it’s reasonable to expect high quality amenities. Not at Crescent. And yet, you’ll still be charged an amenity fee.

Gym: The gym is small and the equipment is old. I’m not saying they need to spring for a Peloton (although they should be able to afford it), but I think if most of the equipment is rusted or torn, then it’s time to invest in some new pieces. "Clarissa informed me that a torn bench was replaced and there are plans for gym renovations." When these renovations will be finished is anyone’s guess.

Pool: It’s saltwater, which is really nice, but if you want any sunshine at all you better get out there before noon. The building’s architecture means that the pool gets no sun after 2 pm. Again, not really a big deal unless value and ROI is important to you. Further, the pigeons basically own that pool and the surrounding balconies. Poop. Poop everywhere.

Laundry room: Your apartment will probably come with a European double washer dryer combo. If you want to wash anything more than your kitchen tea towels, then you’ll probably use the shared laundry room. Positive: It’s free (kind of, since there’s that amenity fee) Negatives: These machines have been through so much that they don’t really clean your clothes. I have plenty more to say, but I am reaching a character limit. I hope I can make another post discussing the horrible trash situation at these apartments. Although the pictures speak...

I have been living in the Crescent apartment complex for almost a year and this is going to be the most honest review you will read, as it represents the opinions of the numerous residents I know in the building. Point blank, the Crescent has high ratings because management pressures new residents to write a 5-star review immediately after signing the lease. It happened to me and every single person I know in the building, so don't be fooled. The only thing this building has going for it is the location and rooftop view, which I must admit are great.

To start, the leasing office turnover has been 3x since I moved in, which speaks volumes. The general consensus from the many people I know in the building is that the Crescent is a poorly run and unmaintained apartment complex. Every single person I know is moving out when their lease is up. The halls, gym, laundry room, parking garage, roof, garbage rooms, dog park, pool, etc. are consistently filthy. I believe they have 1-2 people on staff to maintain every aspect building, which is not enough.

First is the Laundry Room: The laundry room is equipped with 8 residential washers and 8 dryers. These are not heavy-duty or commercial, which they should be. They are certainly not meant to run 10+ times per day. For the last 6-8 months, 4 of the washers and 3 of the dryers have been broken. I've made very calm inquiries about it and have been given numerous flimsy responses regarding the expected maintenance/replacement timeline of the machines (still have not been replaced). As if that's not enough, the broken machines frequently have a stagnant pools of water sitting in them that fills the room with a pungent odor. The entire room is probably cleaned once a month...floors are almost always disgusting and the machines+detergent cartridges are covered in mold/guck.

Next is the parking garage: Over the last weeks, 2 of my friends have had their cars broken into. For the last few months, the parking garage gate has been 100% broken and wide open. Virtually anybody from the streets can walk into the building. I've witnessed multiple homeless and suspicious individuals roam the building freely at night. This is an unfortunate result of poor management, understaffing, and a clear lack of involvement from corporate (Conor Group). Getting the gate fixed and providing residents with a sense of security should be absolute priority, but it's been ignored. There has been an unfortunate pattern of empty/unfulfilled promises from management regarding fixing all property issues (i.e. laundry room equipment & garage gate).

Next is the waste system: The first level of the garage is where the garbage dumpsters are. The trash/recycling system they have in place could be described as nonexistent. The dumpsters are frequently overflowing and often times there are piles of trash outside the dumpsters. I've seen rats rummaging and when it rains the garbage will drift everywhere. The garage rooms/garbage shoots are always filthy as well. In general, there's usually random trash all over the building (halls, roof, every floor of the garage, etc.). Again, this comes back to the understaffing issue.

Next is the pool: If for some reason you decide to live at the Crescent, do not live on the pool side, as you will be perpetually bombarded by pigeons. They sit on the poolside balconies all day, build nests, and of course defecate everywhere you could imagine. Some of the balconies are completely unusable due to the pigeons. The pavement surrounding the pool is also frequently covered with feathers and bird feces.

My final statements: The gym is merely a spare room with dumbbells and broken treadmills/bikes. Maintenance for my room has also been somewhat inconsistent. I went for over 3 months without fire detectors and put in 3 separate requests to get them replaced. Other than that, room maintenance has been fine. In conclusion, if you're looking for an apartment with atrocious amenities, lack of management/staff, but has a good location, the...

Living here for one year was an ongoing nightmare. First and foremost, the building floods during hard rainstorms. My apartment flooded more than 10 times in one year and was never effectively repaired. Some of these floods were severe, causing property damage including a destroyed laptop (side tip: make sure you have thorough renter's insurance coverage - my laptop wasn't covered and the Crescent was no help).

The Crescent is managed by the Connor Group, a national property management company, although not as big as some of the other management companies that are big in Texas (Gables, AMLI, Graystar, etc.). So, you get all of the headaches of a national property manager and none of the benefits. The building staff is turning over constantly. There were three different property managers during the year I lived there and similar turnover among the leasing office and maintenance staff. The staff was typically very nice, but often new to the building and given very little authority or resources from the company to deal with onsite problems. The Connor Group relies on contractors for maintenance and repairs beyond the most routine issues, but no one is responsible for supervising those contractors' work. The same contractor came to my apartment 10 times to "fix" the flooding problem and every time it rained hard, my apartment flooded again. No one onsite had authority to seek other repair options and no one in the company management cared that the repairs were totally ineffective. There was one excellent onsite maintenance person, Patrick, at the time that I left. But one excellent maintenance person can't fix the structural problems with this building.

This lack of contractor supervision was evident again when the building exterior was being repainted. At the time I moved out, this repainting project had been going on for almost three months with no end in sight. The best part of this building was having a dog area onsite, but even that was less enjoyable once the painting project started because the exterior was always full of garbage, as well as equipment and scaffolding all over.

Because the onsite staff has no authority to deal with bigger problems, I got stuck in the purgatory of the Connor Group's middle management. I waited weeks for a regional manager to call me back about the ongoing flooding problem, only to be told that I couldn't be transferred to a different unit unless I paid a lot more in rent. I couldn't even be moved to a smaller apartment without paying more. The flooding problem may be limited to units that face Riverside Drive, as mine did, but this horrible management is not. After my apartment flooded the first time, I found out that it had flooded before with the previous tenant! It flooded twice more during heavy rain in the week I moved out, and I can only imagine that now there is another tenant in there living this nightmare.

There were a few other unfortunate surprises after I got settled in. The in-unit combo washer-dryers are only functional for very small loads of laundry. Sheets or towels were out of the question. The utilities seemed high. There's a $100 a month bill for water, sewer, and trash. My electric bill ranged from $50 to $90 a month for a studio. The online utilities and rent payment systems have the functionality of a website made in 1997. The building can have a dorm-like feel with spilled liquor in the elevators and some noise and partying, depending on your neighbors. Everyone had to evacuate around 3am because of fire alarms a handful of times.

The Connor Group also manages Cityview at SoCo next door, so I assume similar management issues happen there. South Shore District also had serious flooding problems, although I haven't heard anything about the effectiveness of their repair work. South Shore District was also moving tenants to non-flooded units at no charge. The Crescent has advertised itself as the best rated in SoCo. If that's really true, I would recommend looking in a different...