NoDa Wandry — Attraction in Charlotte

Moving here has been an incredibly disappointing experience. When we moved here, I was excited to live in a new apartment complex, thinking that there would be fewer issues than previous places I've lived. The complex is in a great location with access to the light rail and nearby bars and restaurants, but the experience with management has been awful.

The apartment utilizes Fetch, an unreliable package delivery service, especially if they are bringing you an "oversized" item. You are forced to choose a 5-9pm window because the packages "require” a signature, which the delivery person only asks for half of the time. This means you are stuck at your apartment waiting to sign for an item during your free time, because if you aren't there, they refuse to deliver it. As for regular sized packages, they are rarely delivered to you the same day they arrive at the Fetch location, leading to regular delays in receiving your packages. There is no way to opt out of this service.

The complex itself, like most "luxury" apartment complexes, was clearly very cheaply and quickly built. Some of the floors are uneven and one of our windows was broken before we even moved in. I can clearly hear the train when it comes by and the neighbors above me walking around and yelling. My partner made a noise complaint about our neighbors that we were told was addressed by management, but the neighbors' behavior has remained unchanged. I'm not convinced they even spoke to them or maybe the neighbors just don't care. Either way, it's very frustrating to be subjected to the neighbors hollering and stomping, which is especially prominent in the evenings.

The apartment complex has also suffered from a very preventable gnat infestation. This began in early August when someone threw a bed frame down one of the trash chutes, which created an environment for the gnat problem to begin. This was made worse because neighbors were not disposing of their recyclable trash correctly and there was cardboard strewn about the trash room. I can't say I blame them though, because there was no designated area for cardboard boxes or any recycling instructions. It got so bad because of the cardboard and the gnats that I would cover my face before entering the room because of the smell and the presence of the bugs everywhere. This was when the issue should have been addressed. Instead, management either outright ignored the issue or was so unaware of what was going on in their own building that they didn't know.

Unfortunately, I live close to the trash room. Because this issue was ignored, the gnat infestation spread to the hallways, elevator, and our own apartment. Management has not done nearly enough to address this. The trash rooms are no longer supposed to be used, forcing residents to rely on a valet trash service that only operates 5 days a week or to take the trash out ourselves. We looked in the trash room to see if management had even cleaned it, and lo and behold, all of the cardboard was still there. How will this situation possibly get better if the source of the problem has not been addressed? My partner has complained about this issue and we are being told that pest control is our issue to solve - or we can wait for the pest control team, who only come to the building once a week, to hopefully provide us with tips instead of resources to directly address the problem. We have set up traps for the gnats in our apartment but it feels like fighting a never-ending battle because gnats keep coming into our unit through our door because it is so close to the trash room. I cannot cook or eat a meal without swatting away or worrying about gnats. It is disgusting and I am extremely disappointed with Noda Wandry's lax response to this major problem.

If you're looking for an apartment in Noda, I would recommend looking elsewhere. It's possible because this building and the team are so new that things could get better with time but right now, your time, effort, and money can be better spent at an apartment where you won't have to deal with...

The only good things about living at Noda Wandry is that it is in Noda. The apartments fit the aesthetic of a luxury apartment until you start taking a closer look at the building.

There are countless spots in my apartment when I can find and see that the trim is uneven or even able to be almost pulled off the wall.

Maintenance requests take a very long time. I have been here for almost 1.5 years and we were the first to move into the new building and within 4 months of arrival our front door handle was broken and you had to turn it down to open it, maintenance was able to check it out the next day, but was not able to remedy this issue until about 1-2 months later with constant badgering and reminding.

The parking. We are fortunate and were grandfathered in to have 3 passes in our 3 bedroom apartment. Where the standard is one pass per one apartment. Our ability to park is still hindered. For one we need to either arrive in the smaller lot of the Wandry before 4pm on any day or the lot is full. (Around 80 spots for a 5 story apartment complex, with several spots that are “compact” and look like they have been drawn by a two year old they are so uneven) and we are also told to park in the other building lots and walk through about 600 feet, down a flight of stairs and through 3 “locked secure access doors” that constantly do not lock. The other lot is also shared with another complex. Our visitors have even a better experience parking! With each apartment building only have a single parking pass per apartment, other residents who have vehicles will have to take up the Visitor Parking (about 12 spots) or otherwise resort to paying 250-350 for wheelblockers or pay for street parking! The leasing office also refuses to address this issue by changing how the parking passes are issued, they could have certain passes go to certain lots and also restrict residents from parking in the visitor spots as those areas for our visitors. I had my 70 year old grandmother visit my apartment recently and we had to walk quite a distance to avoid being potentially towed.

The doors which are secure access and we use a key fob to unlock, are very bad and unresponsive at times, they do not work initially or even sometimes my fob does not have access to a given door. For instance, why should my roommates key fob not unlock the other buildings shared amenity? Or when I am carrying a large load of groceries why does the door not want to register my key fob for about 10 minutes of trying. My sister who lived down the hall from me actually reached out to me once arriving back to Noda Wandry because she felt unsafe and saw a homeless man entering the building because one of the doors was not locked and broken.

Even one of the leasing agents only chose to live here for a year instead of renewing, the management is nice and all but seem to need more staff in order to address critical apartment issues.

All in all for the hefty price that it takes to live there Noda Wandry is not worth it. The only thing that makes it bearable is the location as well as the amount of people I know...

Update: It has been about 10 days since I originally posted this review. Management seems to have seen this review and quickly removed all of the months old cups from the trash rooms and cleared out the first floor, only for trash to begin accumulating there again. Additionally, the trash room on our floor has gotten worse (photo attached). The floors have still not been cleaned whatsoever, the cat tree has been here for weeks, and again it seems only some stuff was removed only for it to quickly begin to overflow again since a full cleaning has not been done.

Maintenance of trash rooms continues to be a disgusting, unacceptable issue at NoDa Wandry despite speaking with management multiple times about the issue.

Trash rooms regularly are filled with recyclables, bulky items, and are plain dirty.

The cups on the windowsill have been here for months after a gnat outbreak despite being dried up and filthy (I encourage you to read Shaina's review for an overview of the gnat outbreak and other issues here). When trash rooms are cleaned out, not all of the waste is removed nor is it cleaned. There is a large recyclable bin, but it appears not everything is removed from it when someone does come through. I can tell as I recognize my own weeks old recyclables in the bin.

The unidentified dust on the floor has been there for multiple weeks and the solid layer of gnat bodies has been in the room for multiple months.

On the first floor, you can not even open the trash room door due to the overflowing amount of garbage being stored in the room.

When you walk outside by the trash room, it either smells of waste or a terrible, sweet smell that must be put in to cover up the smell of the waste.

I spoke with the Greystar Regional Manager about this issue last week and was told a new employee was joining this week to allow better handling of this matter. In that time, I would expect a decent cleaning of these rooms to occur if it is such a high priority. The presence of weeks old mess in these rooms shows it is not to management. I was told this new employee was brought in because there is too much going on here for the staff to handle the trash rooms properly. I find it hard to believe other matters take priority over keeping the trash rooms at least...