The Boulevard at Oakley Station — Attraction in Cincinnati

First off, I have no underlying problem with the Boulevard. The staff has been for the most part competent.

So now for as honest of a review as you will get: I cannot recommend this place. The issues vs. the price of rent just don't justify living here. I am moving out this week after living here for almost 2 years. The only reason I have stayed this long is that I hate moving more than anything.

The positives: Location Newness

The Negatives: Noise - I live in one of the newer building closest to Kroger, so I don't really hear the train, but this leads into the next issue. Terrible Construction - So many issues I'm going to sublist them here:

The walls are literally cardboard. My bedroom shares a wall with my neighbors living room and his sub woofer for his home theater shakes my bed. I went over to his place to investigate and the sub was all the way across the room from where the shared wall is and the volume was at a reasonable level.

Following up on that, I hear every foot step my upstairs neighbor makes. To make it worse, I think she does 2 hours of jumping jacks everyday because my entire 2 bedroom apartment literally shakes nonstop. I have been woken up from sleeping by my exercising neighbor multiple times. I called the office to complain because it was beyond the reasonable level of noise and they kept saying they would do something but after 14 calls (I have kept a running tally in my phone) I just gave up.

How these places are LEED certified beats me. My brother and I have to have space heaters in our bathroom because no heat is retained in my unit in the winter. With the thermostat set at 71, I have measured a steady temp of 66 in my room and even colder in my bathroom. The air condition runs pretty much non-stop in the summer. Back to winter, so you want to heat up by taking a nice hot shower? Better make it quick because you get about 10 minutes of hot water. That's in a 2-bedroom apartment. My brother and I work at the same office but have to go in at different times since we cant shower at the same time. It's an absolute joke the size of hot water heater they put in.

Which takes us to plumbing. For the first year of living in our apartment, we would come home on hot summer days from work to our apartment smelling like sewage and I mean like straight porta potty, I want to vomit smell. Maintenance said some piece under the sink wasn't installed correctly so they fixed it. The smell for the most part went away, or so we thought. Next summer it starts smelling again. Maintenance comes and says its the disposal and we need to clean it. So I clean the disposal every couple of days with no result. Finally they call a plumber and the problem is fixed. Yay, my apartment doesn't smell like feces anymore (after 17 months of living there.) The hallways still do from all the trash.

One other quick note on construction: phase 1 has tile in bathrooms, built in wine racks, and ceiling fans. The newer phase 2, where I live, has terrible laminate floors in bathrooms, no wine racks, and no ceiling fans.

The amenities can be nice. The gym is ok, pretty basic but I go to another gym, so have only used it a couple of times.

-The pool. I would maybe get in it the first couple of weeks its open in the summer but after that no. I have seen both pool literally crammed with people. The pools on any given Saturday can look like a party in Cancun. Take that for what it is.

-As others have said, the whole package delivery situation is totally messed up. Have had several packages go missing. On a side note the address makes deliveries such as uber eats or pizza difficult. I usually just give a fake address on vandercar to save confusion.

That covers about everything.

So in conclusion, you are paying high rent for a great location and decent amenities, however you will live in a glorified card board box that has very little hot water, could possibly smell like human waste, and at any...

It takes me a lot to give out a one star review. In fact, I usually do not post reviews at all. If you plan on moving to The Boulevard at Oakley Station, please save yourself time and money. First, these apartments are clearly overpriced. I have lived in Mt.Adams (Cincinnati) for 5 years prior to living here. The rent was only slightly higher there. This place is HIGHLY overpriced for what you are receiving.

The appearance of Oakley Station is nice. It is fair enough to say that. The furnishings inside the apartment are very cheap. The flooring, cabinetry, fixtures and even appliances are not worth the 1370 in rent that they charge.

The main issues at this place are this. 1.) The hot water is a serious issue. Because they are leed certified, and due to the fact that their hot water heaters are so tiny, you only get about half of a bath full of hot water. Even if they attempt to come over and "turn up the heat to scolding temperatures," you can still only fill up a bath half way with hot water. It takes about 30 minutes for the tank to fill back up. This is a fact, not a statement.

2.) As you have probably also read there is a loud train that connects near Oakley station. The train is loud and you will hear it late at night.

3.) The insulation is the worst I have ever seen in my entire life. I have seen apartments that are $400 dollars a month with better insulation. The walls are like cardboard. You can hear every single footstep and conversation to the left of you, upstairs and downstairs. It is so bad, I can even hear my neighbor talking on his cellphone. I can actually hear his conversation word for word. If you move here, expect to hear noise constantly in your apartment.

4.) You used to have to walk your trash to the other end of the complex in order to dispose of it. Now, they have a service that collects your trash from inside your hallway each night. We were notified that after our first year lease is up, our rent will be increased to provide for this service. Expect paying more than 1370 now to include trash pickup!

5.) Lastly I would like to discuss their management team and customer service. I do appreciate the professional attitude of staff who works in the leasing office. They are always friendly and available to speak on the phone. Unfortunately I cannot say the same about management. We received two letters that appeared to be unprofessional. The first was in reference to dog waste. They stated that if you are seen by a neighbor or by a staff member not picking up dog waste you will be subject to a hefty fine. The other letter was about the trash pickup. They stated that if you do not dispose of your trash properly in the hallway, you will also be subject to a fine. I find this kind of contex to be unappealing and unwarranted. We already pay enough to live in this small apartment. There is no need to threaten tenants with fines.

Ultimately for $1370+ you can get a lot better. Move to Mt.Adams and you can get a nice condo overlooking the Ohio River. This place was built cheap. Money was spent on the outward appearances of the buildings.

Trust me when I say this. If you move here please expect that the things listed above will affect you. These are not "made up" or "exaggerated". These are things that I constantly deal with on a daily basis. I regret moving here every single day. I am counting down the days until the end...

I first want to say Alexis from the apartment's management company has exceeded our expectations. From the beginning of just touring the apartment complex, she made our decision to move to this apartment complex even easier. Our apartment before living at the Boulevard was a nightmare situation. The management company was a complete disaster. From day one, Alexis was super understanding about all of our concerns and was very transparent with us. While going through the signing process of our lease, she was so considerate and welcoming to all of our questions. When we moved in, our unit was spotless. Alexis spent the time going through our apartment with us to make sure nothing was broken. Everything was such a smooth move-in process. Alexis always greets us and is so kind when we are out walking our dog around in the complex.

After a few months of living here, I have a few things I want to highlight. The management has still been superb here and there haven't been any reg flags from our end. The maintenance is super friendly and on top of things when you put in a request. We have had a few things that have needed to be fixed and they are usually either here to fix things the day we submit the request or by the next day. The apartment complex is extremely pet friendly. My dog has made so many new friends and we use the apartment dog park all the time. The management was very accommodating in accepting our dog as an ESA service animal. The other main highlight is that the management really spends the time to keep our community clean on the outside and there is a cleaning service that comes to clean the hallways and stairwells weekly. I absolutely love the fact that there is trash pick up at your door every night and the person who picks it up at night is very friendly.

The only thing I would change about the apartment complex is the package system. There is a common issue about packages getting lost. I haven't even tried to use the system because I don't want to deal with the hassle of trying to track it down. Management has told me they are in the works of fixing the packaging system. I am hoping it is in the works still because I have been shipping all my packages to my parents.

The train is the last thing I want to address. I feel like it really depends on the building you are in. Occasionally I will hear train noise like the whistle and some bangs but my building isn't as close to the train tracks as others are. I don't get woken up to the train at all but I think if you are a light sleeper you might notice it more. I think it is a personal decision and opinion. Some of the people I have met in the community live in the buildings closer to the train tracks and they can hear the train a lot more.

Overall, this has been a great experience and my boyfriend and I are...