Altitude Columbus — Attraction in Columbus

Review for Commons on Kinnear

⚠️🚨 MUST READ BEFORE MOVING IN! ⚠️🚨 I have lived here for a year and will not be coming back. The building is managed by Greystar management, and the building being one predominantly filled with students, the management of the building is poor in itself, because no one cares about students. However, the staff is very understanding and extremely friendly!

The building in itself it poorly maintained; it has garbage all over the parking area and even in the entrance of the floors. Construction is not handled with care and there’s always dust in the hallways that gets into your apartment (if yours is close to the ones they are remodeling). There’s always parts and trash of the construction near the entrance of your unit. The trash in the garage seemed to never be picked up, which just gives the complex a nasty appearance. The hall floors often had dents in them that seemed like holes; it gave the feeling that you were going to fall through the floors. Maintenance takes forever if you have something broken in your unit, but this can be attributed to the lack of resources that the pandemic has caused (got better with time).

The price you pay, you pay for your room ONLY. So, the management company is getting your payment times 4 (for your roommates) per unit. It’s somewhat a deal for you and a good one for them, they should be able to fix it up more, if it weren’t for lack of resources. However, it’s over-expensive for what they offer. The rooms are very small, the unit is very small. They are shared bathrooms, and the living room doesn’t fit anyone, so having friends over is not really possible. The furniture and appliances are also VERY cheap, but being a student complex, that’s the way they have to do it if they want to make money. The unit in itself is not worth the money; they charge for location and availability. They do have nice extras such as a pool and a common area on the first floor.

However, the pool is never open and is right in the middle of the complex where anyone can look out the window and see the pool. The gym is often disorganized and out of service. When you add the cost of parking, rent, and utilities you can get a descent place for that much elsewhere. The square footage is extremely small for the price they charge.

The gym is not well kept, the machines are always broken. It has a dirty appearance. The alarm system is always going off, so it’s very annoying. The carpets on the units are very, very, dirty.

The only pro is the very friendly, nice, young staff. They do what they can.

⚠️🚨 ⚠️🚨⚠️🚨⚠️🚨⚠️🚨⚠️🚨 Recently they are trying to solve their trash issue by charging trash violation fees. If you leave trash bags out of there chute/dumpster and they dig into the trash and find your waste with your name on it (such as mail) they will assign you a $50 charge per every bag they find. HOWEVER, 🚨⚠️ our unit was charged $500 for 10 bags, which only one was ours. They stated they decided all the 10 bags were ours because they “were of the same color and similar In appearance”. So, our unit was expected to pay $500 for trash bags that were not ours! They did not bother to provide proof that those other 9 bags were “ours” (they were not). They want to just charge randomly no matter what, which is unfair. They also refuse to remove the charge until we pay for the bags that were not ours. I emailed them and they never responded. They ONLY RESPOND TO EMAILS RELATED TO HOW YOU WILL PAY THEM. I believe the staff is encouraged to leave on “read” emails regarding claims and complaints.

Won’t...

When we first moved in, the apartment was very dirty and had clearly not been cleaned well. Additionally two of the four rooms were missing the furniture (bed, desk, chair, etc.) that were meant to come with the apartment. The locks on the individual bedrooms do not work, and the key card to the main door would take many attempts to open. Additionally, they recently replaced the key card locks with deadbolts and manual keys, which would have been fine, but they only gave us one key for three of us to use, and we had to wait until the next day to get new keys. This meant that we had to make sure someone stayed in the apartment at all times to avoid getting locked out. Our dishwasher does not work, and they have not fixed it, so we have had to handwash dishes the entire time we have lived here. My roommates shelf in her room is broken, so she has not been able to store things on it, and they have never fixed it despite her putting in a maintenance request. The ceiling fan in my room also did not work, and it took them nine months to replace it. Our bathtub faucet was also broken, and it remained broken for almost a year before they fixed it. Additionally, the pool was closed for almost the entire summer and did not open until the end of July. And once the pool did open, they constantly closed it for maintenance, so residents barely had a chance to use it. Trash is also left everywhere, and the trash chutes/dumpsters are constantly overflowing. If the trash chutes are overflowing and you set your garbage next to the chute, they will dig through the garbage to find your name in the trash and charge you for a garbage violation. However, because the chutes and dumpsters are literally overflowing, there is no where to put the trash. Additionally, my roommate was charged $100 for a trash violation, when the lease specifically states that the charge should only be $25. Our AC has always worked poorly and it is constantly above 80 degrees in our apartment. Their solution to this was to put a window AC unit in the living room, which does work to cool down the main area, but the individual bedrooms are still well over 80 degrees. Our kitchen sink has been broken for the past two weeks, it is leaking and water barely drains from it, making it almost impossible for us to do dishes. They came and looked at the sink, and they only thing they did was turn the garbage disposal off. Also, the gate to the parking garage is constantly broken or stuck in the up position, which allows anyone to enter the garage. Both mine and my roommates cars were broken into due to the garage being open. The security is poor with no cameras and open access into...

Resident for over 3 years and I can agree with all of the recent reviews that in the last year this place has gone down significantly. The first year (during the pandemic) they really had a great management crew who took care of the building and made you feel like a valued resident. In year two, the staff were still friendly, but the care for the building began to decline. I vividly remember trash piling up in the parking garage and it going unattended to for nearly a week each time it happened. While that issues eventually was resolved, after I think a number of us called the Department of Health, that management team left and the new team that came in (for most of my last year) were absolutely dreadful.

It was very clear management did not care about residents at all and were more focused on renovating the complex for future residents (with a higher price tag). I had two packages get "lost" in their hands and then once that seemed to become a larger issue, their solution was to make them drop things off at our doors - which delivery folks would routinely get lost doing. The front office was always closed and the phone would ring continuously when you tried to call. I understand being short staffed, but when you deal with residents who are frustrated by this fact, I would think you would show a little more grace than the outward disdain that was common. I learned to deal with issues in my apartment because it was better than having to deal with the half day process and rude service we got as residents. The pool as others said didn't open for pretty much the last 9 months I lived there and even when it did the filter system was so bad that you would have hair, band aids, and other things floating in the water with you. Residents were given limited to no warning about construction projects going on around the building and I was treated like a nuisance for trying to get around the building or parking garage routinely. Beware of the bridges connecting the garage to the buildings - they at least as of January 2023 literally swayed when you walk on them.

My parents and I routinely said it was sad the management team was so poor because this building really has a lot of potential and is a great resource for affordable housing for students. It is a shame the focus has been trying to make it a competitor to the nearby Griff and losing all the sense of home that really set it apart from other residential options in the area. The residents I interacted with tended to be like me - not asking for the world and knowing it was an older building, but expecting a level of decency and safety that often felt fleeting under the new...