Bay Vista — Attraction in Corpus Christi

11/21 I am writing mainly to comment on the Assistant Manager, Erica. She is extremely competent and very polite and respectful. I'm also impressed with the quickness of the application procedure. Admittedly, the complex has some maintenance issues because of the lack of personnel that so many businesses have right now. Give them a break. I'll report later regarding that, move-in, and living there.

1/14/2022 Update: Now I have lived at Bay Vista for 2 1/2 months. Rating has dropped from 5 stars to 2 stars. Service requests are not taken care of unless they involve no hot water, no electricity, clogged plumbing, the like. Things promised 2 months ago are replacement of a non-functional burner and a missing window screen still haven't been done. Nearly 3 weeks ago I asked for help taking off a heavy glass and metal cover over high-up light bulbs that are flashing. I gave up and this 76 yr old lady was able to take the cover off and replace the bulbs but couldn't balance well enough on my short ladder to put the heavy fixture back. Told them about it 2 weeks ago and then last Monday. Nobody comes. I give up..leaving the fixture on the floor along with light bulbs for a front door area fixture that is too high to touch even standing on my little ladder. Yes, it's on a service request. A month ago, I mentioned my oven broiler no longer works. Have turned service requests in on the portal as well as printed them out and given in person to 2 management people. I'm using my personal on-the- counter oven to broil. Also, the insulation around the oven door is dangling, causing more electricity to be used to heat oven. Management says there are not enough personnel to take care of everything.

Beyond service requests....the halls are filthy, as are the elevators. I did say something about this as I am tired of picking up trash in the halls and elevators and cleaning the elevator walls. Evidently, there are residents and visitors who don't care about their living surrounds to leave filth around. Oh, there's a resident who likes to spit his tobacco chaws out in the hall, too. Same excuse from management... not enough help. So I think I'll now mop the filthy elevator floors and sweep my surroundings.

Then there's the pool area, which has been locked the entire time I've been here. Weather has been mostly good and I would've loved to have at least sunned on one of the loungers in the pool area and I know one resident who canceled a New Year's get together because she thought they could go to the pool.

At this point, it is doubtful that I will renew my lease in 9 months, and I'm considering paying a $1,100 relet fee to get out sooner. But my apartment is painted well, with no roaches yet, I have central air and heat, and a nice view over the Methodist Church of the bay! Stay put, be patient is probably best.

I'll update again in a couple of months.

By the way, I do feel sorry for our managers. I know their hands are kinda tied. Not enough help. They are nice people, as are the maintenance personnel, and they keep on trying to be polite in spite of...

After researching other apartments, we settled on Bay Vista because of the washer & dryer in the unit, they offer short-term leasing and it is close to the water. After living here for a few months, here are our pros & cons:

Pros: -The office staff is very nice; Yvonne (the office manager) remembered my name any time I went into the office, which wasn't very often -Washer & dryer in the unit -Assigned parking spaces -Key codes are required for the garage & any walk-up areas -Can pay rent & water online- super-convenient! -The pool is kept up, and the access hours are more than reasonable -Valet trash pick up (the hours are not posted anywhere, but during our time living here, trash pick up was Sunday-Thursday night. You set your trash out, and they pick it up after 9pm)

Cons: -The rent amount they give you when you call to inquire about pricing is not accurate. They tack on extra charges every month, which for whatever reason aren't included in the "this is how much rent is" conversation. $5.42 for "street maintenance", $25 for "trash reimbursement", and $2 for "pest control reimbursement". So, if you are trying to budget, be prepared to spend at least $30+ more a month than what they actually tell you. -Had several conversations with staff about going month-to-month once our lease expired, and not once during multiple conversations did they mention that there is an additional charge to go m2m. So I had quite an unpleasant surprise when logged in to pay rent the first month after the lease expired and found that there was an additional $100 charge. -Water & electricity for our 890 sq ft apartment were more per month than what we paid for the 1,700 sq ft house we had just moved out of (with absolutely no change in our habits) -There is no notice from the office prior to the exterminator coming around. -They sent out an email about a month or two after we moved in saying they were entering "random" apartments to basically make sure you're keeping it clean, and that no "unauthorized people" were living in the apartment. That's weird. -Paper-thin walls- could hear word-for-word conversations that the neighbors were having with their toddler at all hours of the (very) early mornings. -Street noise on the first level in apartments facing Carancahua is also loud enough to be disturbing, especially from the jackasses that race around the curve constantly. I know the apartment complex has no control over this, but if you're considering moving here, stay away from that side of the complex if possible. -For our last month in the apartment, we had largely moved into our new place with about 2 weeks left in the lease, so we were rarely in the apartment. However, our last water bill was higher than the previous month's, when we were living there full-time. Not sure how the utilities are divvied up, but it is apparently not based on your individual...

I lived here for two and a half years, and I'll tell you what I told everyone who asked about living at Bay Vista: it's fine. Here are honest pros and cons of things I'd want to know before moving here:

It's not great, just fine. Having opened just after the 2008 recession, the building and its units are already quite outdated and falling apart. Old appliances, beat up cupboard doors and door handles, worn carpeting and countertops, and yellow-shaded walls (bleh). I too had a mold/mildew issue in my shower due to bad plumbing that I addressed several times and was never fixed. The building itself is crumbling. You can regularly find chunks of walkway and balcony ceiling on the ground. The breezeways are stained from years of wear and are often littered with trash from unneighborly residents. Management changed midway through me living there and you could definitely sense a shift. Maintenance requests take longer and this office group is less responsive/attentive than the old management. So it goes. The parking garage and many of the pedestrian gates are almost always broken – I only had one unsafe encounter, though other reviews make security seem worse. The pool is sometimes locked without explanation, and it's situated so that the sun only hits it until 5pm at the latest during the summer – just something to note.

You're paying for the location here. Rent is semi-reasonable considering how close it is to downtown. You're two minutes from the major hospital in Corpus, a mile from the only walkable nightlife in Corpus, 2 blocks from the best bayfront access in Corpus and 5 minutes from bridge/highway access to get you anywhere else. Direct access to Ocean Drive is a perk, especially with it being repaved in 2021. It's typically a 20+ minute drive to or from the south side any way you go. If you work downtown or at a job site, this is a great location for you. I found that many residents work at the hospital or in refineries/construction. (Note: Rent has increased substantially. I paid $999/month for my 940sqft unit in 2019-20. That same unit is now listed at $1450+/month on their site).

Speaking of location, be aware that you are in a food desert at Bay Vista. There are no grocery stores in the immediate area and restaurant options downtown are limited. I typically did my grocery shopping at HEB on Robert (10-15 minute drive).

Bay Vista Pointe – under the same management group – is directly across the street and 5 years newer, though I have friends there who run into many of the same issues. The pool is much larger and nicer there, and the units are slightly more updated.

Pros – LOCATION (nightlife, sports/events, bayfront, hospital), lots of storage, good for dogs Cons – Outdated units, bad building management, far...