Mint Urban Infinity — Attraction in Denver

There will be a "too long didn't read" at the bottom, but my purpose in writing this review is as follows; to give prospective future residents a clear and balanced view of what living at Mint Urban Infinity is like. I will break this down into two categories that I feel anyone moving into an apartment in Denver, or in general, should consider.

First, would be the living conditions. At first glance, the show building and apartment seems clean and tidy. Upon moving in to my unit, I found that the six buildings on the property are radically different. Plumbing issues are very common, and it is not at all unusual that the water will be turned off for the majority of the day in a building, and this may happen up to several times a week. Drinking water and showers are made available, although they are off site. There is a cockroach problem that fluctuates in severity from seeing 10 roaches a month, to seeing 50 or more in a single day. The problem was not at all addressed more than sending a letter making sure that trash and dishes are picked up for the first several months of a severe infestation in building 1. A vendor was eventually contacted, did a small amount of work, then stopped coming for several weeks, before a second vendor was contracted. An employee of this exterminator indicated to me that the problem was REALLY bad in the building. Since this contractor's latest work, and the onset of Winter, there has been a drastic drop in cockroach sightings, with seeing maybe 5 or 10 in a week now. Public areas are sometimes kept basically clean; wiped down with window cleaner and vacuumed, but other times trash, infested/discarded furniture, or animal feces can be left in the halls to your unit for days or weeks. Evictions are fairly frequent, I have seen two within the past 5 months, and possessions are piled up in front of doorways into the building, and again, may be left there for days, though they eventually do get picked up. The heating and cooling system has been very unreliable in the two years I have leased here. This is particularly dangerous for pets, as the chiller system was not fully functional until July of this last year, and leaves your only alternative to leave all doors and windows open if you are concerned about heat exhaustion/stroke in pets left unattended. They were fortunately able to get the heat working in time for this Winter, however. The fact that this is impressive speaks to this issue.

The next thing I'd address is the management. The leasing agent I signed under was very helpful and knowledgeable. Unfortunately, I never spoke to them again after being given the keys to my unit. This is because agents and managers seem to be coming and going through a revolving door. I have seen an entirely new set of faces in the office within a three month period. What this means is there is really no one dependable person that you can count on in the management, and you are left to the mercy of the knowledge of the current agent you are talking to. I have been misinformed about payment options several times because of this. There is no drop box at this complex, and they are not open on Sundays. They have switched between two online payment portals, which may or may not work for you, with no notification as to why. This means going out of town may incur a late fee, as the only other way of non-physical payment is through Moneygram, which I was not informed about until AFTER I had been charged a late fee, which management was unwilling to help with. This of course is within their right, but is an extremely negative customer experience, as they will continue to charge you money without a clear means as to how to pay it, which feels crooked, to say the least. Maintenance will come into your unit at their leisure, and in my case, ripped the walls out of my bathroom unannounced, leaving exposed moldy drywall in my bathroom for three days before fixing it, and not reassembling the cabinets or shelves. TL;DR: It's a money grab. They overcharge and advertise luxury, for what should be $700 a...

If it was possible to give this place negative stars, I would. Where to start. I moved here in 2014 when Greystar was running the place. I thought they were bad...boy did Cardinal Group prove me wrong.

Let me say this, Ana is a nightmare and a half. My issues started in November of 2015. I received a voicemail from Ana where she tells me that she had gotten several complaints about dogs barking in my building and since I PAY PET RENT, SHE ASSUMED IT WAS MY DOGS. Key word, assumed. Maybe if she actually got up off her butt and came over here, she would notice that it was not my dogs at all. I called my dog sitter who went over and confronted Ana about this. She was told that they left the office, on a Sunday, for 45 minutes, sat on the fifth floor and listened to my dogs bark. Funny thing, I live on the first floor.

During that week, I put in a maintenance request for a leak in the lobby area. I called...my neighbors called. Nothing. On black Friday, I get a call from Christina telling me that I have water coming out from UNDERNEATH MY DOOR and she needs to get in there. I give her permission, thinking that something massive happened in my unit. I immediately came home. Guess what. The plumber, Robert (master plumber he is), lied about where the leak was. It was the leak that was in the lobby. This was technically an illegal entry into my unit. Had Robert been able to figure out that the leak was coming from the corner of the outside wall, he never would have had to enter my unit. My mother had to help him find the shut off valves. Such as great plumber that one.

Then came the renovations on the outside of the building. I got a note for window installation for 12/30. I took off almost a week of work before they even bothered to show up. The balconies took weeks to complete. The paint on the outside, it took weeks. My dogs now have extreme anxiety because these idiots would sit outside of my window talking and whistling. Bunch of stand up contractors.

Lets talk about the laundry rooms. Ok, so each hall gets one washer and one dryer (in theory). Every week I end up going to my parents house or the laundromat because there is at least six inches of stagnant water in it. Plus, my lovely neighbor will yell at you if get to the washer (if it is working) first. She is pretty unstable so I just stay out of that.

Then there was the hallway door that was slamming. I begged and pleaded that I needed to sleep. First, the heroic maintenance slapped some tape on it. Well, psycho neighbor ripped that off the first night. I then asked how much notice I needed to give. All of the sudden, they wanted to bribe me into staying with a $100 gift card. Yes, I told them to use the gift card to fix the door. Amazingly, that got their attention. It is mostly fixed.

So, now I am stuck with the bed bugs. Lets go through this lovely process. March 15 I tell Ana, hey there are bed bugs in the common area hallway. She gets back to me, "OH NO! I WILL GET THIS TREATED". Yup that didn't happen. I turned in notice to move March 16. March 20, hey Ana and Christina, here is a picture of the bed bug in the hallway. March 22, my mom physically takes over the bed bugs that are now in my apartment. We are promised that it will taken care of. March 23, Hey can I get a status update about when my apartment will be treated? No answer. I've had it. As of this afternoon, the Denver Housing Authority has been called. I'm awaiting their arrival. I can't wait to bring down the fiery rains of hell upon these douche bags.

Let me say this...you will be better off in a box on East Colfax than in this hell hole. I beg you, do not move here. Take it from someone counting down the days until I move!

Update: 4/4/16: Bed bugs all over the living room. Alyssa and the rest of her minions in the office are terrible. The treatment they does nothing to make them go away. Please...DO NOT MOVE HERE! I'm now out thousands since I have to replace all...

MOVED OUT EDIT- Finally, I'm out. Cardinal Group (old management)are in the middle of a lawsuit with the residents at Mint, DO NOT MOVE HERE. The price is cheap, but I had literal holes in my ceiling that took over two weeks to fix. Soft drywall from water damage, broken foundations and residents that leave their actual trash in the hallways (not for the valet trash service, which is spotty at best. have fun paying the fees for it though!) Maintenance and third party vendors are regularly heard talking about how bad the buildings are and that corners were cut everywhere. The current management team has made great strides, but there are still seriously concerning issues around the complex. The locks on the building doors were removed two months ago and never replace, YOU ARE NOT SAFE HERE.

EDIT : UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT : Almost every issue that I wrote about has been either addressed or is being worked on; the new management team is doing a great job getting things taken care of and keeping residents in the communication loop. They have only been here two weeks, yet are fixing things that previous management left unattended for years. AC is back on, Security presence is noticeable, exterior doors are locking shut, and helpful staff are a huge plus in my book. Plus, they're actively working on improving the community. I'm looking forward to seeing how else they can improve the community!

Below is the original review for clarity's sake:

Have been living here in building 1 since 2019, and it's been downhill ever since. Currently, it's 07/08/22 with the temperatures slated to approach 100 this weekend, and we still don't have A/C in buildings. If I could cool off in any of the pools, I would, but they've never been open since I moved in.

The location is great, as the light rail is just down the street and grocery stores within walking distance, as well as larger stores a little ways north and east. Having a vehicle isn't a necessity, but a bicycle or something of the sort is recommended.

The gym is nice, and there are some updated spaces and equipment in the leasing center. A few months ago the schedule changed so the gym would be open 24/7, which was a welcomed change. The clubhouse closes at 6, though, which can be frustrating on the occasion you want to play pool after hours, but understandable given the handful of broken windows and glass doors over the last year.

The barbed wire fences really help drive home the prison feel, and the uptick in crime has been noticeable. Always remember to check under your car, otherwise your catalytic converter won't last long, and there's no security that would help anyway.

As of last week, there's a new management team, the fourth in the last two years. There is some construction happening to the leasing office which is nice for them, as they're one of the only buildings with A/C. Too bad the other 11 buildings are left to suffer. I can't imagine what those on the upper floors and with pets are going through.

The package center is littered with the remains of packages torn into and the door handle regularly torn apart. This can't be solely blamed on Mint, as they have improved the package system over the year, but be sure to have your amazon packages delivered to the whole foods around the corner. The A/C is nice in the package center, though, so be sure to spend some time cooling off before you walk all the way back to your hot building.

Building 1 has has been relatively clean regarding pest issues, and after speaking with the exterminator yesterday I feel comfortable on all floors except the top (roaches). I can't speak to the pest health of the rest of the community, though.

I had to call 911 due to an electrical outlet fire (flame from the wall behind the outlet) in 2020 and the fire chief said (actual quote), "We're here all the time...cut corners everywhere..."

I'm afraid I can't recommend renting a space at Mint Urban Infinity or a community managed by the Cardinal...