Hermann Park Lofts — Attraction in Houston

while the building is convenient and solidly built the management group leaves a LOT to be desired: north elevators have been broken almost six weeks over the last 18 months waste containers were removed from the parking areas and now they are often a mess after a tenant moves out highly toxic materials are used to refresh the apartment without ventilation they will not provide documentation (for renters insurance) that the fire alarms auto notify the fire department. still don't know if they are at random times throughout the year an email will go out stating that the apartments are being inspected or a fire extinguisher check will be taking place TOMORROW and they need access to all apartments. I have two territorial dogs and i need to be in the apartment if strangers will be there-what amounts to a zero business day notice (i don't read personal email at work, so don't receive that message until after 7pm) is not sufficient to rearrange my schedule an airconditioning unit in a hallway has been broken for more than a month office staff say they will not accept checks and that you must use their web site to have their system pull money out of your checking account-but if you push, they will accept a check (but no cash) they claim not to receive check payments from chase bank. While the USPS is often made fun of, they do an amazing job of getting mail delivered. Marquis Lofts claim of not receiving mail/checks sent by a major banking system is not believable, especially four times in the last nine months. This is the only organization that says they have not received a check sent using chase bill pay within the time frame stated on their web site i was told that each monday they check prices of other apartments in the area and then adjust their prices (so far always up). This sounds very much like collusion and rather than attempting to develop a stable community with long term residents, they are only looking to get the highest price which contributes to: the tenants don't care about the facilities. they leave trash in the common areas, spill drinks in hallways and elevators. This is a direct result of the business model of not developing long term residents and is a price of their business model common areas, especially elevators, are rarely cleaned. often drinks that were spilled are not cleaned for a week (this is a result of an unstable community-see above) office staff frequently change there is a high level of crime. it seems that at least every other month an email goes out stating that there was a home invasion or automobile break in and that they will post security guards. we are never told how long the security guards will last, but within a few months, another email goes out. i have only seen security guards once the entrance gates to both north entrances to the basement and upper storey parking garages were broken - and left in the up position. no security was seen when calling re after hours maintenance requests (air con, water, etc - emergency things) the company that is contracted for after hours maintenance requests cannot view existing requests. that means when there has been no response for more than an hour and you call to check on the status, the only thing that they can do is to create another request the office has closed more than a few times with zero to little notice (corporate excuses, extended holidays, etc). feels like a mom and pop business that closes at their whim rather than a $15M (my estimate based on the number of units, probably low) year a business

if you can find a building that is solidly built (a huge problem here in houston-why are some many apartments build with wood in a hurricane zone!?) that meets your needs, I suggest you seriously consider that building. It will be worth some minor inconveniences if the environment is more geared toward long term communities and maintenance is regularly performed, rather than just the minimum to get things working again after they break. i do NOT recommend this property and would give...

Consider a different apartment complex. My partner and I lived at the Hermann Park Lofts for almost 3 years. At first there were no problems. However, the last year I was a resident, it became very clear I would not be renewing my lease. The staff is very friendly, but the communication and the way things were ran made it not an enjoyable experience for me in the end. If management is advocating for the residents and relaying all issues to corporate/the apartment owners, I hope they are able to find employers who listen, and if the staff is not advocating, I hope they start doing so. Here are some experiences I’ve had (could not fit in more due to word count limit): Several different occasions of dog feces in the stairwells. Notified the front office, each time, and sometimes it would take weeks before it was removed. Switched units during my second year. It was at least a month before I moved in that we’d already confirmed with the front office that we were moving our lease to that apartment. So they were aware. About a month before moving in, I asked if certain things would be fixed (laundry door missing etc,) and I was told that they would be fixed before I moved in. I moved in and nothing was fixed. Outlets and dishwasher broken. Months went by before getting a door for the washer/dryer area despite repeated requests. Had several maintenance requests, where maintenance would basically come in, “fix it” or just not do anything and the same problem would remain. Partner's car broken into along with several other residents. Was told some of the surveillance cameras were broken. I had a burst pipe and destroy my ceiling after a Hurricane. Not the management’s fault obviously. As you can see from the theme of this review, the apartment is old and many things seem to appear or work as if it is on its “last leg.” However, after holes were cut for the ceiling to be repaired, I lived with several holes in my ceiling for months. With debris from under the roof falling into my kitchen, and living room, and hotter air entering raising my electricity bill. I was told they would be repaired on a certain day, and they didn’t come until a week later, and whomever they contracted got dry wall all over my furniture, as they didn’t cover it with anything. I was then told they’d be back to paint it on a certain day, and again at least a week passed before they did anything. I understand contractors are independent from management, but the communication from management on the contractors behalf was inaccurate and poorly timed. The compactor room is the main area to throw away trash other than trash valet, and the room sometimes gets filled floor to (almost) ceiling with disgusting smelling trash and the doors are often open, and you have to walk by or drive past it. If the room is like this, you also can’t even walk in to throw away your own trash. In addition, the valet trash service is not always reliable. This apartment is known for it’s gates to be broken. Apparently this has been a problem for years because a friend who lived here years prior, unprompted, asked me if their gates are still always broken. During October 2024, three gates broke in one week. The apartment says it’s because people hit the gates, but I also think the gates are old (like many other things) and need to be replaced if this has been an ongoing problem. I’ve lived in multiple other apartments, and the gates weren’t broken nearly as much, so either, people were just smarter drivers, not hitting the gates, and this community has a concentration of drivers who hit the gates, or these gates are just bad. I believe it’s the latter. At some point, we were told that they disabled the unique gate codes assigned to each unit to let their guests in. Towards the end of my lease, I went down to grab a delivery one night, and none of the doors were unlocking with my key fob, though I tried all accessible doors. Because there was no gate code to use, I was locked out and had to wait until someone...

I really wanted to like Hermann Park Lofts (HPL). Its location is right across the street from the Brays bayou greenway trail and a bridge that leads you straight to Hermann Park. For anyone who works in the medical district of Houston, HPL it is a good location, with a central location within 10 minutes of HEB, the park, and the museum district. Sounds nice, right? Do not bother living here. Maybe live close by for the location, but do not fall into the trap of living at Hermann Park Lofts. It is not worth your money.

The website highlights the good things about the apartment, the things I got sold on at HPL, and probably should have taken more advantage of. The spacious gym, the pool, and the lobby leisure area are all aspects of the apartment I enjoyed occasionally. All this for a mandatory ~$25/mo with an amenity fee. Is it worth the fee? It depends if you use these amenities. I used the gym a few times a week. (Sometimes, the AC wasn't on in the summer, and it made the gym really unpleasant to work out in). I wish they upgraded the coffee machine in the leisure area—it made OK coffee and was broken often—and made the lobby not reek of cleaning products every morning.

Here comes the negatives, and why I give this place my star rating:

(1) The apathetic staff did not make you feel welcome and their communication to residents is absolutely horrible. Half-way through my stay at HPL the apartment towed my car because I didn't heed the message to pick up a resident parking pass, and they tow any car that doesn't have the parking pass. When I moved in, there was no resident parking pass (or at least I wasn't informed of one). After a few months, they implemented the passes. Yes, it is ultimately my fault that my car was towed, but there was no physical warning of this change (i.e., no note on my car as a warning, no checks of my license plate in their records, etc.). One day, I woke up and my car was gone. What really made this experience unpleasant was the way the front-desk workers treated the whole situation. When I expressed my concern that my car was not in the garage and might have been stolen, I was met with complete apathy. This and many other experiences with the HPL staff made me feel like they either really don't care about the residents or the staff absolutely hate their job. Either way, my interactions with them reduced my experience living in HPL. The staff was just not nice—and they only faked kindness when they thought you were a prospective resident.

(2) Except for a few lightbulb fixes, I could not get anything significant fixed in my apartment. I had a couple of maintenance requests that either went completely ignored or was so poorly done that I slowly started resenting living at HPL. For example, for months I could not get a crack in my sliding door fixed. Only a week before my move-out day did someone finally come to look at it. But for these months, I was likely losing precious AC and paying more for electricity than I should have.

(3) Hermann Park Lofts squeezes as much money out of their residents as possible, or at least that's what living there felt like. Amenities I understand paying for. But the $25/month garbage fee for them to pick up your garbage every day is not worth it. The garbage situation was beyond frustrating—the only way to dispose of your garbage was to have them pick it up between 7pm - 9am every day, and if you leave your garbage can outside your door outside of those hours, they charge you.

Finally, you will not get your security deposit back, and if you do, it will be fraction of the amount. You pay a $250 security deposit. They told me they'd sent me the deposit over mail. That never happened. Frustrated, I picked it up in person the next time I was in town.

Save your money. Live somewhere cheaper, somewhere that puts more effort into pretending to like their residents (or actually do like their residents), and don't bother living at...