Ferrante Apartments — Attraction in Los Angeles

I would have given zero stars if I could. This place is a joke. A pig in lipstick. A dive bar masquerading as a michelin-star restaurant. The facade may be shiny, but just beneath the surface lurks a nightmare. My partner and I lived here for a year and a half and from the very first night we moved in, the glittery veneer began to peel, revealing an endless pit of garbage. On our very first night, the fire alarms in the entire building went off in the middle of the night. The building had just opened and what little tenants had moved in were very confused. We vacated until the alarms stopped. Little did we know, this would be a repeat occurrence for the entire duration of our lease, violating the implied covenant of quiet enjoyment under California law. The alarms would go off at all hours of the day and night, and when we told management, they did NOTHING. We explained that it was a "boy who cried wolf" situation, that the alarms went off so often that no one vacated the building because it was such a regular occurrence, meaning that we could all burn to death because we would never know what was a real emergency and what was just another false alarm. Each time, management would create some ill-conceived excuse, suggesting that someone vaping in the stairwell or microwaving food in the lounge could set off the alarms for the entire building. The alarm system was obviously faulty, as evidenced by a panel in the parking garage with blinking ERROR lights all over it. But management doesn't care about the safety of their residents. They are too cheap and incompetent to do anything about it. The pools and hot tubs would be filthy, more often than not. Management said they were being cleaned regularly, which was an obvious lie just looking at the state of the water. Our locked bike was stolen out of the parking garage because the gates were left wide open and the alleged 24-hour security was nowhere to be found. When we reported it stolen, the people in the office could not have been ruder or cared less. They took no responsibility for the theft of our property, which was entirely their fault, and they were not remotely helpful in accessing the camera footage or working with the police. They couldn't even do the bare minimum. Someone higher up at GHP corporate did give us a small rent credit, but it didn't come close to reimbursing the cost of our stolen property. Except for Earnest in the leasing office, every single person from the office staff to the security were rude to us and our guests. We were told multiple times that packages of ours were not delivered, but when we went to look for ourselves in the package room, there they were, implying that the staff didn't even bother to look. The move-out policy was intentionally unclear and misleading and the office staff were once again avoidant and unhelpful when we attempted to contact them about it. The manager, Natalie, even blocked my emails when all I was asking was for our security deposit back, which they illegally withheld from us. Per California state law, your landlord must return your deposit within 21 days after you move out. If any deductions are made, the landlord must give you a written explanation of all deductions, and they must issue a refund of the remaining balance. Of course, the brilliant minds in the office at The Ferrante think they are above the law and made the move-out paperwork intentionally unclear so that they could charge us a bunch of made-up fees and essentially steal our security deposit. There were countless other incidents while we lived there, including one of the security guards smoking weed in the bathroom, a homeless man getting naked in the lounge, and neighbors getting away with having their balconies covered in dog feces and trash. You'll see per the inevitable reply that this management company tries to gaslight tenants into thinking they did something wrong, when in fact, they are the ones who regularly break laws and have not an ounce of respect or compassion for the people who live in this deathtrap...

I was one of the first tenants to move into Ferrante and lived there for two years. I had a mixture of positive and negative experiences, but overall I do not recommend this building, nor GHP Management, to prospective tenants.

A few things about the area, because if you are new to L.A., as I was, you might not realize that it is absolutely not in the heart of DTLA. That's so wrong, it's hilarious. It's in a no-man's-land at the intersection of Downtown, Chinatown, Westlake and Echo Park. If you are the kind of person who mostly drives and wants easy access to freeways, the location is a good fit. But the adjacent area isn't pleasant to walk in. The proximity to the freeway meant my balcony was usually covered in black dust.

Going back to the beginning, in 2022, the opening of the first section of the building was delayed twice, once just about 10 days before I was supposed to move in, causing a huge inconvenience as I prepared to move across the country. They did their best to accommodate me and other tenants in a similar situation by placing us in vacant units in another building, for free. But, if you are reserving an apartment in a yet-to-be-opened section of the building, know that they delayed the openings of both existing sections of the complex multiple times.

I cannot emphasize this point enough: If you live here, you will deal with building-wide fire alarms going off. They are extremely loud. In the first month it was almost daily, usually in the middle of the night, and continued to happen periodically (during the day and at night) throughout my two years there. This is not uncommon in large new-build apartment complexes, and Ferrante is no exception.

There is a lot of turnover in the Resident Services staff — I don't believe a single person who worked there when I first moved in remained two years later. That resulted in some headaches; promises made by one person weren't communicated when staff changed, documents I had already turned in were lost and I had to track them down again. There was also some more extreme mix-ups — I requested to be present for my final walkthrough, took time out of my day to go back after I had moved out, waited for an hour, and no one showed up. I did not ever receive an explanation for why this happened.

If you do live here, I strongly advise that when you move out, you opt for the cleaning they provide, where they deduct the fee from your security deposit. I went this route when I moved out of the first unit I lived in, but when I moved out of my second unit, I opted to clean myself. I left it extremely, thoroughly clean, and was still charged for a full cleaning that cost more than the cleaning fee you can sign up for. For your research, I highly recommend you look up "GHP Management $12.5 million security deposit settlement."

This all to say, there were positive aspects of living here. The cleaning staff clearly worked very hard and common spaces were generally kept in good shape. I had plenty of positive and helpful experiences with kind people who worked in the offices at various points. Most times, my service orders were addressed the same day. I really do appreciate these parts of my experience at Ferrante.

But I really, really wish I had just found a regular apartment in a rent-controlled older building. Which is what I did after I moved out, and now I pay $400 less for twice the space in a...

Major Issues With This Property!

Flooding & constant facility shutdowns

The month I moved in, there was a major flood that shut down the basketball and pickleball courts for months. About a month ago, there was ANOTHER leak, shutting down the courts again. Every time, there are industrial fans everywhere, and no transparency or urgency from management to fix the problem. Pool in building A was closed for about a month because they didn't have the proper permit for the pool? They posted up a sign but failed to mention when they did close it. Only sent an email after it was open again.

Rats in the parking garage

Recently, I saw multiple rats near resident parking spots in P2. Management brushed it off, blaming construction — but there’s also trash and abandoned personal items everywhere, which they’ve done nothing about. It’s disgusting and dangerous to have vermin running around where residents park their cars.

Security & safety concerns

A few weeks ago, I saw multiple police cars in the garage. A security guard admitted there’s been a homeless problem inside the building, and they even caught a homeless person in one of the jacuzzis in the pool area. The Temple Ave resident entrance gate is always broken, making it easy for non-residents to just walk in. This is a serious safety issue, and management hasn’t fixed it.

Broken elevators trapping residents

There was an incident where residents were trapped inside a broken elevator. Instead of being proactive about maintenance, management just reacts after disasters happen.

Unfair & inconsistent towing policies

My guest visited for the first time, parked for a few hours, and his car was towed without warning. For an entire year, management would issue warning notices first, but suddenly they decided to start towing without warning. They just rolled out a new paid guest parking policy ($2/hour) effective September 15th, but my guest parked on September 13th, before the new rule, and still got towed. Meanwhile, employees and security staff park in guest parking for free, taking up spaces meant for residents’ visitors. When I complained, the assistant manager smugly told me they’re “authorized” to do so. So, paying residents have to make their guests pay or risk towing, while employees park for free. Absolutely absurd.

Resident services completely dismissive

Anytime you bring up an issue, they just refer back to the lease agreement instead of actually addressing the problem. They do NOT care about resident concerns or how their actions are affecting the community. Tamar, the resident services assistant manager, mentioned that there have been five new community managers since he’s been back. That alone shows there’s clearly a serious communication and management issue.

I used to recommend this property to friends and family, but I won’t anymore!

This building started off nice, but now it’s a total mess: Vermin Flooding Unsafe entry points Broken facilities Unfair parking policies

I will absolutely not be renewing my lease. If you’re thinking about moving here, don’t. Save yourself the headache and...