J Malden Center — Attraction in Malden

I’ve spent 2 years from Aug 2020 to Sep 2022 at JMC before moving into an Avalon community. Let's break it into the usual pros and cons:

Pros: 1- The complex is barely 4 years old so everything is new. 2- The building is well maintained and always clean. 3- Staff are friendly and help you get things done when you see them in person (email is a whole different story). 4- The gym is fantastic, clean and well-maintained equipment. 5- The pool is always clean. 6- Lots and lots of common areas to hang out or entertain guests including places to lounge, play table tennis, watch TV and play pool. The common space is definitely the number one pro for this place. 7- Location is unbeatable. Right next to the Malden Center Orange line. Two min walking distance to Stop & Shop and plenty of places to eat all within a 5-10 min walking distance. You can find yourself in downtown Boston via the Orange Line in 20 min. 8- The apartment is really warm in winter and you barely ever have to turn on heating so while I complain about electric costs in summer below it kind of evens out over the year due to not needing any heating in winter.

Cons: 1- The AC unit in the apartments is LOUD. Not sure what company designed this thing, but I have to put on noise cancelling headphones when my AC is on. I asked about reducing the noise when I first moved in they said there was nothing that could be done. 2- Rent is pretty high for the area, but compared to Greater Boston as a whole it's reasonable for what you get. I can't hold this against them as Boston rental market in general highly overpriced. BUT, expect significant rent increases when renewing your lease, way above what you see elsewhere. My increase recently was ~11%.. The amount of which seems to vary a lot, but doesn't make much sense as it will be cheaper for a new tenant than for you. 3- Water bill is ridiculously expensive and no one seems to be able to explain why. For a one bedroom apartment with one person living in it my water + sewer bill for a few months was $110. Additionally, you do not have access to your water meter as it is locked behind a storage closet in the apartment that only management can access. Compare that to my new water bill at another apartment complex was $15 for the entire month. 4- Appliances don't seem to be vey efficient as my electric bill is always substantially higher than anyone else I know in Boston. My electric bill for last month was $122. And yes, I turn on my AC when I'm home because the apartment is an oven if you don't (which is a pro in winter!) 5- Parking is not included in rent and is an additional $125/month for each parking spot. 6- One of the residents in another review here mentioned the open sewage coming from other apartments in the storage closet. If this is true (that it is actually sewage), this is illegal and does not meet housing guidelines for Malden. An apartment is not allowed to have open sewage coming from other units. This is also a serious health risk. I hope management clarifies the issue. As far as I know, management has not commented on this publicly. 7- There is a pretty nice common room you can reserve to entrain guests. Used to be a reasonable rate of $100 for two hours. Recently they bumped it to $250 for two hours which is pretty overpriced. 8- Not sure who specified prices around this place, but they seem to be pretty unreasonable as mentioned above with rent, bills, reservation fees...etc. 9- The ceiling is not noise proof at all. A new neighbor recently moved above me and they make my apartment shake day and night. Not sure why my neighbor is running around their apartment at 2 am in the morning every night, but I complained twice to management and they have done NOTHING about it. Not even respond to my complaints. What's the point of paying ~$3000/month for rent if you can't even sleep?

10- After moving to a new apartment complex I realize that the appliances at JMC were terrible, definitely the cheapest...

11/1/21 UPDATE: Still 5 stars for Jane! She's the reason we enjoyed living here so much.

My original review below still applies, but I'm editing this because corporate sent me a renewal notice at a whopping $1,000/month rent increase to $4,100 for a 2BD/2BA, and I am far from the only one. The renewal rate was shocking.

I realize I received a 1-month free promo in 2020, and that rates were lower than usual due to COVID-19, but after declining to renew at $4,100, our apartment was listed online at $3,600/month, $500 cheaper than our "renewal rate," which left a bad taste in my mouth. Jonathan and Jane did all they could to work with me, but in the end, we couldn't make it happen.

It seems like corporate doesn't understand the Malden demographic, and that they prefer new tenants (especially wealthy grad students) to retaining current working/professional residents.

If you can afford it and want to be in a downtown area, J Malden is a solid choice, and the team that works here is terrific. Just make sure to ask about the renewal rate!

For me, the lack of a personal balcony, the noise, and ongoing issues like the garage door not opening or elevators working consistently and our ceiling and windows still leaking, I can't justify paying the renewal rates while there are many more affordable and just as luxurious places (even new!) in the area.

All in all, I enjoyed my time living here.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

First off, 5 stars for Jane! Please give her a well-deserved promotion.

I’ve lived here since May 2020. I enjoy living in Malden, like the apartment/amenities, and truly appreciate Jane, Fabio, and the maintenance staff! They are friendly, respond quickly, and provide amazing service, so thank you!

Pros: Jane! Building and apartments look nice Great location Amenities are solid (rooftop deck, pool, outdoor space, grills, gym, biz center, in-unit laundry, etc.) Spacious living area with large windows and decent storage (depending on layout); windows cut down on noise better than expected Overall cleanliness. The space is well maintained. It is vacuumed, mopped, and cleaned often, and the trash is regularly cleared out. The only downside is that some of the residents are extremely messy, so the gym weights are NEVER put back the way they are found, and the trash rooms can get grungy — but that's on the residents, not the cleaning crew Hosted some cool pre-COVID social events (wine tastings)

Cons: Building construction quality is cheap. We have drill holes in our thin wall, cracks forming, and our appliances have had to be replaced a few times. Recently, we had MAJOR leaks in our ceiling and windows when it rained. It turns out the entire side of the North building needs a construction crane outside every day to fix the issues. Jane and maintenance were quick to address the issues the best they could Poor general communications from management Inconsistent and sometimes random utility charges Parking garage door is always left open overnight and sometimes I can’t get into/out of the garage because of the faulty door ($125/month) Grills. Main gas line is often accidentally turned off, so grills can’t always be used, which I find out only when I try to cook dinner after office hours. I've pretty much given up trying to use them Rent. It’s likely competitive for the area and the proximity of the T, but at $3400+ per month, rent is hard to swallow

Overall, I highly recommend J Malden apartments if you want to live in Malden close to the T, have a nice-looking apartment despite quality concerns (common for cheaply built "luxury" apartments), and don’t mind the cost of rent.

J Malden is terrific when compared to other apartments in the area and does offer some great perks. Jane is FANTASTIC, and she’s one of the reasons we would renew our lease when...

So my experience with the apartment is alright but I can’t say the same to other residents living here at the J Malden. We have a WeChat group with around 200 ppl living here in it, and the owner of the group was the J Malden manager. And here is a BRIEF summary of what they complained in the chat.

Possible discrimination against Asian/Chinese residents. Staff with slow response and extremely bad attitude. Some of the staff literally told the resident to “go away”, and when the resident accused them of being rude, they were like “yes I am, what can you do?” Never fixed garage door. And never ending parking on others ppl’s spot. And not enough spots for the residents, some residents need to park their cars in other places. Referral. Some complained about getting the referral takes too long, and when they go talk to the staff at the leasing office. The staff told them to email, and when they email, the staff never responded. Hilarious right? Promised gift card and bonus disappeared magically. The apartment promised some bonus when they start the lease but all gone magically lol. lease contradicts with the actual layout of the apartment. someone’s lease has a kitchen island on it, but guess what, the apartment doesn’t have it. The staff’s response to this is “you didn’t see that when you did the tour, therefore you don’t have it. LEASE DOES NOT MATTER” The open end sewage(see the second picture) So we all know there’s a locked room in the apartment. We all wondered what’s inside it. Is it a bird cage or is it a murder scene. Well its actually an open end sewage system. The sewer pipes, the toilet waste water, everything goes in to one giant pipe with no seal. And some of the resident actually smelled the heavenly smell from the locked room. But the staff’s response to this is “YOU GET WHAT YOU PAID FOR LIVING IN A NEWLY CONSTRUCTED BUILDING” aww lovely and nice as ever. Never end loud fighting residents in the building. Complained to the staff, no response. This part of the complaints is from the slack group of the apartment (a) Unreasonable and unexplained utility costs (b) Unreasonable amenity limitations (c) Keys randomly not working (that’s me, not sure if anyone else has experienced it) (d) Gas cutoff for grills at 8pm (e) Improper gym floor which results in the whole building shaking when people drop weights at the gym (f) Garage door being open for extended hours, which resulted in at least one car break in (g) Rat infestation in the storage room (I believe this is resolved)

And after all that in the chat, the funniest part happened. The manager removed all the residents that complained in the chat. And kept on removing when others stand up questioning his behavior.(see the first picture) The manager left the group and transferred the ownership to...