The Irvine — Attraction in Philadelphia

The process of leasing this apartment complex has been the absolute best from start to finish. I first set up my tour with Ashley, who was very accommodating, open, and informative even over the phone over how much everything would cost, pros and cons, etc.

I went up with my boyfriend to see the place and fell in love immediately from the quality of the apartment complex from the lobby, amenities, and the actual apartment space.

I was looking for an affordable studio, and their prices were 100% in my range at $1385 (not including utilities). Ashley was the best in showing me all of the spaces, everyone was super friendly, from the woman that welcomed us at the door, Ashley's coworker in the office, and even the janitor was making conversation with us and made us feel welcomed.

She told us about the promotion of two months free rent, a free electric scooter with a retail value of $600, community happy hours and free food events every other weekend, and if that weren't enough, I loved the studio with a gorgeous view of Philly, updated appliances, IKEA furniture that comes with the apartment, a waterfall shower...I mean it felt like it was too good to be true. Maintenance 24/7 on site, package lockers, dry cleaning lockers...the amenities also blew me away with a state of the art gym, community garden where I can grow my own food, firepit, grills, and an adorable dog park.

I had 7 or 8 tours lined up for that day, and I wanted to cancel them all after finding this place. I still went and all of them dimmed in comparison. My boyfriend told me as soon as we left, "that's it, that's the place."

My apartment search in Philly was long and gruesome, and this place was like an oasis in the midst of my three month long apartment search. I even went on their Instagram after the fact and saw that they have events like Sofar Sounds, community yoga and gym classes, the list is endless and I was really in search for a community oriented environment.

Its in a perfect location just outside of Center City, where I can feel safe and secure (garage parking), with cute mom and pop shops lining the streets maybe a block up the street, but I can still go out to the city when I felt like it and be in that environment.

I can't thank them enough for being super accommodating with my endless sea of questions; Ashley worked with me even outside of her work hours, sending me videos of the rooms, explaining things to me, etc. I have recommended most of my incoming class at UPenn to rent here, and I urge you to read the reviews before renting anywhere in Philly!

Thank you Ashley, and the Irvine for being absolutely amazing and making my first apartment that much more...

Where do I begin?I HAVE PHOTOS TO SUPPORT ALL OF MY COMPLAINTS AND VIDEOS FYI. I moved to the Irvines a year ago, everything was perfect in my eyes. Now??? It is Beyond TERRIBLE. The trash room shoots dont work, the red light is always on, trash is sitting every where, even outside the trash room, the elevators are not properly functioning,always dirty and smelly, the common areas are always smelling like trash and dirty with debris of trash, the hall ways carpet is Beyond FILTHY need to be shampooed, the outside windows of the apartment building, have not been cleaned in forever, very filthy and need window washed,the place has become a run down basically. All the things that are mentioned in the lease isnt TRUE to its words. All our packages are sitting on the floor,package lockers no longer being utilized and properly put into the packaging lockbox, so packages get stolen all the time, the property manager is a drunk, he smell like LIQUOR ALL THE TIME, I have photos of him in other places he should not be during work hours, no Maintenance on site at all, one resident expressed she havent had a/c in over 2 months and they still havent corrected the issue, also doors aren't being properly secured, ppl from other places gaining access to the building going into the gym, which is never clean FYI, parking is 195 a month, why??? When ppl are already paying 1700 in rent, also they charge you 15.00 a month for amenities that we are not getting why??? No concierge, No Maintenance, No cleaning Crew, its a mess. Also, the side walks of this property is always full of Trash, where are the lawn ppl??? Im starting to see rodents aka rats in the trash area which is always open to gain access, no one with knowledge on site for support, the walls and residence doors need to be touched up with repaint its a mess. I rather move closer to Penns landing where im ok with paying 2300 or 2500 knowing where I live is safe,clean and secured. This place here the irvines is nothing but a run down project building with a welcoming front face. If you value your money,living space, and time by all means dont move here. Also! In the lease it stated a 3% increase would be added once you renew your lease, well guess what??? That is a lie, its a 5% increase. SEE ALL THE RED FLAGS, REMEMBER I...

Where to start..?

This apartment building has absolutely gorgeous, modern, well appointed units. Space is obviously a commodity in Philadelphia but the units are very efficient and the finishes, while sometimes questionable in quality, appear lovely.

That being said, I feel totally hoodwinked. To make things clear, I am a student physician (about to graduate in less than a month) who has moved 7 times in the past 9 years, so I am no stranger to renting in the Philadelphia area.

When I originally moved in, (the summer of 2021) the building was seemingly owned by the Post Brothers. Now it is owned by something called Riverwood management? Wow. Totally downhill from there. I remember walking into the lobby and thinking of how ornate but local the common areas were. There was always someone at the concierge desk, always someone in the leasing office, and amenities seemed well appointed, though that was not important to me as a renter.

Since management has changed it has seemed as though I am a fool for lack of a better word. To give a prime example; I called for a replacement 9V battery for our smoke alarm/CO detector, and when informed it may take 24 hours to fix I offered to change it myself if given a battery, and that I had a ladder, I would only require a nine-volt battery. The response?

"What's that?" ...

My next run-in with the concierge (that is an incredibly generous term by the Riverwood group) was informing the front desk that the left hand elevator smelled like urine, to which the reply was "Oh man, that's nasty" before returning to a personal phone call while manning the desk...

None of this even begins to address the fact that I am paying a fee to park my car in a "private, off-street lot" that is currently overrun by maintenance workers that are currently operating on some sort of utility issue that may take another month or so to complete (after already being here for a month) who have verbally harassed my sister as she came to visit me. Honestly, that was almost enough for me to terminate my lease early.

Long story short (and I have left much out,) you can't slap lipstick on a pig and call it a...