The Piazza

Pros:

• The Cove (pool, hot tub, grills). Open 24/7, year-round. It is a high luxury experience that makes you feel like you live in a resort. Guest access is somewhat restricted, but you just pay $15/wristband on the days that it's very busy.

• The staff. The maintenance and cleaning staff are all really nice and do an excellent job of keeping the place clean and functional. If something breaks, it's usually repaired within a week or two. You can sense they care and want the tenants to have a top-notch experience. I truly hope they are being paid enough because they really do an amazing job.

• The gym. Absolutely gorgeous gym with excellent equipment, rivaling Equinox. You want to spend time in there. The locker rooms have a sauna, hydro massage bed, and tanning booth. The new Alta gym also has a skiing simulator. Wild.

• The tenants. Pretty much everyone I've come across is fun, attractive, and kind. Hang around the pool/hot tub on a weekend and you're guaranteed to make a ton of friends.

• The location. The Giant supermarket and DGX are right downstairs. A TON of entertainment options are within 15 minutes walking distance.

• The units. Most of the units are bi-level, which is really cool. It allows for pretty nifty ideas, for example hanging a hammock in your living room. It also breaks up the unit making it feel like there's more space than the square footage would suggest.

Cons:

• The NOISE. Oh god, the noise... I moved here from New York and let me tell you, I didn't think noise like this was even possible. Between the floor repairs (more on that in a moment), poor insulation, dirt bikes, general traffic, and loud music, it's really really noisy. I sleep in earplugs every night. My neighbor on one side is completely insulated - we don't hear each other even if we're blasting music. My neighbor on the other side though, it's as though there isn't even a wall between the two units; you can overhear normal conversations. The giant windows facing North 2nd street don't keep sound out either.

• The floors. Some of the units have polished concrete with a polyurethane coating. This is by far the worst floor material choice known to man. The thing about poly is that it scratches pretty easily, and if the floors are scratched management offers to have them resurfaced every time someone moves in. You can't just re-coat the floor - the previous coat first needs to be taken off with an industrial floor grinder. Ask anyone who lives here how loud these machines are and they'll tell you... RIDICULOUSLY loud. On the advice of an attorney I bought a decibel meter to start documenting it just in case. You can hear the grinding from up to 5 units and 2 floors away. If you work from home you need to be prepared once a month for ~3 days. You will suffer. Management will offer the corporate unit or WeWork day pass. And then one day the grinding will stop. You will have peace and quiet again. And THEN you'll get hit by the fumes. The other thing about poly is that it's extremely smelly. So when they recoat a unit, that building's entire level smells for another day or two. Fairly toxic smell, and unlike noise you can't exactly escape it with earplugs/headphones. Management, please consider transitioning all the units to hardwood. I can't imagine the cost is any higher than the current approach.

Neutral: ~ Management. In short, issues can always be frustrating to deal with, but overall management is fair and reasonable. They try to accomodate tenants as best they can when there are issues, offering the corporate unit or a day pass to the WeWork if your unit is uninhabitable. I haven't moved out yet but heard there can be issues with the security deposit so will update this review in a couple months.

Overall, I would absolutely recommend living here and would return in the future to a different building/unit. You can absolutely have a solid 5-star experience here if you choose the right unit. From what I understand, Navona with the windows facing the courtyard is the way to go. Good luck!