The Poplar — Attraction in Philadelphia

UPDATE - I wrote the below review 5 months ago and still have no response from management. None of the issues below have been resolved in any way and no communication whatsoever.

My girlfriend and I moved here in September 2021 because it was a newly renovated apartment building and awesome amenities that are difficult to come by close to the city.

Despite the amazing amenities, there were several issues we had within the apartment and also a promotional agreement during our first lease. One issue with the apartment itself, was since the first day the shower door in our bathroom does not shut completely, therefore causing water to spill out and leak onto the bathroom floor. This issue still has not been resolved to this day despite having maintenance attempt to temporarily solve the issue a couple times.

The promotional agreement issue we have is that on our first lease there was a promotion that offered a waiving of pet fees for the first year. We have the agreement and reassurance by the property managers at the time, Amy and Anita, in writing stating that we will be reimbursed for these fees since they charged us for it during our first year. And just like the shower door issue, this has not been resolved to this day in September 2023, nearly two years later.

Since living here at the Poplar for nearly two years there has been over three property manager changes and several other personnel changes (front desk, maintenance, etc). This type of turnover rate in just two years shows a lot of instability and unreliability towards Post Brothers and many other tenants feel this way.

Currently there is just one property manager (severely understaffed), Michele, and you can clearly tell that she is overwhelmed and that only leads to more issues arising and being unresolved as I go further into that below.

Our most recent issue, is that The Poplar automatically renews your lease agreement if you do not notify otherwise 60 days prior. However, we were emailed about this later than 60 days and the link attached to the email did not load on our end despite attempting by mobile device and computer. We attempted to get in contact with Michele via email, phone and even walking down to the office but only got in touch with her THREE times in a span of almost two months. I have emails and call logs to support this as well. As I mentioned earlier, the fact that there is only one property manager to oversee the issues and concerns of hundreds of tenants is frustrating. This leads to a lack of communication and causes issues to become insurmountable. Now that we had such a difficult time getting in touch with Michele, we are being forced to pay a massive penalty fee and forfeiting our security deposit in order to break our lease. While all this is occurring, we are supposed to move out of state two days from now.

All in all, the building itself is very beautiful and the amenities that come along with it are a nice bonus. However, this is not a place I would recommend to live in due to the unwillingness to resolve current and old issues. From the perspective of myself and many other residents, Post Brothers does not seem to truly care about the tenants living in their buildings but more so about...

Lived there for two years, moved out at the end of June. It was a nice to live if you like living in a frat house. The walls are cheaply made, and you can hear everything going on in your neighbor’s apartment, people play their music into all hours of the night with very little consideration for other tenants. In the beginning the amenities were nice but they quickly began to break down and then it took many months for something to get fixed (hot tubs, gym equipment, ect). I felt the security was very lacking since the pool and gym always had people who didn’t live there accessing the amenities. This was particularly uneasy considering once you had access to the terrace, anyone could roam the halls if they liked. Not to mention our front doorknob was always loose and badly installed. Making me feel very unsafe. For such a “high end” building I’m surprised the door locks were turnkey and not electric like most new buildings. The terrace was always over crowed with people taking advantage of the guest policy which would basically lead to me not using the space at all plus by the time I left only one outside grill was basically working. All in all, it was hefty price tag (±$2,000) to have shotty paper thin walls, amenities that weren’t taken care of, and to be in not the best place in the city. The area was okay (when your car wasn’t getting broken into or your catalytic converter wasn’t getting stolen) it was very far from everything else and the promised retail below the building was never filled. Post brothers definitely over promised with this property.

The Poplar brands itself as “luxury living” and it is nice but lacks the service and management to even come close to that. The front desk people were the only helpful people who worked there. There was definitely a drop-in caring about this building and the people who lived there once The Piazza Alta opened up. Finally, after you move out don’t expect any communications once you are done paying them. I have tried emailing and calling, to make sure we were done with this place but for some reason they refuse to confirm or give any updates about our security deposit. I even tried calling Post Brothers HQ but they care probably less. You would think that since they have so many properties, they would understand what good customer service is. Honestly save your money because the cost is...

We were so excited to live here when we first moved in, but after living here for 9 months and as 1 of the first guests in this building, we are realizing more and more that it's not worth the high-ticket price ($3000 for a 2 bed/2 bath) unless the only thing you care about is the wow factor.

Pros: Extremely beautiful apartment building, friendly staff (from concierge to maintenance and cleaning staff, all of them are awesome), proximity to Center City

Cons in apartment: hot water only lasts 15-20 min; with 2 people in the apt, it's not enough for showering paper thin walls/doors/windows, can hear neighbors within complex and outside as well poor ventilation: if you cook meat, the apt will get VERY smoky and windows don't open wide enough to let the air flow heater: b/c of lack of ventilation, food smells get caught in the heater and will stink up the apt when you turn the heater on several days after windows: beautiful but there's a draft and wind tunnel is loud flat paint that gets dirty easily and doesn't clean aesthetic: lights in apartment esp in bathroom are natural white and way too bright in the evenings before bed

Cons of building: False fire alarms every few weeks at all hours (at least 10+ in the last 9 months + one even at 3am and one at 5:30am for 30 MINUTES), crimes in the neighborhood (that rhyme with booting *so the word doesnt get flagged) (one lethal crime right in front of our building, several people have also gotten their cars broken into and vandalized), 7th floor STINKS of booze and dogs in the summer & the pool is way too cold in the winter time to even be able to enjoy the terrace, 4th floor yoga room is always cold (65 degrees even when you try to change it), 4th floor conference rooms are not sound proof at all, construction starts at 7:30am and is LOUD (again a problem due to thin walls and doors), main elevator takes awhile esp during busy hrs or when people are moving + there is only one main elevator available to use (sometimes up to 10 min wait)

For an apartment of this price, we're honestly really disappointed in all of the flaws here and the excuses made for poor quality.

Edit: A $300 fee from our security deposit was also NEVER returned even after fighting it for many months and escalating it to corporate.

DON'T MOVE IN HERE. YOU...