Camden Pier District Apartments — Attraction in Saint Petersburg

It’s with a heavy heart that I’ve felt compelled to post this review. For the first 12-14 months I loved Camden, but since the summer of this year, there has been an ongoing decline that is now at the point of no repair. You don’t have to scroll too far down the list of reviews to see the countless complaints, so here is a not so brief summary:

Since July, I cannot remember a single day where all the elevators in the building were working. #2 in the main lobby has not worked for about 2 months. They finally fixed it yesterday, and after 2 hours it was broken again! The service elevator rarely works. The gates to the parking garage are broken again, leaving it open for anyone to access, creating a security risk for our vehicles.

Construction started on the pool deck in July. I understand they started the work without the correct permits in place. Since then we have had half of the pool area inaccessible, no access to the firepit and seating area and no access to the sauna or Jacuzzi. The amenities in the roof deck were the primary reason for me choosing this apartment and they have been out of action for 5 months with absolutely no sign of ANY progress being made.

The AC in the hallways and the sky lounge haven’t worked since the hurricane. No communication has been sent to address this issue. I was unaware it wasn’t working in the sky lounge and had guests over last week where I’d planned on cooking dinner. It was 84° in the room and only the emergency lighting worked. I had 2 colleagues over this week to work in that space, asked concierge if it had been fixed and was told it had been. It hadn’t. With the doors wide open and the ridiculous amount of construction noise, it’s not an area where you can work.

The trash shoot has been completely blocked twice in the last month creating an awful smell in the corridors.

The chirp app for door and elevator access is awful. It doesn’t work when you’re in an elevator, the front door at the main entrance was inaccessible via the app for about 2 months and the door logs are never up to date.

The power outage relating to the hurricane was managed so badly. I was on one of the affected floors and ended up being on a generator for weeks. The generator was noisy, the doors securing the building were left wide open to allow for cables to run up the stairwells and the generator was switched off 2 days before Hurricane Milton even hit, leaving residents with no power for more than 48 hours. This resulted in me personally losing $000’s of dollars of food in my fridge/freezer and an uninhabitable living space with internal temperatures making it impossible to sleep or work.

There are no places to work. I work remotely, if you’re downstairs in the lobby space, the music is too loud to be able to do work calls, if you’re in the small office to the right of the elevators, Camden staff just walk through from the office to the bathroom even when you’re clearly in the middle of a call, the cleaning staff run vacuums and driers right outside the door, the sky lounge is too hot with no AC and the firepit area is closed and has been for months.

Cleanliness has also taken a nose dive. The communal areas do not feel clean, furniture is damaged or dirty.

The concierge staff are rarely there, some of them treat it as a social club, watching TV instead of doing their job and deliveries are sometimes not possible as there is no one to open the door.

Complaints have been made, then removed from the community forum and management is responding to all complaints with a copy/paste response. Being told we can use another pool at their sister property is unacceptable. I asked twice for reduced rent/compensation in my last email and it was overlooked. Frankly, financial compensation is the absolute minimum that should be offered, together with a clear timetable and commitment to fix all of the above issues and others that I had to remove based on the character limit.

Looking forward to a non,...

Best staff and property management I’ve ever experienced at an apartment complex!

I have lived in apartments since 2004 and can, without a doubt, say that Camden Pier District tops them all!

The leasing agents, Drew and Crislyn, are like friends and went above and beyond getting me settled into my unit. Drew even took the time to go up to my apartment and send me a video of my new view while I was driving my belongings from Dallas! They helped me get my utilities setup before I arrived by working with my sister who was local and our wonderful concierge, Catie, was quick to assist once I pulled up by getting the loading dock and service elevator setup. The thoughtfulness didn’t stop there, in my apartment was a lovely Camden welcome bag with some essentials for move in day...toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap and some fun Camden merch!

In the first couple of weeks my washing machine had a little issue and wouldn’t drain (soon discovered it was a filter that needed to be cleaned) and I couldn’t be happier with how it was handled. Shout out to our maintenance crew, Michael, Mike and Hector, for the less than 24hr response times! After submitting the maintenance request, I went up to our beautiful rooftop pool to relax with some friends and then heard my name and looked up to see our maintenance manager who came and found me to update me on my washer! He said it would take a day or two to resolve but was so accommodating and opened an empty apartment so I could still do laundry and not be impacted!! Unparalleled service!! Another of our fantastic concierges, Chota, assisted in getting this resolved! Team effort and I am so grateful for their attention to detail.

About the building itself, if you hate neighbor noise...this is the place for you! Coming from a wood construction building this place is like heaven and is all concrete! I don’t hear my neighbors above or on either side ever! At most you might hear a passing conversation in the hallway during the day. The cleaning crew is constantly here keeping common areas, hallways, trash chute areas spotless! They also just added a new Camden Market amenity for those late nights or early mornings when you don’t feel like walking across the parking lot to the (already convenient) Publix where you can grab essentials, snacks and drinks and soon to be healthy meals from local vendors! Finally, the rooftop amenities are unparalleled here in St. Pete. The sky lounge is my personal favorite.

About the neighbors, this has been the easiest apartment complex to meet neighbors at! Residents and the staff host events almost every week! Wine Down Wednesdays, Open Art Nights, movies by the pool, vendor fairs, etc!! If you are social, you’ll find it easy to interact and meet everyone!

The location is also ideal. So many great restaurants, shops, bars and activities only a few min walk away. I work from home and have found that I hardly drive my car anymore! (Really only to go to the beaches on the weekends which are 15 min away!)

Would highly recommend Camden Pier! You definitely get your...

Beautiful apartments, incredible amenities, fantastic location, and the best staff one could as for. My girlfriend and I have lived at AER for that past year and feel so fortunate to have had this experience. I can recall when we first took a tour of the building and could only think "WOW". Every apartment we saw after that was just a letdown. In no time, we made sure to put our application into AER.

The list of reasons we love living here goes on and on. From spending time at one of, if not THE nicest rooftop pool deck in Tampa Bay, to being able to walk to Publix, bars, restaurants, professional baseball/soccer, and the city's big events, every day at AER is perfection.

There is an argument to live here just for the roof deck alone. Laying in one of the lounge chairs enjoying sweeping views of Downtown St. Pete, Downtown Tampa, the Sunshine Skyway, and the bay would be enough, but there is also an incredibly equipped gym, yoga room with spinning bikes, hot tub and sauna, not to mention the great fire pit and rooftop lounge areas that make for great hangouts with guests and neighbors. Plus, the building throws some great events on the roof including BBQs, cooking classes, and my favorite this year: a 3 day watch party for the Grand Prix of St. Petersburg.

Every apartment is wonderfully adorned and all of them have balconies. The building is situated such that there are few other tall buildings nearby, allowing fairly unobstructed views in every direction. Walk in closets plus an outdoor closet on the balcony have made this place a relief when it comes to balancing the convenience of apartment living with the need for storage space.

While any place you live will have some folks who may not be the nicest, we have been fortunate to meet very friendly neighbors while living at AER. It has been wonderful to be able to share this great property with them.

Finally, the staff here has always been accommodating to us and work extremely hard every day to help keep the 300+ residents here happy. While no place can be perfect because hey....stuff happens, the staff at AER overall take care of issues quickly when they arise and are always willing to communicate with us if when we have any questions or concerns.

While we are moving away because I am taking a job in Washington, DC, we are incredibly sad to be doing so. I would highly recommend to anyone looking for an apartment in Tampa Bay to make sure you come take the tour at AER. You...