The Central — Attraction in Seattle

TL;DR - If you need a quality building with amazing staff and don't care about having a ton of amenities you'll never use but are still getting charged for anyway, then look no further than The Central, managed by Sydney Tibbs and her associate Jacques. They will go above and beyond for you and your needs every time.

Story time: I was previously living in West Seattle in the most amazing apartment. Unfortunately, the rent increase wasn't amazing so I had to pivot and find a new pad within a reasonable time frame, about 2 months.

I must have contacted 15-20 different places. I'm the type to get things done so when a few weeks went by and all I received were lazy e-mail responses or none at all, half-hearted tours where I had to ask all the questions to get answers, sketchy requests and weird invites like a group viewing/bidding war... I had just about had it. What was this? The Seattle freeze, corporate edition??

Enter The Central

My experience top to bottom was night and day with Sydney, Jacques, and the rest of their team compared to all other property managers, leasing agents, and formless faces through email.

Jacques was/is my leasing agent. Not only did I get a professional response the same day I sent out the request for information, I was provided with flexible options to tour the building in its entirety and was provided a platform to discuss my specific needs, which we all have but sometimes do not get addressed or acknowledged.

In fact, out of these 20 odd encounters, Jacques and Sydney were the ONLY ones to treat my time with respect. I never told them I was in sales/customer service for most of my life yet they impressed me thoroughly with their attention to detail and.. gasp! asking questions to find out what I may want or need. This was huge. This was a customer service win, something that is severely lacking these days. I based the finality of my decision solely on my interaction with Jacques and Sydney. Special shout out to the maintenance team who went out of their way to introduce themselves while I was touring. This was also a positive sign of stellar management.

The building is the cherry on top. Out of the 4 complexes on the corner of 23rd and Union it's the only one that doesn't have absurd amenity charges or ones that you don't need. The location speaks for itself, and the name isn't just some cute moniker. It's a 5 minute drive to every major freeway (without traffic), Cap Hill is a 10 min walk, Lake Washington is a 5 minute bike ride, downtown is a 10 min bus ride, and you can pay $2 to take the light rail to the airport.

Final

I told Sydney and Jacques this review would be written for them because I'd like to help them compete and stand out, deservedly so, but also because I just wanted to. I rarely write reviews, but it's also rare that I enjoy living in a place as much as I have with The Central. It's an easy choice if they're under your...

Pros: Great location (close to bus stop, food, movie theater, etc.), no longer uses Fetch, amazing on site management, in a safe-ish area, walls aren't thin, pet friendly, stays pretty warm during the winter, modern design, no floorboard heating, well maintained, fun activities run by management, generally quiet neighbors (see below) and big windows.

Cons: Big windows. It gets too hot in the summer to the point of being unlivable on any floor and is a tragedy waiting to happen. Even with portable AC units it is impossible to keep a single room cool due to the apartment design. If I cant keep my apartment cool in at least one room I'm going to move due to safety concerns. I've already mentioned this to management and I know they're working on something for next summer. Hopefully Thrive listens before someone gets heat stroke or a pet dies. Parking spaces are too small even for compact vehicles.There's some questionable design choices in the electrical work. We have a light switch that doesn't go to anything and during the summer the circuit breaker would trip even with us just having the TV on and an AC unit. There's no ceiling fan so air cant move and help keep the apartment cool during the summer. Moving into here is a nightmare. There's one cart that is shared between everyone that you may or may not be able to use to move your stuff in. There's parking in-front but its consistently got people in it who are definitely there for 30mins. If we could reserve the spaces in front it would be less of an issue but its shared between the apartment complex and 3 other stores. The only other street you can park a moving van on is 22nd and even that gets packed. Also there's someone on our floor who blasts radio and/or music during the day and night. Sound travels really well through the doors and even with the decent wall insulation a very noisy neighbor can still be a huge issue. I feel really bad for whoever lives...

ALIESHA IBRAHIM, wasn’t sure where to start!?

How about we start with Aliesha, “perfection, to say the least.”

From beginning to end. However I needed to be assisted, was patient, listened, made perfect suggestions! Understanding of what I needed, what I wanted. And wasn’t pushy! Beautiful units, prime time location!

Only further up and coming. Past/ current resident of the community for over 2 years now.

Other staff on the leasing side, Nick another leasing agent I had the pleasure of working with on Aliesha’s day off, couldn’t of followed up the next day any better. Beyond accommodating for both my mother and I in debate between a few other locations.

Nick for being perfect on your following up, assisting. Thank you.

ALIESHA, beyond thank you for you, your team. Y’all gave me a beyond amazing experience I unfortunately can not say for all the other tours I went on at other properties. Have already and will continue sharing your locations as well as your name to others I meet when looking for your next home.

And to any an all possibly reading my review!

You’re looking for your next home. Shared or bachelor/bachelorette Pad! Think ALIESHA IBRAHIM if you’re okay with working with only the Best of the Best! Get on the phone now and call Central. And you know who to ask for ALIESHA IBRAHIM!

And even better, I preferred the Central, but they have multiple other units. And she can as well show them to you as well! What not to love about that!

Can’t get ahold of ALIESHA IBRAHIM, ask for Nick! As well as amazing!

But you want get ahold of ALIESHA IBRAHIM! You say Success sent you! You’ll definitely be more than taken care...