Crawford Block — Local services in Edmonton

This building has so many issues...

The water began running cold in the evening of November 30th, and hot water was not restored until the afternoon of December 3rd. I was not offered any form of compensation or an apology for the outage and I believe that the manner in which the situation was handled by Michelle and Nadejda (I belive that she goes by Nadia) was dismissive and unprofessional.

I attempted to reach Michelle sometime around 8PM on November 30th; she did not answer her phone, so I left a voicemail. I then sent her a text message on Sunday; I did not receive a response. On Monday, I called the Braden Equities office to speak with Nadia as I had still not heard back from Michelle. Nadia informed me that Michelle had lost her phone and that she could be reached at a different phone number. There was no communication sent out by Michelle or Braden Equities informing residents of Michelle's new contact number. Nadia sounded upset/annoyed that I had contacted her regarding the water issue. Nadia was quick to dismiss my concern about the lack of hot water in the building. She did not offer any form of compensation or an apology on behalf of Braden Equities. Nadia then proceeded to dispute my concern regarding the lack of communication from Braden Equities/Michelle. Many residents, including myself, were not informed of any ETA to resolve the lack of hot water in the building. There wasn't a memo sent out by Braden Equities/Michelle acknowledging that there was an issue. A simple memo placed under my door would have sufficed in this situation.

On another note, I had given notice to vacate by the end of December, as I was moving to a different area of the city. After giving notice to vacate, I was given a notice of entry by Michelle, the Resident Manager. This notice of entry states that Michelle could enter the unit from December 5th-28th between the hours of 9AM-8PM. This blatantly violated my rights as a tenant in Alberta. Entry notices are not allowed to cover multiple days. Each entry requires its own written notice. The residential tenancies act also states that the time frame given in the notice is supposed to be of reasonable duration. Do you find an 11 hour time frame reasonable? I don't. I had no problem with Michelle showing my unit to potential renters. All I was asking was for her to provide proper notice to enter. Blanket notices are not allowed.

After trying to speak with Michelle regarding this manner, she swore and yelled at me through the phone. She disclosed that she has "worked for Service Alberta" and that this was simply "not true." She also threatened to write 23 individual notices of entry for the month of December as she was "allowed to enter the suite at any time during the timeframe provided as she has given adequate notice."

The behavior from Michelle was malicious and unprofessional. Instead of providing notice of entry for each day that she had planned to show the unit, Michelle would rather inconvenience her tenants by providing notices that she has no plans to act on.

I ended up filing a complaint with Service Alberta after I moved out.

I also heard from 2 other tenants that the 4th floor and the adjacent building (the original Crawford Block) were being treated for bed bugs. Luckily, I never found any in my unit (2nd floor).

The building is also extremely noisy as there is a bar below. When I first moved in, I asked Mark (the original property manager) what the plans were for the commercial unit below the building. He told me that a retail store was being constructed. There was no mention of a bar/restaurant. Expect loud bass until 2 AM on most nights. The Holy Roller also enjoys hosting loud Sunday brunches with people singing gospel music. Don't expect to sleep in on the weekends. Michelle also likes to throw parties on the shared balconies.

There were also issues with other tenants in the building. Many of them smoke weed in their units and the smell pours into the hallways. Some have even got into fights in the hallways and the police have been...

I'm in my fifth year leasing at Crawford Annex. The first building management was iffy, but around Feb 2022 Hyphen took over. Since then they've properly dealt with problem tenants and also found better tenants. Noisy tenants (partying in the wee hours of the morning) and fire alarms now just don't happen and I get a quiet night's sleep. And I feel safe.

The rooftop patio is a gem. I didn't really appreciate it until I invited friends over and they loved it. It's a good space to chill or have friends over. It's big so it easily accommodates multiple people/groups. And the view is great.

Some fair warning: There is no car parking. That's fine by me because I do not own a car (although the Annex is in the CommunAuto carshare zone), and there is plenty of bike parking in the basement via a stairwell with bike gutters. Plus there's tons of stores, including grocery, within easy walking distance. And good bus service on Whyte Avenue. Outside noises do exist. Our City is still struggling to understand that garbage bins and business deliveries should not happen in the wee hours of the morning beside an apartment building - the City treats us like we are a commercial building. Also, pray the City brings in a better vehicle noise bylaw, as some self-centred drivers on Whyte Avenue do exist (although the pedestrian scrambles and lower speed have helped to reduce vehicle noise). I keep my window closed and run my air purifier to also create "white noise". The suites are warm in winter and warm/hot in summer. There is no air conditioning but I bought a cheap portable air conditioner and it cuts the edge off the heat so I can sleep (I can give you styrofoam to fit the sliding window opening with your air conditioner). The suites are small so you do not need a huge air conditioner.

I also host rooftop coffee visits (BYOC but I usually have treats) on Sundays to try to create better connection between tenants, and Hyphen has been supportive of my initiative. I run it in winter too because there is an elevator vestibule on the rooftop...

I’ve lived in this building since the end of August 2018 and it’s honestly been nothing short of great! I’ve rented places before that have homeless people living in the front entryways, every inch smelling like rank wet dog, and paper thin walls so you can hear EVERYTHING... so this is a 100% upgrade!

The building security is awesome- no one can get in without a key fob and no one can get onto your floor without the correctly programmed key fob.

The whole building is concrete so sometimes I forget that I even have neighbours because you can’t hear anything coming from any of the other suites- not even the pets or children!

There’s weekly cleaning that’s done every Sunday so the carpets and tiles are always routinely spotless, that way build up of dirt and smell doesn’t occur (very important in the slushy winters). I have never once smelled anything disturbing within the building. I do smell the wonderful scents of the food being made at the bar and restaurant below my unit whenever my windows are left open though!

I will admit that when I first moved in, there was a huge conundrum with extra rent being taken from my bank account because of a recent administration switch at the time, but it was resolved within a few months due to the persistence of the landlord. Another recent comeuppance was that the hot water shut off for about a week and counting, but that is also being dealt with.

Overall, this place is very clean, quiet (minus the sirens outside every now and then, and the wannabe racecar drivers at night in the warmer weather) and definitely worth living in. It’s the prime location for people who like to have amenities and things to do right...