Alcott Apartments — Local services in Boston

I’ll start with the positives! The building is STUNNING! The views are amazing, the amenities are very pretty, and the building has a fresh/new feel. Communication is frequent. When issues arise, management often addresses them in a timely and informative manner.

Unfortunately, there have been a number of issues since we’ve moved in, all of which are sufficiently documented. These include:

• 6/16/2022 – 6/20/2022 – Elevator Down • 6/28/22 – AC Broken • 7/10 – 7/13/2022 – Elevator Down • 8/3/2022 – 8/4/2022- Elevator Down • 9/10/2022 – Elevator Down • 9/14/22 – Car Break-Ins in Garage • 10/3/22 – Elevator Down • 10/12/22 – Elevators Down • 10/31/2022 – 11/1/2022 – Acs Broken • 12/21/2022 – Elevator Down • 4/4/2023 – Elevator down • 5/2/2023 – Fire Alarm Going Off • 5/4/2023 – Meter Upgrade; shut down A/C & Heat, water and internet • 5/18/2023 – Meter Upgrade; shut down A/C & Heat, water and internet • 5/27/2023 – Elevator & Pool Closed • 5/31/2023 – Elevator Down • 6/15/2023 – Meter Upgrade; shut down A/C & Heat, water and internet • 6/9/2023 – Fire Alarm Going Off • 6/14/2023 – Elevator Down • June/July 2023 – Building Swaying – Reports across various floors of building moving/swaying • June/July 2023 – AC not working in hallways • 7/6/2023 – Hot Water Not Working Across Many Floors • 8/1/2023 – Sprinkler Burst Impacting Many Floors and amenities • 9/11/2023 – Hot Water Issue / Not Working Across Many Floors • 9/11/2023 – 9/12/2023 – ACs Broken • 9/25/2023 – Water Shut down • 9/25 – 9/28/2023 – Elevator Down • 10/11/2023 – Full Shutdown of Wifi, Internet, Electricity, Hot Water and heat

Needless to say, these incidents impact daily life tremendously. An elevator issue would often add 5-15 minutes of wait time – that caused late arrival to work, appointments, etc. Many of which can result in personal financial impact.

The sprinkler burst mentioned impacted floors 3-10 and caused massive flooding on those floors, the destruction of property, and the temporary displacement of tenants.

There were also reports of the building swaying on higher floors.

Sadly, if I’m paying $150-$200 a day to live here, I want to feel safe that the building won’t sway/collapse, the sprinklers wont burst and ruin all my belongings and that I can safely get out of the building in a timely manner.

Overall, gorgeous building with exceptional views that simply don’t outweigh the practical / safety elements of day-to-day living, especially at this...

As one of the first residents to move into Alcott when it opened I think I can give an unbiased review since a lot of the 5 star reviews come from the building having asked residents to leave Google reviews early on.

Having lived here for almost three years I can say that the units, building staff, and rooftop deck are definitely great aspects of the building, which is where the second star comes from.

However, the cons of the building are higher impact than the pros. After three years, the elevator system in this building is still one of the worst I’ve ever experienced. You can count on at least one going down every month which just adds on to the often excessive wait times.

This is also not a building to live in if you use a car even occasionally. The parking garage attached to the building is managed by ProPark, one of the worst garage managers out there, who does not respond to any concerns about garage safety. This puts the burden on building management and Equity Residential to handle issues of resident safety in the garage. Even though Equity Residential is a national realty company with 2 billion in revenue, they will continually say that the garage is managed by a third party and there’s nothing they can do. This would be acceptable if the garage did not directly connect into supposedly resident only elevator vestibules that open up into the building lobby and that are consistently incorrectly used by the public whenever there’s an event at TD. This is not even mentioning a recent vehicle break in on P5 (a supposedly resident only parking level).

On top of these issues, you should fully expect at least a 5-10% increase in rent yearly. They will say that it’s “market rate” even when comparable communities in the area have equivalent if not better amenities and none of the issues stated above at a lower monthly rent.

Unfortunately, these issues don’t seem solvable because they’re a direct result of poor building design from the start. This is honestly the charitable view on the situation because if these are solvable issues then Equity and building management are just deciding to not solve them.

TLDR: your money is better spent at a...

I lived in Alcott Apartments in Boston for two years, always paying rent on time and maintaining a spotless tenant record. However, my experience took a drastic turn when it was time to move out. EQR decided to nickel and dime us over what was clearly normal wear and tear, charging us an excessive $250. They insisted that we return the apartment in the "exact" condition it was given to us, disregarding the inevitable small signs of living that accumulate over two years. EQR's unreasonable expectations included having the departing tenants fully fix any normal wear and tear, completely ignoring their responsibility to prepare the apartment for new residents. I've attached documentation for reference. Lastly, you'll see in photos where walls were marked due to mounting - those walls were meticulously plastered and sanded to ensure an easy fresh coat of paint for the new tenants. We were also told by some staff at Alcott that we did not need to paint the walls as it was a standard procedure as they prepare for the next tenants.

Furthermore, the process of rent renewal was an absolute debacle. They raised our rent from $3500 for a 600 square foot unit to over $3700. When we attempted to negotiate, we were consistently told that this was the market rate. Adding to our frustration, when we eventually put in our notice, they listed the apartment at over $4000, which unsurprisingly remained unrented until the price dropped to $3300 (and finally off the market).

During our stay, we also encountered issues that remained unresolved despite more than 8 months of continuous follow-up with various team members. This lack of accountability and inadequate issue resolution is simply unacceptable. Additionally, we recommended 2 people to live in Alcott and 2 others to live in their sister property, Avenir Apartments. It is an absolute disgrace how good residents are treated and unfairly charged at the end of their lease. I'm truly appalled by the business practices of EQR and cannot in good conscience recommend Alcott Apartments to anyone seeking a fair and responsive...