309 Green — Local services in Champaign

309 Green is not worth it anymore. With the cheapest floor plan, 4 bed 2 bath, now costing $950+ and monthly utilities no longer including water or sewage, it now costs almost $1000 a month to live in an apartment with 3 other people and not even get your own bathroom. I'm only leaving 2 stars and not 1 star because I was able to live here at a much cheaper rate compared to what is being advertised now. Here are some pros and cons of the building.

Pros: Location. If you are a UIUC student, this building is very close to the main quad and convenient for getting to class. No issues with pests. I have never seen more than gnats in my apartment. While I keep my place fairly clean, this may not be true for everyone but has been my own personal experience. Large rooms. I think the bedrooms are decently sized and fits everything I need while still having floor space to walk on. Secure package room. Never had a problem with stolen packages.

And that's about all I can vouch for at this place.

Cons: Elevators. Most people know how infamous the 309 elevators are. There are only 2 of them for a 24 story building. One of them somehow breaks down at least once a month. In March one of the elevators was broken for 3 or more weeks. A few months ago one of them again was broken for over 2 weeks. Countless times I've had to take the service elevator to the 8th floor and walk multiple flights up the stairs and I'll still get to my apartment before the one working elevator even reaches the ground floor. The elevators on the upper residential levels also do not show which floor the elevator is currently on, so you just have to guess if it's worth it to wait for the elevator or just take the stairs down. Drunk people trash the elevators on the weekends and it never gets clean until the weekday. I have stepped into an elevator multiple times and seen puke on the ground. Outdated amenities. Our A/C control panel was old and broken when we arrived at the apartment. Our TV in the living room was extremely small and didn't even work properly upon arrival. For a "luxury" high-rise supposedly offering top notch appliances, the TV in the living room is somehow still small and not a flatscreen. Cable is no longer offered in the apartments. Our dryer can take up to three hours to get clothes dry. The ice machine in the fridge breaks constantly. You get the point. Everything is outdated. Loud A/C unit and paper-thin walls. All the bedrooms in the apartment are connected by one large pipe that runs through each bedroom. This pipe along with the paper-thin walls allows me to hear my roommates even when they just shuffle around in their rooms. Whenever the air gets turned on, it is extremely loud and sounds like an industrial fan. Quality of life issues. I wrote as a pro that the bedrooms were large, and that's about all I liked about it. The rooms do not come with any dressers, only a bed and desk. The closets are extremely small and I have to swap my summer and winter clothes out each fall and spring because they cannot fit everything. You can luck out and get the one bedroom in the apartment that actually gets sunlight because 2 of its walls are all glass, but if you are one of the 3 other people stuck in the other rooms, you have a small square as a window that barely gets any sunlight because of the way the building curves in on itself. If you also get one of the lower floor units, you are guaranteed to have an awful balcony view of either Seven07 or HERE right next door. Many balconies are also not private, you share it with the apartment next door. Bad staff members. Most of the staff members here are just students who don't know what they're talking about. I have been told wrong information many times by inexperienced staff. You can really only believe what the managers tell you. I don't blame the students, they are probably underpaid and/or overworked. Management needs to train their...

I do not recommend living at 309 Green. Over this year, I've dealt with many inconveniences. For example, the first day I moved in after all the rooms had supposedly been "cleaned" and ready for move in, my dad and I stepped foot in my apartment and he refused to accept it the way it was. There was dirt, dust, and hair all over the floors, drawers and cabinets... and not to mention cigarette burns in the cloth couch I had initially which was then swapped for a leather one. They had to get a maintenance crew and reclean it for a few hours. Also, when it starts getting warmer, the fitness center is always extremely hot. I don't think they turned the AC on upon move in for 3-4 weeks even throughout my complains to the front desk who always assured me they were working on it. Also, the elevators are either broken or slow. During move in week, you have no choice but to take the stairs because an elevator can take up to 15 minutes. Next, the light bulbs in the rooms burn out every 2-3 weeks which is annoying to have to call to get them replaced so often. Also, the outdoor amenities are very poor. The hot tub never opened last fall and the pool was always freezing. This spring, 309 decided to start exterior renovations a little before finals week which meant loud drilling outside your balcony from 8-5 am which made it impossible to study. During this time, our balconies got locked so we could not enjoy the nice weather during our last weeks at 309. Also, there is a $250 subleasing fee if someone who lives here decides to let someone else live here for the summer. One of my roommates had done everything right and got a money order for $250 giving it to the staff back in November, anticipating she would be subleasing, and towards the end of the semester the staff had informed her they never received her money and suggested she pay them again after it was THEIR mistake for losing the money. Anyone who lives in the 309 apartments will have a similar experience to me and the other negative reviews on this page (besides the good reviews in which the people received $10 for writing). As for renovations, maybe they should shift their focus on issues their residents care about such as the fixing the hot tub or adding another elevator since everyone here pays good money for the amenities. Over all, I do not recommend this place and will definitely be living across the street at the Here apartments for the same price and far...

Apartments were in terrible condition upon move in, and despite repeated efforts to convince mananagement to improve the situation, the apartment remained as was -- scratched floors, worn furniture and cabinetry, general filth. If these guys claim to take 2 weeks the beginning of August to "clean" when there is gap in leasing, then you'd expect at least a facade of cleanliness -- which was absent.

Maintenance was persistently rude -- tried to blame every issue on residents. They also walk in WAY too often -- quarterly room checks, what the heck?!

Pool is closed the majority of the year, hard to claim this as an amentity when it's hardly usable. Hot tub was NEVER opened save for one week end of the year.

BIGGEST THING - A very sentimentally important item, a chef's knife for my girlfriend, was to be delivered to my apartment. They persistently claimed to never have gotten it, and returned it to sender. Thing is the warehouse assured me that they never got the item returned. This mishap is due in no small part to the TERRIBLE package delivering system. Nothing is logged, you never get notified (they appeared to try sending out text "notifications" by the end of the year, but this was incredibly inconsistent), and to be honest, the front office staff very well could have stolen it.

Do...