Museum Tower — Local services in Charlotte

Moved in March 2020 and find it impossible to recommend living here. This building is 43 stories tall and two critical amenities fail constantly: currently we are down one elevator and the trash chute has been out of order for over a month… residents now have to bring their trash down with them in elevators that are more crowded and slower than ever! Anyone who’s lived here more than six months knows the TKE elevator repairmen on a first name basis bc of how often they are onsite and with the wait times in the lobby (but funnily enough management fires and replaces the concierge staffing agency about twice a year so don’t bother getting tight them)! In speaking to one of the technicians, he admitted to me that the “wrong elevators” were installed given the level of activity in the building (which makes no sense to me since 43 stories is a lot no matter whether commercial or residential). The elevators/trash chute failing compounds three other issues: 1) move-in and move-outs where an additional elevator is taken offline, 2) the Club amenity level at the top of the building is still being actively rented out for events on weekends even when critical infrastructure is down, and 3) too many people in here have dogs that can’t squeeze their bladder as long as the elevators demand when we’re down to one or two functional rides for the entire building. As a result, either entrance is surrounded by dog excrement that they’re cleaning it daily and still losing the battle against the smell.

Finally, we did have a major issue over the course of nine months where management refused to evict our neighbor that was using our shared balcony as a restroom for her 80lb dog. Ultimately, Animal Control was dispatched to the scene but management refused to cooperate with them when they arrived! We had to withhold rent AND initiate Meck County’s Tenant Landlord Dispute process to get them to treat the issue seriously.

PS. I almost forgot to mention that on our first renewal following the pandemic, management would not offer us a fair renewal rate. Same unit on a higher floor was renting for $1k less and they wouldn’t budge until we gave notice to vacate.

Reading back over this before I post, it’s hard to believe I’m reviewing a luxury apartment building and not a slum… but you can’t beat...

I moved to Charlotte at the beginning of the year and thought that living in the heart of Uptown would be a great way to learn about and navigate the city. Museum Tower seemed to fit that bill and also had the potential to be a real Class-A high-rise environment, but it just doesn’t live up to its potential.

PROS: • Fantastic location in the heart of Uptown. • Concrete construction means you don’t hear your upstairs neighbors (though you will hear the car-obsessed street racers). • Beautiful amenity deck on the roof.

CONS: • General communication from management was very lackluster. Several emails I sent required follow-ups to get answered and major disruptions to the building weren’t always proactively reported in advance. Too many examples to mention. • Some of the tenants/guests were questionable - I literally walked into the middle of a child custody dispute that required the police to be called. You’d hope the caliber of the residents would be better given the rents and atmosphere, but it wasn’t the only time police were called to the building while I lived there. • Street Noise - the bizarre street racing will not go unnoticed when you live there. Not the building’s fault but an unfortunate reality of the location. • Elevators - It’s simply inexcusable and negligent for the management team to allow any elevator in a high rise be down for the lengths that they were down in 2022. So many comments already mention them, but it was very real, completely maddening, and very disruptive to high-rise living. • Repairs - It took 7 follow-ups and nearly 2 months for my washing machine to be fixed (it was broken at move-in). A broken machine shouldn’t impact a rating, but the lack of communication and an inadequate response does.

Bottom Line: Museum Tower has a lot of great potential but it needs major improvements to be a Class A high-rise. A few of them aren’t in the control of ownership and management, but many...

Constant problems with elevators, and the building refuses to take any steps to permanently fix the issue. They reduced the hours the club level is open from always open and slapped a TON of restrictions on its use that didn't exist when I signed a lease here. You will NEVER be able to have more than 2 guests up at the pool, even if it's dead. The trash chute is also constantly a problem, as is the parking garage gate. Whenever anything breaks, it takes months typically for them to bother repairing it. The whole building just feels poorly maintained. Leasing seems to view the residents here as ATM's to squeeze money out of rather than as people who live here, and they throw around fines like candy. Do NOT move here. The only good thing, keeping the price of this place in mind, is the location. This place used to be so much more, but the current management and their policies have absolutely destroyed it.

Edit: In traditional willowbrook (lincoln properties) fashion, I think that whatever corporate drone that saw this review accidentally copied and pasted the wrong premade response below. I left 1 star, not five. That's been true for years now. Or maybe reading isn't your strong suite, I don't know, really. That pretty much sums this place up though, and the intelligence of the management here.

Edit the 2nd: The building was finally sold, after what I noticed to be an endless train of people moving out. It's now owned by Northwood Ravin. Maybe they'll restore this place to what it once was again. I'm holding my judgement till I've seen signs of real change here.

Edit the 3rd:

It did not indeed get any better, because they chose to keep the primary problem, the people in the leasing office, and change literally nothing. All the same restrictive policies, all the same problems. Literally nothing...