Lake Shore Plaza — Local services in Chicago

This was our first home when we moved to Chicago 2 years ago. It was great living in Streeterville, as this allowed us to live close to the beach, Navy Pier, shops and restaurants in the area as well as Michigan Ave.

The door staff: Mr. Derrick and Mr. Leroy are fantastic and personable. I thank them for their kindness and their clear communication.

The management team communicated clearly and we're friendly. When there was an issue, it got resolved and we were kept in the loop. Thank you for that.

Our unit was quiet for the most part. Sometimes could hear the neighbor building something or drop something heavy upstairs, but not enough to interfere with our unit.

Having a covered garage to park in was awesome. Was kept clean and secured.

A few suggestions to Management to help out the current and future renters

-Allow more than one cable service: RCN is the worst. So many outages occurred while I was a resident there. This is not good, especially for those tenants that must work from home and rely on the Internet service. At least allow other ISPs to be used, such as XFinity and/or AT&T Fiber.

-To add to the point above, I would also recommend an option to install the cable modem in the living room and not in the front closet. Luckily I work in the tech field and had the capability to run Ethernet cable from the closet to the living room. Some people may need to have the cable modem in the living room not just for aesthetic purposes, but for functionality of their devices.

-The mail room needs more staff. Most days the delivery room guy would be on point with giving out the correct packages, sometimes not. We used to get notifications stating our package has been delivered from him but that hasn't happened in a while. One person manning a package room for an entire high-rise doesn't make sense for efficiency.

-The window AC units in the building need to be updated. Yes, while the AC unit may push out cool air, it fails to cool the entire unit. It's baffling that the hallway outside of the unit would be degrees cooler than the interior of the unit. Toward the end of our lease, my wife and I had to run 3 different fans (1 in the living room and 2 in the bedroom). Being told by one of the maintenance techs to "put books and towels on top of the vent in the bedroom" is a shame. Why ruin my books just to cool down the apartment?

-The smell of nicotine/weed coming through the vents. This is more of a tenant thing but it would be nice for apartment management to be more proactive to determine who is smoking in the building as there are kids and elderly people that live in the building.

Overall, if you love living in the city and need an affordable place to live in a mostly safe area, Lake Shore Plaza is it. If they can just allow the ability to choose an Internet provider other than RCN, update the units with better AC units, and get the weed/cigarette stench under control, this place would be more than an exceptional...

I have lived in this building for some time. Overall, it is patently obvious that I had made a colossal mistake by having entered into a one-year lease with its parent company, namely The Habitat Company. For starters, some of the doormen at this place lack common courtesy; they do not greet guests or residents. Others have allowed visitors to go past the front desk without notifying residents or having these persons sign in; this presents a security risk.

Most importantly, the managers of this property are extremely incompetent. Cases in point: they have not responded to any of my complaints in a timely fashion and handed me my one-bedroom apartment unit in very poor condition --without having bothered to hire someone to clean it or fix things that were, or were not, broken by previous residents (example: leaky windows, which will cause you to spend a lot on heating).

There's also heavy construction nearby, which will last for at least another year. The construction activity in question gets very loud throughout the day and the construction workers at the adjacent worksite regularly start their work very early --well before 8 a.m.

Also, it should be noted that the elevators in this building are always dysfunctional. I am, in no, way exaggerating. There have been times when no elevators were working and I had to climb dozens of steps to get to my destination. Such episodes haven't been rare occurrences. When the elevators do work, it's extremely rare that all of them are in service. This translates to a lot of hours wasted waiting for an elevator over the course of a year.

I should add that these elevators sometimes reek of weed (marijuana) and possibly other illegal substances.

The only positive about this place is that it is below market price. However, in my opinion and those of others, the sacrifices referenced above are not worth the savings in this case.

Rent at your own risk.

You'll hear others mention the amenities. They are a joke. The fitness room they have contains a handful of treadmills and not much for weights. Also, it closes early. This explains why I have had to join a nearby gym.

The pool is, understandably, located outdoor and runs seasonally, for roughly half of the summer mind you. In terms of depth, it's shallow. It's also often crowded.

For a hundred dollars more or so, one can rent from the nearby AXIS apartments or other similar places, which I hear have a much more professional staff.

Save yourself the...

I've been living here for about 7 months now and in all reality its been a perfectly fine place to live. For the price I don't think you can beat the location and amenities.

The Good: In my opinion, this is the best bang for the buck in Streeterville. As a single dude working downtown I don't need a whole lot and thus didn't want to pay for a whole lot. Apartments are pretty well maintained and maintenance has responded to issues within 24 hours of notification. No issues with billing, utilities, etc. Building management seems quick to alert tenants to potential outages in utilities when necessary. Door staff is friendly and accommodating. Plenty of laundry in the basement assuming you don't try to do it on saturday/sunday like everyone else in the building.

The Bad: Building as a whole feels a bit dated, but this is a nitpick on my part(and they seem to be slowly modernizing portions of the building). the 1BR units have an odd layout that seems to cut down on available light from the windows; depending on your situation I would recommend checking out either a 2BR or Convertible as well if you are in the market for a 1BR.

The Weird: if you plan on getting RCN, theres a good chance the cable line for them runs into your coat closet due to Comcast getting priority over the coaxial lines to the living areas. I currently have my cable modem and router next to my shoes powered by an extension cord, however you could likely remedy this with a call to the building and/or RCN.

Summary: If you are new to the city and want to live downtown for a year or so this is a great place to start. Assuming they don't crank my rent up too much I will likely be here for another year beyond my...