Jasper Towers — Local services in Denver

Update: 6/29/2021

I have lived in this complex for a bit over 3 years. Over the past year I have seen a rather dramatic drop off in service levels. I know the pandemic was hard on everyone and I wanted to make sure I was taking that into account.

I initially was planning on moving out this past February as The Grand attempted to price gouge me (charging me above market rate because of my reluctance to move during a pandemic). However, my wife and I decided the risks of moving during the pandemic (we were unvaccinated at the time) would be an unacceptable risk so we opted to stay for an additional year.

This turned out to be a horrible call. Since resigning we have had the following issues pop up. All of which local management has said they would love to speak with me about these issues but continually avoids actually scheduling a time to discuss it.

Since I have given local management numerous chances to discuss this with me I feel it necessary to share this story in hopes of helping keep others from making the same mistake.

Glass falling from top floors I live on a lower floor with a large balcony a month ago we had a large piece of glass fall from one of the top floors and crash onto my balcony damaging my outdoor table and had my wife or I been at the table it is likely we would have been seriously injured or worse. The falling glass also broke two large panes of glass on my balcony resulting in glass all over the balcony. They did send a maintenance worker to clean up the glass. However, they simply swept up the glass that had already fallen and made no attempt to secure the broken windows (glass shards continue to fall on my balcony over a month later). Only response from manager is that they would love to speak with me in person about this but seem to be never available.

No deliveries allowed at the property. This is something to be aware of if you are moving in. Management does not allow deliveries (other than USPS). Except thought the use of a 3rd party vendor (Fetch) at a cost of $21/month (in addition to any delivery charges you are already paying to have the product delivered). You can't opt out of this you are forced into the service. Fetch does not appear to be a bad service, it just doesn't work if you run an office where you need to receive work packages or anything with shipping insurance (Fetch makes you sign an agreement that they are not responsible for any damage to items after they receive it, thus leaving the package uninsured for the last mile of the journey). I never signed anything agreeing to this, so in hopes I will sign the agreement they have begun intercepting my packages, holding them in an undisclosed location and simply telling me to sign up for fetch to get my packages. I have attempted to schedule time to speak to local management. However, again, they always have an excuse as to why we can't meet.

Random fees As with many "luxury" apartments the Grand loves their fees. Normally they are very upfront about it (in that they do list them out in the lease). However, I have recently noted that I have been getting a recurring $15 charge. Upon asking about the charge they advised it was due to my lack of renters insurance. This was incorrect as I have always had insurance. Initially, I took this as a simple mistake and since they assured me it was resolved I let it go. Now for this month, I have been charged $15 yet again.

In addition, the neighborhood has gone downhill a bit. My wife is rather nervous walking in the area after dark. Also, on numerous occasions, I have noticed what appears to be drug transactions. I only mention this as when coupled with the recent in attention from local management is a recipe for disaster. It is only a matter of time before they find a way into the building and start causing mischief (or worse) and I fear management will turn a blind eye or even try to excuse...

The Grand has a lot of potential and I firmly believe they're doing everything they can to make it live up to that in the foreseeable future!

The apartments are beautifully designed with unobstructed views of the mountains as well as the downtown skyline.

My absolutely favorite part was the location, The Grand is located in LoDo, where you can easily walk to Union Station (5 minute walk), as well as various good quality restaurants/shops to eat/shop at. They also have a private gate/entry to the light-rail which is convenient if you're wanting to save gas, plan on drinking out, or just trying to be environmental friendly.

I noted there are many complaints about the 3rd-party package delivery in the reviews, however, we never had any issues in receiving our packages/parcels. We quickly realized that the reason they use this 3rd-party company is because there are too many units to where it is difficult for the leasing office to store packages for that many residents.

The management/concierge staff were always super friendly and accommodating to the best of their abilities (shout out to Daniel, Elliot, D'Abraham, Dwayne and Grant for always being super helpful).

Towards the end of our time there we did begin noticing longer lag times in receiving answers to our communication. However, we understand that was due to everything else going on in the community and management having to address prioritized inquiries. From having several conversations with the staff, I could clearly tell that they meant well, unfortunately, they were just overwhelmed with the events going on.

Another thing I noted in the reviews were complaints about the elevators. It sounds like I was very fortunate to never get stuck in one. What I did note is that during peak times (e.g. weekdays around 8-9am and 5-6pm, Saturdays/Sundays around 11am) the elevator took longer than usual. However, I think this was just due to high traffic. Although, I will say staff was good about communicating if there was an elevator down. Further, I don't feel like it ever took over a day to get the issue resolved.

Unfortunately, the main reason I'm giving them a 4-star review is because we moved in to The Grand from Austin, Texas in November of 2021 spending around $6k in moving costs. Prior to moving in, we read the reviews and were aware of the concerns with the infrastructure of the building, however, we took the risk in moving in after being reassured that we would only be temporarily displaced during the construction phase (where a hotel would be provided by the ownership, and we wouldn't be charged rent for that time). However, come January 2022, we were notified that we would have to move out permanently in Spring of 2022, ending our lease about 6-7 months early. We were mostly upset because we loved our apartment and the location. But we understand that management was just relaying information provided by the ownership. Unfortunately, the ownership did not offer to help cover any of our moving costs despite them breaching our contract, or taking into consideration our temporary displacement communication mentioned above.

I also can't say that the pool was ever open while we lived here due to maintenance, but we only lived here in the winter which is not a time of the year in which I'd like to be at the pool anyways.

Needless to say, I hope that when our current lease ends, we'll be able to move back, as my partner and I truly love the community, staff, and location. In the event that this were to happen, I'll gladly update my review to reflect any changes in...

TLDR: Renamed from "The Grand" to "Jasper Towers" due to flooding issues, glass window panels falling out (I don't think anybody died but not sure), and having to throw out all their tenants for repairs. Staff was friendly but didn't honor agreements, poor construction quality, and plenty of other issues. I'd never consider living there since I wouldn't trust management to have remediated mold or other safety concerns given their dishonesty and cutting corners.

My girlfriend originally signed an "intent to lease" to move into the first building (the southern building) in January 2018, but they fell behind schedule on construction and she ultimately had to find another place to live. They had a money back guarantee since it was a new construction and honored that, refunding her her money.

Next, I looked at moving downtown and signed a similar "intent to lease" to move into the second building (the northern building) in September 2018. I was verbally told there was a similar money back guarantee. As this date moved closer, I looked at the reviews and toured the apartment one last time to see if it would work.

So how did it go? Well, the view from the apartment was absolutely stunning (it was on an upper floor). Unfortunately, the rest wasn't so great... I took a look at the reviews and was rather concerned regarding some of the recent reviews with regards to safety and maintenance. As for the on-site visit, the general vibe I got was that there wasn't the same attention to detail and quality architecture/design/construction I saw in other apartment complexes in the same area. The community spaces felt awkwardly laid out, making them less usable. There also wasn't a ton of community space and I felt they had a lot more potential that they didn't really tap into. I saw what I felt were short-cuts in the construction quality. For example, a 2-bedroom apartment that had no network jacks in any of the bedrooms - just one face plate in the living room. Hope you don't want a home office, or a telephone jack in your bedroom/office, or high-speed wired internet for a TV in your bedroom for HD streaming video. I've never toured a "luxury apartment" or even a cheap apartment for that matter that pinched pennies like that. Made me wonder... what else were they skimping on that I didn't see?

And so in the end, I decided not to move in. They did not honor the money back guarantee. That's fine - I'm only out $570 (application fee, etc.). I told them in email that I wouldn't hold them to refunding it - still, I felt it was the right thing to refund it and they didn't. Oh well, life goes on :)

RESPONSE TO "RESPONSE FROM OWNER": Very happy to hear there have been improvements to safety and security, I believe this will pay dividends in tenant satisfaction :) As for the floor network jacks for data connections, I cannot speak to every apartment or floor plan, but for the Cube Libre (the 06 stack), a Project Engineer with Saunders (the construction company) confirmed my assessment that they did not install network jacks in the bedrooms. He suggested "free running the cable" along the wall of the living room, under the bedroom door, and along the bedroom wall, which I felt wouldn't look too great ;) I was tempted to reply suggesting they didn't need to run electrical outlets in the bedroom either since tenants could just free run extension cords, but I didn't see what good would come out of a reply like that, other than a little laughing...