Boardwalk Apartments — Local services in Gainesville

To me, an apartment has always been just an apartment. I have lived in many, in many different cities, and rented for longer than I care to admit (decades). But, for me, Boardwalk has become, and feels like, a home.

And it's because of the people that work here. Unlike many prior renting experiences, I have felt well treated throughout by the entire staff, and recognized as a person. For example, Jay, the manager, has always been professional and polite in regular interactions, but more so, too, particularly responded fairly and empathetically when I needed assistance, in regards to my aging bulldog getting beyond my ability to care well for him, and my interior incurring damage. That meant a lot to me.

Also, whenever I have needed anything, the maintenance team has responded professionally and quickly. Gary, Frank and Wade are qualified straight-shooters and genuine people. And, in the abundant time my son and I have enjoyed the great pool here, we have become friends, and I enjoy an uplifting camaraderie with them.

Inside, both Tess and Eric are pros. They have each gone the extra mile, time after time, responding to my endless lost and found inquiries, special requests to print documents, or whatever variable need the moment has called for. They too are qualified, and just as well cordial, putting up with my unsolicited commentaries as I regularly frequent the coffee bar. Did I say coffee, bar? Yes I did, get yourself a Keurig baby..that privilege to me, priceless. I must commend Eric here in this department; he has developed a broad sample of 10 or so coffee varietals and tea, and multiple creamer flavors to boot. Never fails as well, fully stocked by the end of each day, if not it seems by the end of the visit (pumpkin, the current hit, but always racked).

You know, we've all been there, where you have to "deal" with your community's office, and it all feels forced. Not here. Sure, when you rent issues will arise affecting your world; but it's the response that matters, completely more than the condition. This group is good people, who I know are here to work, and are good friends.

Awesome open space surrounds the pool, with probably I don't know say 100 or more feet tall trees lining the eastern perimeter for great nature, effect, and shade. Some interesting novel seating is by the pool, ranging from the fine cracker barrel style deep seated wooden chairs, to heavy and wide weeble wobble plastic poly whatever rockers that go easy on my hips and poolside buzz (from the hot sun of course, maybe the summer bees, who knows otherwise). The grill is perfect, industrial size, cleaned after each use.

My son loves the new playground, the sandpit, the astroturfed soccer field and net, and tries to get the basketball up to the rim on a smooth half-court. This area is right near the pool, so he picks which he wants first, and together it offers all that we need to not leave the place on any given day unless we want to.

Personally, I like the location relative to campus and downtown, and mostly in that it just feels more "coastal" Florida to me, with Bivens Arm across the street and Paynes Prairie a thought south, than say "southern georgia-ish", like many of the other places might north of here, encapsulated in all that concrete, congestion, and inconvenience of the concentrated crowd and construction consistent. To each his own, but I'm Pisces; to me water matters and I'd never heard of Sorgia until I moved here, although St.Augustine and The Gulf rings a bell.

I've been here over three years. I've had a single disagreement with a single neighbor (who moved on anyways), relative to hundreds of hellos and handshakes. I'd say of the twenty units in my building, ten or so seem too busy to be here or be seen (meant positively in this way, like hardly home) and of the other ten or so, all have been friendly, and three have become dear and close friends, who I trust in and count on.

I'm happy living here. I'd strongly recommend to any friend of mine looking for a place, that they would...

I give it two and a half because I've lived in a one star so believe it or not it can get worse. The place itself is not the nicest but hey you don't come into boardwalk to move for luxury. That being said, I moved into an "upgraded" two bedroom. One thing I find very sketchy and unaccommodating is not physically seeing your apartment before moving in. Its like buying a house but never going in it? They said this was company policy... um okay. So I went and found my unit the week before and to no surprise the unit was unlocked lollllll so you best believe I went in and looked around. When I actually moved in, I was disappointed with what they consider to be "upgraded". Upgraded to them means better "light fixtures and different color counter top and cabinets." Oh and my favorite of all upgraded appliances.......Well again to no surprise none of the rooms even have any lights in them(again, Lol). So don't know what light I upgraded, then my cabinets were still normal apartment cabinets and a "speckled" fake counter top. Realllly really upgraded haha. The appliances are to what I call below standard. I would hate to see what the nonupgraded ones are. The weekend I moved in, the office said they had so many people moving in but no one could came to walk the apartment with me. I had to be out of another apartment and wanted to move in so they let me get the keys and no none walked in with me to see condition of apartment or see what needed to be fixed. I filled out a sheet and submitted to them things that needed to be taken care of. The upgraded appliance they had as a dishwasher stunk so bad and did not work. I put this on the list along with a multitude of other less important items. It took a month to get me a new dishwasher. They came up with every excuse in the book to elongate the process. I was so close to buying one and sending the bill to them. I called every week, usually multiple times a week to get this taken care of. A new upgraded apartment I'm paying for should not have problems with new appliances. Finally got a new one and it was nothing special, honestly looked old still but I was the packaging.

Anyway, the rooms are huge which I really enjoyed and this is about all I enjoyed. My building had horrible flooding. Even if it just sprinkles, nope it would flood. I would have to take my shoes off coming home from work to walk to my apartment, which after a long 10 hour day at work I love walking to my upgraded apartment barefoot in water. My toilet ran all the time my whole year of living there. It was attempted to be fixed multiple times but no one could ever fix it. So I spent more money in water charges because of their horrible supplies. They like to bandaid everything they fix instead of biting the bullet and getting something new(the dishwasher was a rare occasion, according to the maintenance manager.) they will come back 10 times before actually doing something beneficial and long lasting.

I do, however adore one of the maintenance men, who would do anything and everything to the best of his ability and power to make sure I was happy. He honestly is the only person I cared for who worked here. The office staff is very fake feeling and THEY NEVER I MEAN NEVER ANSWER THE PHONES. I would call over and over and over and over until they would answer. They need to hire more trained people.

The pool is nice and was fun to have pool days at. The people in the community itself were really nice. Its almost more of a family community. From using the tennis court and pool often and walking my dog, I met a ton of people around the community. It was nice because a lot of the kids play around the place, which is no bother to me at all, I'm happy to see that a lot of kids still play outside.

A lot more happened throughout the year living here but this is scratching the surface. They could have a nice, successful complex if they took care of some major issues.

So the main problems are the staff, flooding, and quality of the apartment itself. Sorry, I like to...

Absolutely do not give this place the benefit of the doubt, trust the one star reviews you see, especially the ones about roaches. I moved in almost four months ago and I’ve been in a constant battle against roaches since they started showing up shortly after I moved in. I’ve had pest control come to my apartment more times than I can count; they’ve baited, sprayed the inside and outside, and it’s done nothing. If boardwalk replies to this review and says I haven’t ordered pest control like they say on the others, do not believe them. They keep their pest review requests on paper in a binder which, in my opinion, is probably very easy to lose when it comes to record keeping. I even bought my own traps and sprinkled boric acid in spots throughout my house, and I’m still seeing full grown, medium sized, and baby roaches in my apartment, not to mention MULTIPLE different types of roaches. I keep my house incredibly clean; I am constantly cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms and vacuuming to make sure there’s no food available for roaches to eat. This is not a me problem, this is not just a Florida problem, this is a property wide infestation. If you value cleanliness, I’m telling you, absolutely do not move here.

Edit: I just spoke with the property manager and told him everything I spoke about in this post; he was very short with me and would not give me a solid answer as to what would happen if I keep having pest issues when asked. No offer to move units, and no solution to this ongoing problem. The best he could do is have the owner of the pest control company they have employed call me, I’ll edit this review again after I’ve spoken to them. It’s very obvious that management has no plan to solve this disgusting issue and just wants to shut down whoever brings it up and keeps pressing.

Update: This is a week after my original review. The pest control owner came to my apartment and sprayed and baited EVERYWHERE. However, I have found yet another fully grown roach in my living room, which I have added a picture of. It wasn’t really moving which shows that the pesticide is working, but I am just so incredibly tired of seeing disease ridden pests in my home. In regards to the dishwasher, it was not completely removed; just vacuumed under. I will continue updating this review if I see more roaches, or if I stop seeing them for longer than a month. (Which has not happened yet.) Update: Just adding another...