City Place Montrose — Local services in Houston

Beware! I lived in building 4 at city place and was constantly disappointed by the short comings of this luxury apartment complex. To start off, the front office is incredibly difficult to get ahold of over the phone or in person. My base rent was $1595 for 1x1 at the start of my lease which doesn’t include the community fees. My renewal offer was nearly 10% more per month. After living there for a year I decided not to stay because of the issues this complex has. Any packages from Amazon you have to either meet the person at the door or have it delivered to an Amazon locker off property. This is because the property doesn’t have a package system. Packages are left on a table in the front lobby of building 4 (unstaffed) or in the mail room. I’ve had multiple packages opened and gone through (see photos). I’m not the only one, if you look at other reviews this problem is also noted. See pictures for how I would receive some of my packages. I called the office to see what they were doing to rectify this issue and their suggestion was to get packages shipped elsewhere. For a luxury apartment complex this seemed ridiculous. In addition to the poor mail situation, sanitation is a huge problem. I have had to walk around vomit, urine, and other bodily fluids from dogs and humans to get to my apartment (see photos). The elevator had a rug that was continuously urinated on by a dog and smell. The rug would stay in the elevator for days until it was hosed off and put back. Often, the bodily fluids would go unnoticed for weeks and would either eventually be absorbed into the hallway concrete or dry out. The lack of sanitation continues into the garage. Trashcans are constantly overflowing (see photo). You have to be careful where you park in the garage due to the run off from pipes. Sometimes they leaked and created stains on my trucks paint. If you look at the picture with the cars, in the back you can see the staining runoff that leaks on vehicles. The garage smells like trash. This is because the trash room in the garage is poorly maintained. I’ve seen times where the bin that collects trash from the building is missing so the trash from the garbage chutes crashes to the ground leading to leakage and odors. The grossest part of CityPlace is the turf dog park in between buildings. In the Texas heat, the urine that evaporates off that turf is very overwhelming. My biggest issue with this complex was the elevator. In my one year of living there, the elevator was out of service / inaccessible at least 4 times, for at least a week each time. While the complex would communicate the repairs, this was a constant issue. I had a medical emergency and the fire department had issues accessing my floor due to this issue. They were even considering carrying me with sheets down the stairs. I brought this information to management and they were more concerned about the timeline of the elevator repair and would pawn me off to the next manager. Their “thoughts and prayers” left me as a resident feeling not listened to. I eventually had to reach out to the regional manager who could only pacify my situation. Lastly, I scheduled my final walkthrough with a member of their staff for move out at 3PM, I confirmed the time and where I would be meeting the staff member. However, by 3:30 they didn’t show nor picked up the office phone. I eventually had to go to the front office and speak to a manager and complete the walkthrough. At the walkthrough the manager told me that “everything looks fine to me, but I’m no carpet expert”. I asked him to clarify what if anything was wrong with the carpet. He told me again “nothing to me but the carpet people will decide”. I wasn’t sure how to take that the manager was okay with the carpet but kept emphasizing the “carpet people”. Come to my final account statement and I was charged a $45 fee for “rotary brushing”. I cut my losses and moved. While the location is great, CityPlace is not worth the money nor stress. Maintence was decent and timely. They are the only reason I am...

SECOND EDIT: Moved rating down to 1-star. For several months now, I have debated moving my rating down on City Place Apartments especially given the friendliness and professionalism demonstrated by the entire staff and management team - Luz, Jason, Michael, Bianca, Negib, etc. - they are amazing individuals and every interaction with them has been a pleasure. Therefore, this low rating has nothing to do with the folks managing the property but has everything to do with the lack of sustainability initiatives around the complex.

It appears that the opportunity to take sustainability seriously rests on the Owner of the property. I have shared several “quick-hit” ideas that are easy to implement yet none have been implemented. Turn the AC temperature up / down during non-office hours to save on energy costs and environmental impacts Add a recycling bin next to each trash can across the property and in all buildings Have valet trash pick-up (~$40/month) also pick-up recycling from the front door step Add smart lighting across the facility Turn off fans in hallway during cooler months

EDIT: Moved rating down to 4-stars. Key factors for this decision are provided below. Several communication attempts were made to highlight these concerns to the new management team but responses have been extremely delayed let alone properly addressing these issues in a timely manner. Lack of proper recycling facilities / sustainability efforts in the community General upkeep of facilities especially fitness equipment, TVs, and public WiFi

Pros: Awesome location, super friendly and responsive staff, and amazing aesthetics. The place is well maintained and clean. Rent is well priced and competitive for the floor plans and layouts. Literally everything (restaurants, bars, groceries, parks, banks, dentist, etc.) is walking distance. Love living here!

Cons: Given the prime location, it is busy outside during the day which is a tradeoff to comprehend before making the decision to rent here. As such, would fully support the management team reinforcing the buildings’ exterior units with extra...

My experience here went from great to miserable as time went on. The lobby is very nice, but the apartments are overpriced for what you get even when you factor in location. Other apartments in the area simply offer a better deal. The maintenance team here was great but was disappointed by the slow service overall from the front desk and general layout of the apartment complex. I had an absolutely horrible move out experience. I was told that I had taken care of everything I needed to complete at the end of my stay but winded up being charged an extra month of electricity because the unit remained vacant. Technically, this is on the provider, but when I asked about utilities at the front desk, I was told my job is done. It was very hard to receive feedback and reach the front desk. I was not compensated after reaching out to management for the vacant unit. I am still unsure about the status of my deposit. Apartments were overpriced for square footage and the area lost major grocery stores like Whole foods as time went on.

As for the apartment complex: There is no air conditioning in the hallways on the upper floors which became unbearable in the summer. The halls are not very clean and elevators/parking garage heat up in the summer. Amenities were spread out in specific buildings, and the general layout was inconvenient to navigate. Lots of technical issues like front gate not working, alarms in the middle of the night, random water pump issues a few times a year. The gym was nice along with the rooftop view but it seems like more money went into maintaining the lobby than the hallways which residents must endure everyday. overall, there are far better apartments for a cheaper price even in nicer locations in Houston. I normally don't write reviews but after issues with the move out process, I figured I'd highlight...