Parque Kirkland — Local services in Kirkland

Just wanted to relay a very belated KUDOS message for the superb customer service that Alex has provided as the Parque Kirkland property manager.

From the very beginning, Alex answered all my questions and provided much needed guidance during the tour, application process and move- in. Alex’s presence at Parque Kirkland is a big reason the complex is a desirable and pleasurable place to live. The premises are very clean, modern & polished and updated frequently. ( I appreciated the addition of the push button ADA door openers.) Also, I appreciate how Alex works towards creating a fun community w/ fun social events.

While I’ve been living here, Alex continues to provide a high level of support with both my living & maintenance issues and questions that arise. She was a big help when my pet sitters needed assistance accessing my apartment while I was out of town. What a great stress reliever for me with her positive can-do attitude!

Above all, Alex effectively & efficiently addresses problems with professionalism & a smile.

Lastly, just a few suggestions. While I enjoy my apartment immensely and all the beautiful amenities, I believe The Parque Kirkland apartments would benefit with the following improvements :

O - TOP PRIORITY - figure out how to prevent & reduce the noise from upstairs neighbours from penetrating to the downstairs units. (From my 2nd floor unit, I can hear walking, running, jumping, and laughter/talking from my upstairs neighbours as they move throughout their 3rd floor unit…the sound transmission and vibration is especially pronounced in the bedrooms….and even as they walk down the 3rd floor hallway, Boom Boom Boom. ). It is quite jarring especially late at night or early in the morning.

(On a positive note, the sound insulation between adjacent units on the same floor is EXCELLENT!)

O. - TOP PRIORITY - Identify a fire escape emergency plan for each unit and also for pets, in case their owners are not home or out of town.

O - TOP PRIORITY - Identify an emergency plan in case a resident gets locked out of the building or out of one’s unit - especially during the weekend or in the evening.

O - Introduce the Security person on-duty to the residents so that we are familiar with him and the hours that he is available on the premises.

O - To increase the security factor, I would restrict access to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors to only residents and their guests. It feels unnerving to encounter non-residents sitting and/or having group meetings in these areas People who want to have coffee and meetings should only be allowed to enjoy the building on the 1st floor area.

O - Reduce the monthly rental fee for the storage lockers and parking fee by $150 per month - especially for residents who reside here longer than 1 year. $150.00 per month for a very small locker room is too high. Some apartments provide storage at no extra charge.

O - Replace the commercial property vacated by Bartell Drugs with another high end drugstore that provides compounding services as well as naturopathic supplements,...

Update: bump one star as I wasn't charged with any junk fees when I moved out, which was a rare experience.

This apartment building appears very modern and fancy with a pretty high score on Google maps, so I chose to rent a unit inside. Unfortunately, it has proven to be a mistake.

Poor soundproofing. This apartment building is cheaply built with very thin walls and ceilings. To compensate for this, some cheap layers of soundproofing materials are added between the walls. However, they barely work with low frequency noise. Consequently, whenever the neighbor above starts walking, it sounds like a rock band is working upstairs, and the noise can wake you up at any time at night such as 3am or 5am. Any unit below the top floor is likely in unlivable conditions. This issue is in such a bad shape that it's even mentioned in a couple of 5-star reviews. Besides thumping noise from upstairs, other noise such as humming sound from the neighbor next door using washing machine, or the neighbor downstairs shutting their doors, can also be annoying nuisances. Better pray your neighbors, especially the one above, follow regular schedules...

The leasing agent may lie to you about the building in order to lure you into signing a lease. In my case, the agent said the building was made of concrete, which turns out to be absolutely false. Unfortunately, no regulation exists, and they can lie with ZERO consequence. On the other hand, YOU need to take all the consequences after signing the lease. Just wonder why their lease breakage fee is THREE months of rent and their security deposit is also in FOUR FIGURES?

There are many things not working well in this building. The "smart" Latch keys to the doors frequently fail to work properly and in a few cases have caused loss of access to the apartment. The cheapest type of parking is stacked and uses a lift to move the cars, which stops working from time to time and could prevent you from getting access to your car. (A normal, reliable parking spot costs as much as $200/mo.) The "smart" tinted window is also a gimmick and often makes the room too dark, requiring manual intervention.

Maintenance requests, even those which can be completed within 5 minutes, can be put aside for weeks until you escalate them by calling the building manager.

The apartment rental market has backslided to such extent that even paying what is among the highest in the eastside area you are still getting low quality construction full of noise issues while without guaranteed access to your apartment and your car, and the main job of the leasing agent is to cheat you into signing a one-year lease and charge sky high lease breakage fee to prevent you...

This is an edit to my previous “5 star post” (my honest review and experience). Don’t be fooled by the good reviews here, the property manager will discretely incentivize tenants to make good reviews while they live there. Lots of people disagree but I think the keyless entry is good and has worked fine for me but the design of the building is poor, feels like a jail cell. Not sure how they can constitute the 1 bedroom as having a “room” but I guess that’s just apartments now in days..the maintenance request we put in only half got fulfilled some got canceled and some got half a++ed. I guess it depends on the difficulty of the task lol. I didn’t bother to follow through with it because we were only there for short term. From moving in to moving out you have to watch out for yourself and make sure you get what you’re getting so be careful. Property managers are good at responding but I’m not sure if they overpromise and can’t deliver or just have poor memory even when every communication is documented. When moving in we had to confirm multiple times our move in date and the unit we wanted because they were all over the place. We would agree on something one day then things would change. We barely lived there and paid over 90$ in gas or some utility monthly which is not covered so don’t be fooled by the low prices compared to complexes around. From the beginning we had planned to terminate the lease early and it was agreed that we would need to pay 3 months rent and lose security deposit (which in the lease you sign is actually different). When it actually came to the time we ended up having to pay 4 months rent but got back our security deposit. Not sure about the security deposit but we had to pay extra month because we were “late” to notify even though I verbally and through email confirmed we will only pay 3 months rent. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the property uses different departments to operate accounting, legal, ect… so if the property manager tells you one thing, that’s likely not the outcome you will get.

If you really want to live Kirkland, The location of the apartment decent and has a nice rooftop to enjoy, parking is safe and reasonably priced . Environment if friendly and welcoming. After all this I still think short term or long term it’s worth to live at parque because either way in today’s world, unfortunately, you still have to deal with the same kinds of management wherever you go. Just don’t get fooled. There’s always a friendly smile when moving in and mismanagement (good business)...