Atelier Apartments — Local services in Los Angeles

THE WORST! DO NOT MOVE HERE! Do not be fooled by the photos and amenities. Do not be fooled by the Google reviews as most are FAKE since Google reviews are easy to fake. Just look at Yelp for more accuracy. There's a reason why half this building is vacant.

I lived in many places across the country and in LA and Atelier is by far the WORST! Dangerous neighborhood getting worse, HORRIBLE management, moldy apartments, violent homeless people break in the building all the time, and broken amenities constantly.

Pre-Covid DTLA was getting better, and during this time Atelier was owned by Greystar, and it was amazing. Since COVID, DTLA has gotten HORRIBLE and is now by far the most dangerous neighborhood in all of LA. Random violent attacks, kidnappings, stabbings, and robberies all the time. Across the street two models went missing from their apartment before being found dead. You can't even walk to the Whole Foods or CVS across the street without being accosted, let alone walk around the neighborhood. There's human feces and dog feces all over the streets. You hear constant shootings, car races, and explosions (yes EXPLOSIONS).

The Starbucks next door has turned into a homeless shelter. The Starbucks cashier is constantly TASING violent homeless people or chasing them out with BASEBALL BATS. Cops never come in DTLA. On multiple occasions I found homeless people smoking in the Atelier lobby, attacking residents, and even SLEEPING IN THE LOBBY!

Atelier was bought by Brookfield right after COVID, which is a shady, greedy Wall St firm. Brookfield cut expenses to make a profit, which included changing the amazing Greystar staff, management, and maintenance to cheap, underpaid, incompetent people. It took 50+ emails for me to sign a lease, and in over 40 of them my name was misspelled "Dough" by Cathy Ruiz. She even messed up and sent me a lease for a unit 3x the price. Good luck getting approved by the way, you need to make 3x to 6x the rental price, provide bank statements, paystubs, tax returns and more. It's more difficult than buying a house.

When I moved in I mentioned I have to live in a smoke free environment due to medical condition, and I was looking for 24/7 concierge for safety, given the dangerous neighborhood. Daniel Kim said no problem, despite him inappropriately having pepper spray and a taser sitting on his desk. Red flag.

Upon move-in there was a HORRIBLE smell. Turns out its SEVERE mold, and who knows, it could be the unit where the two maintenance workers died and were found days later. Very creepy.

ITS A SMOKERS PARADISE! I found over 50 cigarette butts all over the amenity center. I wake up and find cigarette butts and marijuana joints on my own balcony. The building smell is HORRIBLE! They put cheap plastic air fresheners to save money, despite everyone complaining. Neighbors blast music and party all night and are extremely shady.

Forget about enjoying the amenities - NONE WORK! Hot tub and pool are always broke. The elevators NEVER work, and take 15-20 minutes to go downstairs, causing Ubers to cancel. You will never get an uber regardless, as the area is so dangerous Ubers refuse to go there. Residents HOG the business center. The AC in the business center has been broke for months and its a sauna. The pool tables broke, TVs do not work, coffee machine was broke for months and recently removed permanently, gym equipment damaged and missing, movie theater does not work at all, and pool chairs ripped and broke. Rooftop tiles are broken and unsafe causing residents to trip.

They advertise 24/7 concierge, and before being bought out they would have two employees working. To save 50% on staff expenses now there's only one ever concierge. They go missing for hours during their "break". They return with a line of angry people, food couriers, and residents out the door AND THEN YELL AT THEM!

The leasing agents Cathy Ruiz, Daniel Kim, and Nicolette Krall are always missing, just like the "concierge", so forget about asking them for help.

Do yourself a favor and DO NOT MOVE TO...

I chose to live here because the interior finishes are to my liking, but that's just about the only thing that's "nice" about this building. I gave entirely too much credit to the team working here. You will hear things like "we value you" and "we'll take care of you", only as long as you praise them for their sub-par service. The second you express a concern, they noticeably give you an attitude when you encounter them, start to get "busy" in the office and take excessively long to get back to your emails and calls, and I've had a couple of my packages just mysteriously go missing. When they do respond, they thank you for letting them know and that you should contact them should you have additional questions - notice how this doesn't address anything and blatantly evades all responsibility, especially actionable results. Noise complaints seem to vanish into thin air. Most of the team lives here and they will all tell you they've never heard anything from their neighbors and that the community overall is very quiet - this is a blatant lie. You will hear your neighbors from all directions (as you do in every apartment), but god forbid you call it in, you're officially on their list. I've lived in dtla since 2008 in several different apartments, so I know at what noise level it needs to be addressed - they've failed on multiple accounts to rectify this. I called the leasing agent, Will Guevara, 4 times over 3 weeks regarding a transfer, and he told me each time that he'll get back to me when he's not so busy, but he never did. I had to go downstairs and speak with the new general manager, Keith, to get a response. I requested a transfer if they didn't have any other options to help me and they said I'd need to pay the full $1k transfer fee otherwise stay and deal with the noise. I've had to resort to leaving my apartment most days to work at the tables outside or at a cafe. There's also construction that recently started in the retail space downstairs. You will be disturbed all day with what sounds like bowling balls being thrown at the walls because the noise travels up the beams in the building. Many residents have complained about this and management has sent one email after the fact letting us know there will be "slight noise occasionally during business hours". In fact, the noise happens all day every single day even after business hours. The indoor amenities are by reservation only (covid regulations), and when I called to let them know about a group that had barged in with blaring music during our reservation, the resident services manager, Anasha Grady, took her sweet time to email me back and accused me of lying and that I was making her uncomfortable. Really not sure why anyone would lie about that, but as I said, once you complain about anything here, they take it very personally and are not willing to be professional and help you moving forward. All of the specifics aside, the service here is just not good, simply put. The team (especially leasing) is a group of friends who defend each other and don't prioritize their responsibilities to the residents and don't take accountability for anything. I'm sure they'd be glad to hear that I will not be renewing my lease here, and I wouldn't be surprised if they kept my deposit when I've moved out - I wouldn't put that level of pettiness past them. There are so many new apartments in dtla offering better concessions, better floor plans, and great/honest/professional service - highly suggest passing on Atelier Apartments and going...

If I could give this building zero stars I would. Move in at your own risk. I have been moved out for a few months but wanted to leave my honest feedback - I had compiled these over the year I lived there...

Gaslit me into thinking my washing machine was working and I was using it wrong (it was in fact not working and only allowing us to wash with hot water). I was told by Daniel Kim "The technicians said that everything is working properly and want to go over step by step instructions on how to use the washing machine." -- They never even checked that the machine was working, my partner had to end up fixing the machine.

Garage door was broken for 6 months - homeless people have come in, they never give updates about it being fixed... then was fixed in May. Only to broken again, the day after the street was closed off bc there was a gun man on the run lol

No one ever at the front desk / always one person working and when they take their break, no one there to cover for them so delivery people just get in the elevator unable to go to a floor and end up going to whatever floor they can which was extremely dangerous for a woman going into her apartment.

Front desk picks and chooses what texts to answer - when we first moved in with the old management they would answer no matter what time.

They say dogs aren't allowed on the sky deck, but everyone does it.

Pee pad: no one cleans up after themselves even after the front desk said they're actively monitoring (even though when I complained about this, they asked me to take a picture so the building could fine them - although there are cameras everywhere)

Can't invest in a fly catcher at the dog run and there is constantly flies because no matter how many warnings no one picks up their dog poop - everyone actually brings their dog through the business lounge to avoid the flies.

Noise carried poorly - I lived on the 7th floor and you can hear and feel the gym 2 floors below, especially when they drop weights. Spin instructor loved to teach outside and bring a massive speaker once a week.

Sounds like someone was scratching every time they put their blinds down either below or above me.

Hot water was off for 6 nights, I had to follow up several times about having our rent reduced for lack of hot water.

Gave us a refund for the hot water being off but didn't give it to us until we moved out even though they preached the hot water money and our June rent were two separate transactions. But then held our refund as apart of collateral for potential damages.

Does repairs without prior notification; turned off the water without letting anyone know, after I had to inquire that my hot water wasn't working.

Windows were never cleaned while we lived here (for an entire year)

Door battery broke and was locked out of apartment because maintenance didn't arrive until 9 and I was late for work/my dog was locked inside.

Kept throwing out our motorcycle lock when we kept it in our parking spot. Even after the front desk made us a laminated sign NOT to throw it out. Never compensated us after throwing out the first one and we needed to replace it.

Things were fine the first three months, shout out Angelo, Vince and Jane.

All this to say, don't live there. This is not a luxury apartment building no matter how much they say that or how much they...