Brexx at Louisville — Local services in Louisville

TL;DR: Somewhat affordable and close to UofL, but plagued by unprofessional staff, unreliable gates and appliances, predatory lease practices, and constant noise from parties. I’m leaving as soon as my lease ends.

Review of The Retreat at Louisville

When I first came to The Retreat, I was very optimistic about the housing prices, the rooms they offered, and the convenient distance to UofL’s campus. Unfortunately, my experience over the past two+ years has been filled with so many disappointments that I’ll be leaving as soon as my lease ends.

Staff and Management By far, the biggest issue during my time here has been the staff and management. My car was improperly towed despite having the required parking sticker—staff simply failed to check. A maintenance person once walked in on me (without knocking) while I was changing in my own LOCKED room. I’ve had multiple rude encounters with upper management, received constant email spam about unimportant matters, yet lacked communication about genuinely important issues (did not even get an email about new roomates coming in). Additionally, the office often closes at random hours without warning, and there’s no reliable information online about their hours.

Over time, it becomes painfully clear that there’s a lack of empathy and a surprising unwillingness to put in effort from many frontline employees and virtually all of upper management. It’s also worth noting that many of the lease agreements are highly predatory, likely because they know they’re dealing with students and first-time renters. For example, they frequently pressure residents to renew leases eight or nine months before the new term even begins with threats of raising prices otherwise.

Technical and Maintenance Issues The second major problem is the technical unreliability throughout the property. The gates used to access the complex and individual homes are extremely unreliable, frequently breaking down in hot, cold, or wet weather. The walking enteyways will also frequently break or start not accepting valid entry keys. Inside the homes, appliances are equally problematic. In one of my past units, the 2nd floor washer flooded through the ceiling below, and I have never had a dish washer here that works, to the point that I hand wash all dishes now. The wifi is also a pain to work with, and adding any devices besides laptops or phones to it can quickly become a twenty+ minute ordeal. Recently, power outages or flickering electricity have also been occurring at least once a month.

Amenities and Office One of the main attracting features that The Retreat mentions is their Amenities. However, throughout my stay I have found many of them to be lacking. The coffee machine is rarely stocked with cups and flavoring, the tvs play fail complications on repeat, and the golf simulator is broken at least thirty percent of the time. On top of this the gym is poorly maintained. There are oftentimes multiple broken clips to attach necessary equipment, multiple missing handle handle attachments, and disorganized weights that are never put away. The rowing machine has never worked in all the time I have lived here, and the treadmills all cycle in and out of functionality.

Noise and Neighborhood Environment Finally, if you’re seeking a quiet, respectful living environment, this may not be the place for you. There are numerous fraternity and sorority houses that regularly host loud parties lasting well past 3 or 4 a.m., set off fireworks late into the night, and leave litter in surrounding yards. At one point, I even cut my foot—through a sock and shoe—on broken glass beer bottle that had been thrown into my own yard. It has even made me feel as if my own safety is compromised ever since a GUNSHOT went off multiple times only two houses down, with several police and ambulances coming in afterwards. After talking with other residents this was apparently not the first time this has happened, and many also complain about car break-ins and stolen...

First and foremost, the retreat maintenance staff is a five out of five stars, The only thing good about this place. KJ and Robert have Been here since I moved in and brought other people along the way and taught them the correct way to treat people and fix problems unlike the rest of the retreat staff and houses. I’ve lived here for over a year and a half and for probably 14 months of them at least one of the gates have been broken. Once they break, it takes multiple months for them to fix and then by that time, other one breaks. The Wi-Fi works for a couple months and then one storm rolls through and shut the whole Wi-Fi down And can take multiple weeks For it to get fixed. For college students doing homework and working from home, Internet is a huge deal and the complex You are in doesn’t have the Wi-Fi. It really makes it hard for you to do anything. Once the Wi-Fi breaks The retreat will send an email To give you hope, but if you call them, they offer no support and tell you to call the Internet provider. The trash valet service is good but at night after you put your trash bags out for the next day, Raccoons or other animals will come Break open the bags and eat stuff out of your trash and if you’re trash bag is broken, the valet service will not pick it up and You will be charged for loose trash. The “amenities” They offer are decent if they are open but at least half of the summer days, you can’t even use the pool because there is either No lifeguard or it is closed. You can only use the basketball court and golf simulator in retreat hours and the retreat gym is subpar at the most. They do have a pool table that can be use 24 hours a day, which is nice if you are having a couple friends to hang out with. There Are numerous accounts of large parties and massive amount of people coming in their retreat that are not living here After hours tailgating behind people which can cause police to show up and violence to erupt. Just a couple months ago, I saw a victim of a shooting Being helped out of a car And put in the back of an ambulance After a party of non-retreat residence broke out Right in front of my house. To say the least, this place is not worth it by any means And don’t even get me started on the actual management. They offer no help or reimbursement And scam college kids After you sign that contract. Whatever you do, Do not live here...

This horrible story all begins on August 16, 2024, the day I moved into The Retreat.

The first time I walked into my house, which is a 5 person unit, the entire place was trashed. I’m talking kitchen, downstairs, living room. Everything besides the bedrooms was filthy. Apparently, since the previous residents had renewed their lease, they never bothered to clean or check on the house before we moved in.

The kitchen was filled with dirty pots and pans stacked everywhere. There was literally no space for any of the kitchen supplies my roommates and I had brought. The fridge hadn’t been cleaned out either. It had food that looked like it had been molding for months. The floor was covered in beer bottles and random trash. So after cleaning the entire kitchen just to make it livable, I was finally able to start moving in, only to find even more trash stuffed in every upstairs storage closet.

But honestly, the trash isn’t even the worst part. That can be cleaned. The real problem is the structure and setup of this place.

Every time I want to have someone over, whether it’s friends or family, I have to go out and physically open the gate for them. Why? Because the gate system is completely broken. If you don’t have a gate clicker, the only way in is to use the call box at the main gate, which is supposed to call the resident and let them buzz you in. But it never works. Not once. Ever.

And even once you’re inside, the problems keep piling up. This place is horribly designed. Their marketing team does an amazing job making The Retreat look nice with cool photos and a flashy pool area. Don’t let that fool you. The Wi-Fi constantly goes out for days. People throw massive parties that spill into the streets. The houses are falling apart because everything is built with cheap materials.

Thankfully, my lease is almost up. So I’ll finally be escaping this disaster of a place One last thing I know your management is going to respond to this email and act like you care and say some crap about how you strive of excellence. Please don’t waste...