Garden Court Towers — Local services in Philadelphia

Save your money and don't live here. I moved in here with my roommate because the apartment itself is very nice and spacious, but it was completely not worth the amount of inconveniences I've had to endure, and the lack of understanding from management. This will be a long review considering I've lived here for almost a year, and have had to put up with a lot. -Before moving in, we asked the leasing agent if the construction that was going in the building interfered with the electricity or water at any point and we were assured that it would not. This was not true, the electricity and the water get shut off periodically because of things like leaks that may happen in the lobby, etc. Over the summer, the electricity was shut off for hours due to the renovations on the elevator, and the AC unit was shut off. We were stuck waiting it out with no AC. When we moved in we were not told that the construction of the elevators was going to be happening any time soon. To be fair, they probably didn't know either until they were both unusable. We moved in in January, and we were not able to actually use the regular elevators until about May-June. We had to use the freight elevator, that was located in the trash room, so you would constantly see the mice and roaches. The elevator's light would often go out, so the elevator operators had to use their flashlights to make sure they knew what floor they were on. All this in a "luxury" apartment building. Although the apartments are nice, it's really not worth the overall price. They advertise this building as a luxury apartment, but barely offer any amenities to justify the price. The only amenity currently up and running is the gym, but most of the machines have been taken out recently, and it's currently under heavy renovation. My roommate and I are extremely clean, and we've found roaches and mice in our apartment on different occasions. They did us the favor of calling the exterminator who told us that the mice had chewed through the drywall behind our oven. The dog park that they offer in the back is riddled with construction materials like rusted screws and razors (which I have pictures of), and also dead mouse carcasses. They really jack up the price to pay for the amenities that most of the tenants currently living there will not have the benefit of experiencing. Having a pet here is expensive as they require a 500$ NONREFUNDABLE fee, and 50$ a month thereafter. I understand that many apartment buildings are now requiring this fee, but this is probably the highest fee for a pet I've seen in Philadelphia yet. The construction is actually terrible. I get woken up daily at around 7 am by the sounds of heavy construction right outside my window. If it's not the sounds of construction materials getting thrown around, it's the sound of the construction workers screaming, or their music that they play. Within the building, the construction has died down a lot- but in the beginning the construction was right outside your door, and the construction dust was everywhere. The parking at this place is 100$ a month, but it's hard finding parking as it is. There is construction going on in the parking garage as well, so the tenants are only offered half of the parking lot. You are given a key fob to open the garage doors, but it's honestly useless seeing as the garage doors are sometimes open for the whole day and night. I wouldn't be surprised if people who don't even live here park overnight, and just take their car out in the morning. Not to mention the amount of construction dust will have the outside and inside of your car a mess. I don't think this building is worth it. It's in a good area-especially if you work near Center city, or go to school, but there are definitely better options and you'll be a...

Some positives and some negatives.

Lived here from April 2022 until October 2023. Overall, nice building and great location in west Philly; only a block to the public transportation where I would pick up the bus to work or a couple blocks over to the trolley into Center City so that was very helpful! The apartments themselves are nicely renovated and very modern. I also appreciated the amenities like the gym and community room in the lobby which had a piano and little book shelf for reading. It was also nice to have a big laundry room with multiple machines to do bigger loads of laundry if needed since the machines in the units are small. Also nice to have a front desk concierge to watch the lobby and pick up packages.

However, there was a time for about 5 or so months where both passenger elevators were down for repairs (the first one was already down when I moved in, and then they took the other one down as well) so we had to use the freight elevator (or stairs if you chose) to go up and down. There was no effort from management to compensate us in any way for this inconvenience, we were just told “it’s part of construction”. They also removed a lot of the treadmills from the gym to, I believe, be moved to the new building they’re constructing so that wasn’t very convenient either. Also due to the construction, they blocked off half of 47th street with blockades for the construction vehicles so you weren’t able to park your car there if you used street parking. And parking in Philly is hard enough as it is. They have a parking garage for $100/mo but as others have mentioned that is limited space as well due to construction, dusty cars, and issues with the doors being open for extended periods of time.

When I moved out of my two bedroom unit into my studio, since the studio was a new build (I think they took a bigger apartment and made it into smaller ones), it did not have a mailbox in the mail area so I had to continue sending my mail to the mailbox for my old unit which worked out because it stayed empty, but what if someone ended up leasing it? Then I wouldn’t have any mailbox. I brought this up to management repeatedly but they claimed this was not a violation of my lease as I was provided a mailbox key for the old mailbox. I got my new mailbox key just as I was getting ready to move out of course (ended my lease early due to moving elsewhere).

And be cautioned; if you move out early they’ll charge you two months rent and say “that’s the policy”. I moved out in October and my original lease went until December so they still got those two months even though I didn’t live there. They know how to work things to their benefit. And the lease criteria are nuts! They want you to make at least 3x the rent. If you don’t you can have someone co-sign, but then they have to make 5x the rent. Not very conducive to someone on a single income trying to find...

Beware of 5 star reviews. Management offers a chance to win rewards for 5 star reviews from residents. Positives include a nice lobby and high ceiling units that are quiet due to the concrete and plaster construction. Unfortunately all of the units are have been redone or are scheduled to be renovated within a year. These renovations look nice but some of them crowd the old floor plan by adding bedrooms. All renovated units are way overpriced and you still have to deal with a building that has overlooked basic facilities such as constant water heating issues, no heat or a/c in hallways, elevators that break for months at a time, and filthy stairwells/parking garage. Laundry is a nightmare and lower units deal with slow drains and plumbing issues due to old pipes. Despite these problems I’ve enjoyed my past three years here, the garden outside is really nice to have( unfortunately there are plans for new apartments to be built there) and most of the staff are very nice. The final straw for me was an increase in rent of 8 percent during the pandemic seemed like a insult to people who have always paid on time and are suffering economically from the shutdown. Violent crime and theft in the neighborhood is common and increasing. Once the noise and dust settles from the extensive construction in the building this could be a wonderful place to live. Unfortunately we are not willing to deal with that and high rent increases every year.

Update in response to Domonique... To show transparency I will explain the 8% increase... Current lease is 1575.00 including parking plus 100.00 for water/gas/laundry for a total of 1675.00. New lease is 1695.00 with water/gas/laundry included and 100$ for parking for a total of 1795.00. 120$ increase= 7.2% of 1675.00 I stand corrected 7.2 instead of 8%

This may not seem like a lot of money to you, but a increase of rent by any percentage in these times is a burden. I understand you want to change the layout of these nice apartments to cram in more rooms and charge as much as you can but is this a honest time to do it? My lease renewal is only for 2 months due to the renovations. I would have been nice to have more notice especially now. The building manager and leasing office both know and agree that our rent is increasing 120$ and offer no solutions on units to move into once we have to vacate for the renovations. A renovated studio will cost more than our 1 bedroom does now. I don't mind moving to make way for your progress but it is dishonest to say you are only...