One City — Local services in Philadelphia

Disclaimer: Using a different name for privacy reasons.

Terrible apartment for serious health and financial reasons:

Short-term and long-term damage to sleep health.

Outside noise levels is the exact same as inside — there’s no filter. Staff logic I was told was “it’s a city, it’s going to be loud” but not only was that a poor way to say “welcome” to a resident’s first night that was not only sleepless but also nerve-stunning but I also lived in Chicago for 6 years and apartments full of cockroaches had better windows than these. The single-pane windows and massive gaps make it so you feel like you’re sleeping on the streets (i.e., you hear not just every ambulance and every motorcycle gang booming music till 4 am, but also every conversation for someone walking by).

Exposure to cold winters and pollution.

Again, the lack of separation between indoors and outdoor from the windows meant that pollution from the city air leaks in easy and that, unless you plastic seal your windows, cold air leaks in constantly. Just putting your hand a foot away from the window gave a constant cold surge of air.

Over 45 days since my lease ended and I still didn’t receive my security deposit.

I gave them the correct address. Before I left, they manually changed it in front of me, but I couldn’t see the computer screen to what; they just agreed it had to be changed. Then I saw my move out statement had the wrong address. I asked several times if they used the correct address (i.e., the one I sent) and was told the “address listed is correct”. It was not. You can test that by just copying what they had and pasting it into Google Maps and it clearly does not lead to the same location. Even without the test, I have the emails that shows what I sent them and what they wrote down. Recently, they said they’re “[following] up with corporate and our accounting team” but it’s been a week with no follow up. Since this is a clear behavioral and managerial pattern of poor service, it was simply not worth me waiting to put this review out. A timely return of a security deposit is just that - timely.

Deception.

Overall, I would go as far as to say that staff and management are well aware of their failures and try to cover it up. The earliest example was before I even lived there: back when I first toured. The tour guide purposefully left the windows open during the tour but never closed them. Why? Perhaps I would not notice exactly what I said in points (1) and (2) — i.e., there’s no difference between inside and outside. In turn, I could only find out retrospectively the tactics they use to attract residents, which is essentially lying (see point (3) for another example).

Overall, these are real harms committed by this apartment across residents. In no way, should they be left unaddressed.

At the very least, their advertising of “luxury” is misleading as in what world does stripping away basic human needs of sleep, a clean environment, and failing to timely return a security deposit count as “luxury”?

P.S. I didn’t even get into the two major fires that happened on the rooftop in the year I was there.

Thanks for reading to the end — happy...

Edit: Regarding the previous incident. About 1 week later, management did write me an email saying the apartment was renovated prior to move in and the abestos clause was only legally necessary.

Now that things have blown let me give a more balanced opinion on the apartment. Here are some lesser known tidbits. The amenities are nice and there is a $400 dollar move in fee to cover them. You can get a parking spot at the parkway across the convention center for $180 a month. This is a steal in center city and one of the main reason I still choose One City over similarly priced apartments in the area. It’s really quiet if you don’t live in a street facing unit. I’ve never heard a single one of my neighbors. The vent fans in the bathroom don’t actually do anything, I would recommend getting a dehumidifier if you want to prevent mildew in your bathroom. The combined washer dryer is awful! Mainly the drying function. It shrinks my clothes like I’ve never seen before and yet it’s still barely dry. I’ve learned to just use it as a washer only and air dry my clothes. The trashrooms, at least in my floor are really well cleaned. Sometimes it smells cleaner than the hallway. I’ve lived here for 6 months and only experienced two fire drills. One of which was a legit fire so no worries about monthly midnight alarms. Transportation is amazing here. I wouldn’t say it’s the best place to walk around at night but during the day there is a close bus/train line to pretty much anywhere in Philly.

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One City is a nice apartment but maintenance and management is hard to reach and unresponsive, even regarding very pressing requests or questions. I can’t in good conscience recommend it to anyone.

When my roof started leaking pretty severely this weekend I called maintenance and received no response until the next morning. I stayed up until 3am wiping the floors with a towel and wringing water into the toilet to avoid serious flooding and damage to my apartment.

Two days later while I was away at work, maintenance came into my unit and cut two holes in my ceiling without any notification to me. I had no clue this was happening. Now I’m a pretty chill person and honestly would not even have cared all that much had it not been for very clear instruction on my lease about not disturbing the ceiling due to abestos. I called maintenance and management to no response and just spent the night in my apartment anyway. The next morning I called multiple times and emailed management about the safety of my unit and have received no response yet again after nearly a...

Do you wake up every day wishing your life was more chaotic? Are you nostalgic for the days of college dorms, full of weird rules and annoying restrictions? Well, look no further--ONE CITY is here to make all your dreams come true!

Are you craving the ultimate micromanagement experience, where rules change at the drop of a hat, thanks to "management discretion"? If you love being caught off guard by constantly shifting policies, you're going to love it here!

Want to experience the delightful embarrassment of being told you can't have friends over, by the front desk, no less? Or maybe you're into reminiscing about that time the property manager threatened to call the police while you were having a social gathering. Good times, right?

How about paying a premium $450 for "amenities" that you can never actually enjoy because of, you guessed it, "management discretion"? It's a true test of patience and self-restraint.

And if you're practicing law, this is the place for you! Test your legal knowledge as you navigate through the endless maze of "management discretion" policies. It's like a real-life case study!

So, come on down and join us, the long-suffering residents of ONE CITY, owned by ALTERRA PROPERTY GRP LLC. All of this joy for only $1600+/month, $450 amenity fee, a $75/application fee, and deposit. It's a bargain, really!

As you tour the property, be sure to admire the AC units locked inside clear cages because nothing says "luxury living" like that! Don't forget to check out how incredibly relaced and at ease the other residents look. You can practically feel the tension in the air! And the rooftop? Oh, it has a gorgeous city view that will definitely make up for everything else.

The real perks, of course, will only reveal themselves when you actually deal with the the property.

Sure, maintenance turnover, communication, and security have improved under the new management. But honestly, the micromanagement really steals the show. Who doesn't want to feel like a child, even when they're paying top dollar for...