The Granary — Local services in Philadelphia

Update from my previous review: I still live at the Granary and I am on my 4th lease. Do not let the longevity of my stay deceive you, as I have only continued to remain here because of the convenience of the building's location relative to school/work for both myself and my fiancé. And also, the experience was mostly positive until after my second lease.

Long story short; The building management has had this residence on a downward spiral for a long time, taking the residents with them. It is such a shame because the apartment units are comfortable and beautiful on the inside, but the building community itself is severely dysfunctional. Ultimately, management is terrible, and this has made my living experience borderline intolerable at this point.

Will you find a more beautiful building in center city? Maybe not. Will you find a more incompetent leasing/management staff in center city? Definitely not. Don't get me wrong, the maintenance, cleaning, and concierge staff all do great work around this building. Unfortunately, they are under the rule of the unhelpful and unavailable manager, Princess, who rarely comes to work, yet for some reason, seems to have all of the authority to rule this place with a nonsensical iron fist. Every time you need an answer from upper management, their response is "email princess". The problem is that Princess does not ever respond, and is never available inside the building.

Just the other day I received a leasing violation from management for working in an unlocked common space that had signs around the room requesting that I wear a mask. I was wearing a mask, but apparently this room was closed for resident use (w/o an explanation), and instead of having a rational conversation about it, the almighty Princess and her minions decided that it would be a better course of action to threaten me with future fines and or eviction by way of a lease violation. This is not necessarily the most advisable way to treat a long-term resident in good standing.

Nevertheless, I digress back to the topic of upper management... The building has yet to conclude construction on the roof, which has been out of commission for at least 2.5 years. And part of the reason why I have continued to re-sign leases with the Granary is that I was promised (on two occasions) that the roof would be ready by the upcoming summer. Lies! To add insult to injury, instead of focusing their attention on making the roof available to residents, they decided to start another construction project on the beautiful lobby, making half of the lobby unavailable to residents. The project was supposed to take 75 days (which residents were not happy about because we did not want construction workers coming in and out of the building during a pandemic). The project is still being worked on 90+ days later, and they aren't even finished with the demo process. The elevators are shotty (to say the least), the system to move in and out of the building is disorganized (causing inconvenience to many residents on many occasions), and the parking garage staff was fired about 6 months ago, immediately AFTER they finished a project installing lifts in the garage (which were supposed to create more parking spaces for residents, but are now nonfunctional because nobody is there to operate them.).

The decisions that Management continues to make are so irresponsible, and have deprived us residents of their amenities and rights that we pay for as part of our leases. It's such a shame that such a beautiful building is managed by such fools. I hope to see a day where the ownership group decides to salvage this beautiful property by implementing a new...

Today is the worst day when I born in the world!!! The new manager whose name is Mark, he asked the company to tow my car at the Free Parking Place, I was not in Philadelphia, came back yesterday and found that my car was missing. I called the manager, and he was lying to me. The place where I was parking is Not free parking place. I live here longer than he works at The Granary! I know where is the Free parking lot and where is the Charging parking lot! He invited me to come to his office at 9:40 am today. When I was there, he ended his conversion by himself at 9:45 am and called the police to Expel me from his office, he threatens me that he will cancel my contact now and expel me to my apartment!!!!! He towed my car without any notification such as Email!! He is very rude!!! He makes me feel that the world is very dark and I am very disappointed to The Granary!!! I loved to live here; I loved the place I love all my neighbors. Since he was there, the maintenance becomes bad!! I still remembered that before he works here, we always had clean up windows notification and changed the filter in the restroom notification and all service was excellent! This is my first time to talk to the police in my life!!!! I did not do anything wrong!! He did not respect female!!! I am Chinese, and he is very race!!! He did the wrong thing, and he covered his fault and called the police!!!! Why does he can be the manager in The Granary? He is the worst person that I ever met in The Granary! I had much great memory with all staff who worked there, except him! I need him to apologize to me and pay me back for the towing fee! I think before I sue him, it is better to talk to you about the thing. I am very very disappointed; this is my home! This guy makes me feel that the place where I live is a hell!!!! He did not respect me, and I cannot forget his action and his bad actions in...

Some of you may be looking for your first home here, and so I offer this advice: If you encounter a landlord that is unwilling to provide a "specimen" copy of the Residential Lease Agreement for you to evaluate before signing, I encourage you to seek a home elsewhere. (A "specimen" copy is a template). Here's why:

On April 15th 2021, I visited The Granary while considering renting there. I later bought in neighboring Cityview. Minutes after touring, I asked for a copy of the Residential Lease to review before applying, and was politely and directly rejected. I was told by Granary management that a copy of the lease is only available once I apply and pay an application fee, and they refused to provide a sample, or even a template, in advance. They're allowed to do this, but I stopped considering this for a home because of it. It indicated to me that they are taking advantage of their prospective tenants' naiveté.

Lastly - I think you'll find your experience at a condominium (Tivoli, Cityview, 2601, the Philadelphian) far better than at a 100% rental building (The Granary, Park Towne, etc.).

A condominium's property manager is eventually accountable to the occupants of the building, who elect its volunteer, unpaid Board of Directors. That Board then hires the property manager that residents interact with. A condominium's residents have influence over how the property manager performs his or her job.

An investor-owned property, like this one, has property managers that are accountable only to the investors, who likely live far away from the property.

I recommend working with a real estate agent to find a rental in one of the nearby condominiums. The landlord will end up paying both realtors' fees, and you'll end up with a landlord who is more responsive and accountable to you. If you stick to the buildings I mentioned above, you'll even have the same or...