Cityscape Residences — Local services in Phoenix

DO NOT READ ANY REVIEWS PRIOR TO JANUARY 2024. THE ORIGINAL MANAGEMENT SOLD OUT TO MARK-TAYLOR AND THE NEW MANAGEMENT IS HORRENDOUS.

In December of 2023 we were told that the property was being sold to another landlord and that it would be a seamless transition. In fact, we were told that the management team we had at the time would continue to work for the apartment only for them to be fired within the first week of Mark-Taylor (referred to as MT) consuming the property.

The minute that MT took over this place it all went downhill. WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN?! The amenities are a joke. The pool and hot tub are constantly closed or the doors are locked, and when it's not closed the chemicals in the hot tub are near toxic. The gym hasn't been cleaned in weeks (if not months) which is evident by the lack of sanitizing wipes for the machines. They have four luxurious elevators, one that is reserved for maintenance and three for the residents, all of which are constantly rotating between being usable to completely broken. I've had days where I wait 10 minutes for an elevator. And if you tour here and think “wow, that elevator came fast!” it’s because they have at least one (if not all of them) parked on the first floor at all times. I was once locked in an elevator ON MY ANNIVERSARY for 2.5 hours and not offered compensation of any kind. A water bottle would have been nice :(

At least we have community, right? Wrong. We USED to have community events all the time. The previous management team worked hard to set up cool events. We haven’t had a community event since December. And no, I am not counting “New Managers Introduce Themselves on the 15th Floor for 10 Minutes” as a community event, MT. Want to let your friends come over? Using the Henri app you can let people in the door whenever you want! Oh, but they can't use the elevators half the time because their code isn't working or the elevators are broken.

Oh, that same Henri app has some other cool features I want to mention. First, we have a community board! Where you can request to post something and have it get rejected by management in 3-7 business days. Previous management trusted that the residents here wouldn’t post anything inappropriate. There used to be NO filter and no “pending approval” but with Mark-Taylor management there is newfound censorship. We had a person lose their wallet and they didn’t find it for several days because the resident who had found it was being blocked by this new filtering system.

The package room is hilarious. We were having theft issues so they put up some thin sheet wall and a flimsy door and called it "secured," but don't worry! You can download ANOTHER app just to open the door! Your key fob that you have to use in the elevators?? No, that'd be ridiculous. Instead I can unlock a plastic door from anywhere with the push of a button after waiting for an app to load for 15 seconds. Once you finally get into the room it’s just a closet filled to the brim with boxes you have to sort through. Where’s the safety exactly??

Flooding. Everyone’s worst nightmare. It flooded from floors 18 to 15 and they had to bring in a bunch of machines to try and dry it out and those machines leaked all over our floors, ironically. It’s okay though, they told us their plan is to just give it the “landlord special” and paint over all of it. Enjoy!

And at the core of it all, the management. I have thrown many unsubtle shots at Mark-Taylor and it is due to their recklessness and lack of care for their residents. We hardly have staff at the front desk these days and if they are working they’re working on sending passive aggressive emails about auditing us, losing paperwork, and increasing the amount of times per year they want to enter our apartments unannounced. The staff is incredibly unprofessional and rude when responding to community requests. Anytime you want to post something on the community wall they will be right there ready to decline it, gaslight you about it, and ignore your valid concerns.

Don’t move here, please. You'll...

Wow WOW WOW!! I GIVE THIS TRAGIC LANDFILL 5 BIG BIG STARS, for being the top Phoenix DUMP!!! I have heard over the years how this was the bougie, beautiful elite place in downtown Phoenix. My current lease is up for renewal, before signing a 3rd lease where I currently live, why not check out into moving into the heart of Dwtn. First red flags came when I tried just calling the contact number leaving the required contact me back information 3 times with no return call. Second RED FLAG parking try to find access to get in, in an underground sewage stinky garage. After finding a call box on which looked like a door to a trash room. I had to ring the phone 4 times, first 2 times disconnected, 3rd time hung up on, 4th time someone answered couldn’t understand a word I just said we are your 2pm tour appointment. Door buzzed elevator took us to 1st floor where we found a unstaffed reception desk and a sign to call a number on for assistance! Wait but I just told the static on the intercom in the garage that we were there 2pm!? Called the number on the desk it was answered by a girl that said ( I will be down at my earliest convenience!) Waited probably 8-10 min we were (APPROACHED) only word I can describe the greeting if you want to call it something. I still have no clue the name of this poor disturbed girl (she had 2 voice volumes LOAD AND LOADER) Never introduced herself or asked our names, probably why she also couldn’t find our requested tour information I had done on line. Specifically for 2pm. Talking to her was a real challenge she would ask a question, then 2 more as I was trying to answer the first. Finally I pulled out my phone to show her what units and the advertised price points I was interested in. She seem to work better with visual communication. I was courteous what took so long to meet us after calling from the garage and the first floor Dawson and why when calling to ask questions prior to the visit no call was answered or returned, the office was a ghost town when we were there. We were informed that the prices on line were going to be increase over $500-$600 and that we could lease today even though the units ( some wouldn’t be ready for 2 months)! Finally we were shown their interesting version of penthouses. Prices between $3000-$5000 per month. Every unit had a very undesirable smell. None of them were professionally cleaned. Windows were dirty and I will guarantee you the square footage is way off we are showing a unit that was considered a penthouse 800 ft.² on each floor when it wasn’t even possible to be equal let along 800 each. The girl that was showing us the apartments kept asking about high-end, and very worth every and I told her there’s just no comparison. I didn’t know a nicer way to put the fact that I literally felt like I was being showing ghetto apartments in downtown Phoenix. I couldn’t understand when I was there how anybody ever thought this was a high-end facility until prior to writing this, I read the comments, people that live there on your prior management I guess which I would believe that has everything to do with the poor quality at this place is become now I’ve seen it happen another buildings. Finally, I asked to see the amenities what looked online to be a beautiful pool setting to watch a sunset or sunrise with a green sludge of a pool that we were told they were waiting to have shocked I couldn’t believe I was looking at somewhere that was leasing 1200 square-foot dumps for $5000 a month and they can’t even be on top of the amenities keeping them clean and sanitary and such a simple task. I’ve just keeping the pool water clean. The gym was not bad. I think that was the only thing that may be passed. As far as acceptable. Last we asked you to add the amenities available to the residence at the hotel below cities game the girl possibly name Bridget from an email. If not, I apologize told us we could go to the hotel ourselves and then she was too busy. She just didn’t have time to accommodate us. OMG trust me don’t waste their precious...

My wife and I lived at CityScape Residences for over 4 years and had nothing but positive things to say for most our time there. Towards the end, a new management company called Greystar bought up the earlier management company and changed our opinion. Not everyone pays much attention to the management when looking for an apartment, but I urge you to do your research. The management company can have an impact on your quality of life. Google Greystar in Phoenix and you’ll find an incredibly low rated organization. Sift through the comments and you’ll find countless angry reviews. Negative comment after negative comment, mostly surrounding lease end which may not be a heavy consideration when looking at apartments, but it’s inevitably faced. The individual properties have their share of negative reviews as well although many, like CityScape, are still enjoying the high ratings they earned from earlier management. Greystar is large, impersonal, and they bring about much process. They are also growing rapidly, mostly through the acquisition of other management companies. Most apartments around CityScape are now also managed by Greystar which is eliminating price competition. The biggest factor that caused us to leave was Greystar’s pricing. We lived in many different apartments, in multiple states, for a dozen years, and never saw a year-over-year increase as large as the one on our last lease offer – over $200 more per month was the lowest of various term options. We never had a late payment, never had a complaint, and assumed we were good tenants. We were angry when we saw Greystar’s renewal offer. We could have managed their increase. In fact, we’re paying more now, but we left on principal. Obviously, Greystar has a right to charge what they want, but increasing rents 8, 10, or 12% just coming out of COVID seemed shameful to us. Aside from that, the business sense seemed questionable. What are the associated costs of losing good tenants, having to market vacancies, and onboard new tenants? It seemed to be mass turnover for a while. I’ve seen their response to pricing complaints where they feign that pricing is out of their control because they’re using “a service” that has rapidly fluctuating pricing. Obvious downfalls of this approach can be seen right here in negative comments. Lower prices expire and when their website doesn’t keep up with the frequent change and still shows the lower price, they chose not to honor those offers. People feel they were part of a bait and switch game. Another downfall is the fact that renewal offers come out over a couple months before lease end. Pricing may fluctuate often, but not so in renewal offers. If there is a lower price change, they are not reflected in updated offers. Another issue we had, and one that’s painfully clear to anyone living in the corners (we lived in two different corner units), is the fact that the construction is so poor, in spite of concrete floors, you can hear neighbor conversations pretty well, and of course, any loud music or large gatherings. There seems to be a gap between the floor-to-ceilings windows and the concrete floor that is not sealed well. We totally expected and accepted downtown noise. We never had an issue until the last year with new neighbors above. The neighbors were so loud, they had the police called on them three separate times in the summer of ’20 due to very large and loud parties (we didn’t call the police, but we know this to be true). Greystar, of course, is not to blame for the poor construction, but in spite of several police calls, Greystar unbelievably allowed this apartment to complete their lease. The atmosphere is changing too. One night coming back from a late dinner, we wanted to have a drink by the apartment pool. We went out and a group was playing loud music, one person was smoking, there was arguing, and we even heard the N word dropped. We felt a little uncomfortable and immediately slipped out the side door. That sort of situation never occurred...