109 Park — Local services in Raleigh

I've posted this on Live on Hillsborough's google reviews, but I'm reposting here with a couple of additions.

There are so many things I could say about this apartment and it's company, but I'm doing this review anonymously so I can finish off my lease in peace. First off, I leased this apartment because the location is ideal, the show room I was toured around was perfect, and the staff in the office are super nice. I figured living here would be just as pleasant as my first impressions were. How wrong I was. The staff are still nice, but they don't really help in many ways. I emailed the staff a copy of my renter's insurance, and they never responded until months later when I demanded the money back since they continued to charge me for renter's insurance. They responded to my original email, though, so I know they received it.

When you first walk in to the apartment, the apartment complex looks like a prison. Not in the chic, minimalist kind of way either. It's white walls, cement walkways, nothing special or inviting about it. Moreover, if it rains then the walkways are basically just one long connected puddle that won't dry up for days, and will freeze over in the winter. The power has gone out multiple times for no reason, and apparently the fire alarm system wasn't functional for about a month or so. Residents were never told though. Then, once the fire alarm system is actually up and running, it goes off at 3 AM on a weekday, and continues to go off for about two hours because the fire department said only a manager could turn it off. There's no swimming pool still, even though it is a part of the amenities I am paying around a thousand dollars a month for.

Wi-fi is absolutely horrible since they began using spectrum. I can't really say much else besides it's horrendous, and is almost never working. While staff can't really do much about it, it shouldn't be the residents' jobs to try and get spectrum to improve the apartment-wide internet, especially when we had better working routers before hand.

Overall, the apartments themselves are nice and they are close to campus. Other than that, I wouldn't recommend living here. I feel very misled, and I regret leasing here. I'd also like to point out that most of the high reviews here are by people working for the company!

EDIT: Although the pool was promised to be finished by April, it wasn't. By the end of April, though, they began construction where the pool was supposed to be. Many residents were excited, hoping that we'd finally get the pool we pay monthly rent for, but it turns out that Preiss, the money-grubbers they are, are building a whole new complex instead. Although the pool will be built along with the new complex, that is completely unneeded, it won't be complete until 2020, long after my lease is through. Let alone, for the people living on the side of the building next to the construction, they are woken up everyday at about 6 AM, lasting until about 6 PM (And remember, the construction started without warning).

The company has tried to make up for it by allowing residents to go to another complex's pool, with conditions. We have to go to the office, which is on the opposite end of Hillsborough St, to get a single-day pass to go to a complex's pool. If you want to go to the pool on Monday, you have to get a pass on Monday. If you want to go to the pool on Tuesday, you have to get a whole other pass to go on Tuesday. It's a horrible bandaid-solution to a problem they created themselves. The real kicker is, you aren't even allowed to bring a single guest, which makes it pointless.

To reiterate what I've said before, don't sign a lease to live at a Preiss-owned apartment complex. The buildings may be okay, but until these management issues are properly dealt with, the trouble of living in one of their apartment complexes...

If Fyre Fest was an apartment complex it would be Preiss Company’s 109 Park. This is my first negative review of anything, I prefer to not dwell on bad experiences, but I feel obliged to warn potential residents of the risks involved with this company. The building was brand new, so I felt comfortable signing a lease even though a lot of friends warned me of bad experiences with the company. Unfortunately, our apartment had roach and mold problems. My roommate was sick constantly and we believe it was due to the extensive mold in her room. She reported the problem, and nothing was done. The roaches were found in other apartments as well. One neighbor woke up with one crawling on her hand. I would wake up hearing them crawling around on my floor.

The power goes out constantly. The fire alarm system did not work when there was a fire during Hurricane Florence. I do not know if this is because the power went out or not. The firefighters came and evacuated everyone. I noticed some rooms had the alarms going off and others (like mine) did not. Smoke was coming from one of the stairs near the water pump room. We had been without power for about 22 hrs when we received an email from the office asking to stop contacting them about the power being out because they know about it and it has only been out for a few hours. I replied to Katie and let her know we had been without full power for a longer period of time and that there was a fire and the alarms did not go off. She told me she was looking into it. I never heard back. We had a security guard for a while, and someone asked them why they were there. They said they were watching for fires because the alarm system did not work.

Jena, the leasing agent, told us multiple times there was an onsite pool, but they were still getting the rules finalized, and at one point she said the pool was built but the restrooms weren’t completed for it yet. Even the website said it was there and had images of it next to the building. However, when we moved in there was no pool and we called to ask if it was on the roof and they just laughed and emailed us later saying we could use another complex’s pool off of Tryon.

There are numerous other stories like this. They told us we “should be fine” to reenter the apartments after we had just been evacuated by the fire department for a gas leak. They charged us for an entire new fridge after our magnet left a scrape on the freezer door, because this constituted more than normal wear and tear. They agreed on the phone twice, and in an email, to not charge me a late fee because they were correcting my rent charge in the portal. They still attempted to charge me a late fee. Even after I forwarded them the email saying they would not charge me a late fee, they said that I should have contacted them sooner (which I did and is how I got the email saying they wouldn’t charge me a late fee). They entered our apartment multiple times a week for the first couple of months while finishing the apartments and fixing issues. At one point they attempted to enter my room while I was in bed at 9am. I recommend keeping all locks locked when sleeping.

I apologize if you have already signed a lease, I was waiting to post this review until I received the last bill to ensure I would not be charged in retaliation. For those who are living there, I would recommend getting everything in writing. I also felt that the Facebook group for residents was very helpful to figure out what was going on. I know that the group was removed but I would get to know your neighbors so that you can compare stories the office told you with them in order to find out the truth. I would also say I was pretty passive with the things they did to us, but other people that threatened to sue got gift cards, so I would...

To echo another reviewer, this place has been an absolute disaster from the start.

My roommates had moved in before me, and had asked the management for my contact information so they could know who they were living with. After calling for my permission, management gave them my info. We decided to meet up before to unpack kitchen things, etc., and when I arrived, no one answered. Turns out they had the wrong room in my lease- my supposed roommates were living in a different room entirely. For a while, I was unsure as to where I was living and who I was living with.

It finally was cleared up that it was a misprint on my lease and I was to move in with the girls who had contacted me. I brushed this off as an honest mistake, went to move in, and my keys did not fit. They had given me the wrong keys, delaying my move. My family was in town to help me move, but they had to leave before I could get the correct keys. Thus, they were unable to help me move, and they wasted their time and money coming to Raleigh.

Things didn’t go any smoother once I moved in. My room faced the hallway, and they had BRIGHT lights on outside at night, making it really hard to sleep. They said this was for safety reasons, but that’s hard to believe given that when I came home around six or seven, the lights were off, and the halls were dark. The lights only turned on around 10-11, and stayed on throughout the night. In addition, the pool, which was a big reason why I signed the lease, did not exist. 109 Park did not offer any sort of compensation or explanation for falsely advertising the pool.

A few months in, they added a “mold amendment” to the lease. I had mold problems in one of their other apartments (2811) so I was eager to see them address this. However, this essentially just told the resident to open their windows periodically to avoid mold. Seems reasonable, except for the fact that my room has no (ZERO) windows that can be opened. Of course, I found mold on many of my belongings- notably belongings in my room far from any moisture from the bathroom/ shower. It was absurd that management was so unaware of their apartment conditions that they would offer such useless advice rather than addressing the clear ventilation problems.

Then there were legitimate safety concerns. The fire alarm went off at 3 AM on a weekday. The firemen could not turn it off without management, so the alarm continued for two hours. I don’t need to explain how frustrating it is to not have management acknowledge this and/ or apologize. For a while, we were also losing power every time it rained, and again, no explanation or apologies from management. In addition, it took until December (mid way through the lease) to get the internet “upgraded” to something that would actually work. While better for me (but I’ve heard conflicting reports from others), the internet was still spotty at best. We lost internet for 24 hours during a workweek towards the end of the lease- with little explanation.

The cherry on top of this disaster was when, after moving out, I was charged $250 for a scrape on the freezer door from a magnet. They replaced an entire perfectly working refrigerator for a scratch on the freezer. This is not only incredibly costly to us as residents, who kept the apartment in tip- top shape, but also just incredibly wasteful. If you care about your wallet, or just the earth, rent elsewhere.

I tried to be understanding that 109 park was brand new, and glitches were bound to happen. But the false advertising, constant disruptions of daily life, safety concerns, and lack of accountability from management was and is...