St. Mary's Square Apartments — Local services in Raleigh

We had a really frustrating experience from start to finish. I know that no rental experience will be perfect, and I don't like leaving 1-star reviews, but there were multiple issues during the 1 year we were at this building. I spoke with 3 other residents who had similar frustrations and all also chose to move out.

Many of these issues were fixable but there was a lack of transparency, accountability and basic customer service that I would expect at a "luxury" (their descriptor, not mine) building that prices itself as such. And it doesn't seem like that will change any time soon.

I can't get to everything because of a character limit, so I'll outline the most frustrating incident:

We originally leased from Grey Star, who staffed the front desk 5 days a week. The 1st change Saint Mary's Square made was to reduce this to 2 days a week and most weeks I didn't see a single employee.

They left the doors unlocked during the day, so kids from the high school across the street were freely entering the building and homeless people started to figure it out as well and had unfettered access.

One day, a homeless man who frequented our building to make himself coffee and at one point slept on one of the couches overnight started to harass me.

I sent a LinkedIn message (if you call Continental, they're by appointment only, you can only leave a voicemail and in my experience it was difficult to get ahold of someone) to the manager of the Regional Manager explaining what had happened.

This was her response:

"... Thanks for bringing this matter to my attention. I’m sorry to hear this occurred. I have confirmed that our fobbed access points are functioning properly. There are times when residents hold doors open with good intensions. Its frustrating for us as well being situated in a city surrounded by homelessness . . . "

I sent a final message explaining that the issues weren't a function of the homeless population rather the lack of presence from any management staff period at the building to know what was going on. She never responded to that message.

The very next day, that same homeless man broke in through the back gate (it is VERY easy to gain access to this building) and caused a scene leading to multiple residents complaining to the front desk person (who surprisingly was at the desk!).

I reached out to the CEO of Continental on LinkedIn (he is actually awesome to deal with and I give all the credit for how he handled it).

The short of it is that I didn't get concrete information about security updates and the real kicker is that management staff sent out an e-mail to residents that did not acknowledge the break-in:

"Happy Friday! We wanted to let everyone know that we have disabled the courtyard gate leading to the back of the building until further notice . . . We apologize about this inconvenience."

This is just one example of a lack of transparency and accountability. The building was broken into by someone who showed aggression toward me just the day prior, was brushed off by upper management and THAT is the e-mail you send to residents?

It was difficult to get ahold of someone during my entire stay, staff usually dismissed issues and took no accountability and frankly, if JM is reading this, I don't think your employees are working the hours they say.

When we got our renewal offer, it took a month to get a sit down with the regional manager only after I messaged the CEO of CRC.

She smiled at the end of our convo and said "we don't lower rents for existing tenants". We spent $275 to hold the apartment next door to ours (same layout, 12 feet away listed at $300 less per month) when she could've told me this from the get-go. She half-apologized, citing lack of information but she was so confident to tell me they don't lower rents by the end of the saga my experience didn't make sense.

The building is overpriced for what it is. We moved close by, pay $1,000 less / mo, no break-ins, street noise is much better, and aren't stressed by lack of staff and...

Seriously consider any of the other apartments in the area if you're excited to live near downtown Raleigh or Glenwood.

I've lived here over 2 years now, and the location is the only positive thing I can think to say about my experience. But even the location is a double edged sword. As one could expect being so close to Glenwood, theres a significant homeless population that loiter in large groups near the side entrances of the building. They're not shy about pressing you for money or sneaking into the building. Since my GF has moved in, she hasn't felt safe enough to walk to any of the local businesses on Peace street on her own because they are almost always there. On multiple occasions I've been in the buildings' gym and someone's intruded into it to set up camp for the night. And what has management done to curb this you might wonder? Absolutely nothing, they send out emails every now and then encouraging you to lock your car doors due to break ins being on the rise. I think almost every door lock to the garage and other common areas has broken if it wasn't already when i arrived. Allowing anybody who gets in, to get anywhere in the building. So keep your apartments locked at all times too! The garage gates break at least monthly, allowing anybody to enter through a wide open gate in the meantime.

Speaking of broken gates, attached is a video of St. Mary's Gate breaking and crashing on my car as Im pulling into the garage. Of course they don't intend to compensate me a penny for the damages.

The management has shown time and time again to not care for its residents, and money grabs at every opportunity. Just to add my GF to the lease as she moved in with me, I was forced to pay nearly $600 just so she could get a key. Theres been about 4 different managers during my time here so that should tell you something about Continental Realty Corporation.

After less than a year of living here, I encouraged some very close friends, who were moving back to Raleigh, to move into St Marys. Big mistake on my part and I feel bad for it, they didn't stay for even half of their lease term because they had to endure mold completely taking over their ventilation system. After reporting it to management, they "cleaned" the obvious and accessible bits from the vent in the storage closet. But the overpowering smell of potentially harmful mold persisted so much so, that they often sought refuge in my apartment. Eventually the smell went away but that was no assurance they weren't breathing harmful air. Management found someone else to rent the apartment and they mutually ended the lease.

Meanwhile for me, I'm trying to break my lease 45 days early because I'm finally getting out and buying a house. But their "company policy" is that I have to pay 2 months rent to break it regardless of time left. Its not like I expect to pay no sort of fee, but it makes no logical sense for me to pay $6200 to break a lease less than 2 months early when I'm giving 90 days notice. Maybe someone at the company who actually cares for its residents will read this review and make things right, but I'm not...

Summary: Great location Awful sound-proofing for the worst living experience Office is understaffed Maintenance is professional and responsive

I lived here for a year and moved out a little over a month ago. The location is fantastic - right across the street from Fred Fletcher Park, and within walking distance of Glenwood South but far enough that drunken shenanigans don't (often) affect your living experience. My dog loved walking everywhere from the apartment (which is very dog-friendly). And the interior of the building and apartments is beautiful - very much a luxury building in that respect. The building is equipped with a remote entry system so you can let guests and yourself into the building via an app.

However, the building itself is extremely poorly constructed in terms of noise-proofing. Every step from my upstairs neighbors would cause my apartment to shake, and heaven forbid when they would drop things or work out or run around - I thought the ceiling would come down on my head. I could hear full-fledged conversations from my very mild-mannered neighbors next door. And my downstairs neighbors have complained about my dog running around during the occasional zoomies (sorry!). In the summer, expect to hear every wedding party that occurs in the park. Moreover, my unit faced into the courtyard, and I could hear every single conversation that anyone every had. This includes the conversations at 3 AM from the residents coming back from Glenwood South.

Also note that the leasing manager, while very nice and friendly, will only occasionally be at the front desk - do not expect a full-service concierge experience even during business hours, or a timely response to emails. There is someone from the office at the front desk only for a few hours on a couple of days a week. I think the office is severely understaffed, so not the fault of any individual employee. The resident events are nice and have really increased in quantity the last few months I was there.

Also some miscellaneous things to note: This building is right across the street from a high school, so expect heavy traffic during drop off/pick up and during games. The garage floods with heavy rain. I had to wade through about 8 inches of water to get to my car the last time I forgot to check the forecast and didn't move my car to a higher part of the garage. Also, the last time the secured exit for the garage broke, it took over a month for it to be repaired, meaning that the garage was accessible to the public freely (despite management's repeated emails during this time about car break-ins...