SYNC CityLine — Local services in Richardson

This is a great place to live unless you own a vehicle and want to park that vehicle in a parking spot. Recently, the leasing office saw fit to dedicate an entire floor of the parking garage for “Retail Parking Only,” meaning that any residents who park on the first floor of the garage— including residents who live on the first floor of the complex— will have their vehicles towed at their own expense.

Of course, everybody knows that the Alexan Crossings apartment complex is surrounded by a vibrant retail scene, consisting of a single burger restaurant, which is hardly ever busy. The fact that this one restaurant now owns every single parking spot on the first floor of the garage is nothing short of astonishing. I don’t mean to be petty, but we are talking over 50 parking spots! Parking in the garage is incredibly useful when the weather is bad (i.e. when it might hail which happens sometimes) or during the summertime when shade is a highly sought commodity.

When I asked the leasing office where residents are allowed to park in light of the massive corporate takeover by retail businesses, I was told that residents should park on the street (which fills up remarkably fast during the evening when all of the residents return to their homes) or that residents should park on the upper floors of the garage (which also fills up remarkably fast now that everyone who lived on the first floor are being directed to park on the upper floors).

I have been a resident of Alexan Crossings for over a year now. When I first moved into this complex, I paid $1250 for a one bedroom, which is slightly more expensive relative to the other apartment complexes in the area. However, Alexan Crossings was the nicest and newest complex at the time, plus they were offering generous move-in deals including one month free rent. What could go wrong?

During the first year of my residency, it was not uncommon for the gas to be shut off for extensive periods of time. I’m sure the reader need only scroll down and read prior reviews to get an appropriate sense of the situation. Many of my fellow residents have written about the infamous “gas days” with incredible color. Of course, not having gas made cooking impossible. At one point, the gas problem occurred with such frequency that it became commonplace for city officials to shuffle in and out of my apartment, as they moved my stove back and forth, physically turning the gas valve on and off. I can assure you that it was quite an educational experience to learn so much about the dangers of gas leaks.

In addition to the gas problem, the vehicles parked outside along the street (please note that this is precisely where residents are now encouraged to park due to the sudden retail ownership of the parking garage) were prone to being robbed in the middle of the night. The street was often littered with glass from bashed in window-shields. I can assure you that it is a beautiful thing to wake up and see the morning sun reflecting radiantly upon broken glass.

To give the leasing office credit, these problems were eventually solved within a year. When it came time to renew my lease, I had full confidence that the staff had everything under control. My rent increased from $1250 to $1288, which I found surprising considering all of the drama that occurred during my first year. However, Alexan Crossings still remains one of the better apartment complexes in Richardson, despite being on the more expensive side.

I don’t want the reader to get the impression that I’m bashing the staff. Rather, I’m just speaking honestly. And I can honestly say that the staff is friendly. In fact, I have never had a negative interaction with them. However, I think their business model is flawed. When the interests of the residents are placed second to the interests of outside retail businesses, then there is a problem.

If you want to live here, then this is the kind of drama that you...

When we were looking to live at Alexan, we loved the idea of being right next to a DART station and easy access to the highway. There were some reviews about poor property management but we thought that it wasn't a big deal because in the past, we never really had to deal with our apartment management much. Just pay the rent and live in your own space. Here's why I went out of my way to put a review and why I wouldn't recommend this place:

1. We previously referred a friend to stay at Alexan (right when we first moved in - because of the location). It took us 10 months to receive the advertised referral bonus and I think we only got paid because we told them we were withholding our rent. The process was a bad experience for us because it required us to fill out unnecessary tax paperwork whereas most other apartment complexes just allow you to net it as a credit against rent. There was also a security breach of my social security number where one of the staff was discussing my account including my social security number via email with the tenant I referred. This wasn't an isolated case because I know that the tenant I referred then referred someone also (also in the first month) and they did not get paid for the referral for many months.

2. The parking policies are unreasonable. In the middle of a pandemic they towed my wife's temporary rental car because she didn't have the proper sticker. But she tried to visit the office to get a sticker and your office was closed due to the pandemic. So you are enforcing your parking policies without any consideration for how a tenant could become compliant.

3. It's silly that when your entire retail section is pretty much empty except for BurgerIM, you wouldn't allow people to park in the retail spaces. It's one thing to do that when you have a bustling retail area, but your policies were entirely unjustified when the ground floor was completely empty and there weren't sufficient spaces in the upper floors. Furthermore, your management continuously spammed people reminders of the parking policies. The problem is that we KNEW the policies, we just thought they were unreasonable which is why everyone complained.

4. In the full 14 months that I lived at Alexan, on multiple occasions I spoke with staff about getting access to the online portal to pay rent, submit maintenance tickets, etc. because I did not have access. They would say "I'll look into it" or "It shouldn't be doing that." but nothing ever happened. When I asked how much I owe for rent, the staff's response was "Just pay a little extra and keep a positive balance on your account." It's not reasonable to expect people to pay MORE money because you can't figure out how much they owe.

5. The dishwasher in the units is entirely useless. Dishes just wouldn't get cleaned and there was no drying function at all, so you'd have to hand wipe the dishes after you ran a load. I know it wasn't a user error because I checked with a few other tenants and they reported the same thing.

6. The parking garage seriously lacks basic safety. Firstly, the gate stays open so anyone can just follow cars in. My car was broken into. Secondly, unlike most parking garages, the ramps don't have any mirror to see if a car is coming around the corner. This leads to many "close calls" around blind turns as you're entering or leaving the garage.

7. The building's security is virtually non-existant. Yes, a couple of the doors have keyfob restricted access. But all of the exterior doors from the parking garage are not keyfobbed. So someone can just walk through the hallways without having beeped in. Example is stairway #7 and #5.

8. The floors and walls are paper thin. You can hear every step no matter how quiet anyone is being. If you face the parking garage, you can regularly hear cars going up and...

My intention for this review is to be completely objective, and honest about my living experience at SYNC Cityline. Please read thoroughly if you are interested in leasing.

We’ve been living at SYNC Cityline since 2021, and management has changed once or twice since then. To sum up everything below, SYNC is a decent place to live at, ONLY if you are extremely laidback and/or low maintenance. Administrative support is subpar, and it is extremely difficult to get something from them in writing, no matter the circumstances. I don’t know if it’s intentional or just poor management.

I’m editing to add that I have begun the move-out process and while parts of it are straightforward, it’s also been very difficult to get in touch with admins. I had to schedule a Notice to Vacate inspection 3 times, and it was not confirmed until I called twice, spoke with two different people, went down in person, and sent an email. So that is very frustrating. I experienced something similar last year when there was a high level of gas reading in our apartment for unknown reasons. I was told on multiple occasions that they would be sending a response, and it took almost 6 phone calls before I received something in writing.

I understand we are not the only tenants. And I don’t act as if my needs are greater than those around me. But when it comes to stuff like this, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect management to follow through on the first or second time. Especially when moving in our out.

That being said, here are some non-management related pros and cons:

Pros - Maintenance has been great for us. Granted, we have had no major problems beyond some A/C stuff and that insanely high gas reading in our apartment, but they are attentive, responsive, and do their jobs well. The resident portal is easy to navigate. Location is very central and accessing 75 is convenient if you work downtown.

Cons - The system that provides us with gas stoves is electric. If the building loses power, you will also lose hot water. The elevators and garage gates are frequently out of service. About 2-3 times a month on average. Especially the garage gate. Besides the Clubhouse, Leasing Office, and Gym, you can get EVERYWHERE else without a key. The freight elevator does not require a key despite a fob being there. The only doors that are locked are external doors. You can access each floor, stairwell, the mailroom, parking garage, pool, and courtyard freely. Packages often get stolen from the mailroom as a result, and cars are frequently broken into. Residents are extremely careless with trash. The doors to the trash chute on each floor of the parking garage are usually littered with DOZENS of full garbage bags, boxes, and furniture. This results in a strong dumpster smell on the first floor by the mailroom that gets worse in warmer months. This past summer, people climbed onto the roof for unknown reasons constantly. We live on the top floor so could always hear/feel it. It was always after midnight, so I highly doubt it was emergency maintenance.

I’m sure there is more to list, but this was just all off the top of my head. We’ve never had bugs, mold, or flooding (in our unit), and our A/C has only ever needed to be fixed twice so I can’t really speak to those issues.

If you choose to live here, you will have to settle for lots of things and accept that the overall quality of the property is not ideal. Prepare for disappointment and frequent situations that are beyond management’s control (as well as ones poorly handled despite being in...