Trellis at the Lakes — Local services in Saint Petersburg

I have had the most wonderful experience living at Trellis at the Lakes apartment complex. The location is amazing. In all my searches for locations I have never seen one with so much grass and land and beautiful scenery. Most places are concrete jungles but Trellis is spread out and surrounded by grass and ponds and nature. I wanted to move into a place that was pet friendly, where it wouldn’t be a chore to walk my dogs because of limited space. Here you can have a different walking route everyday. There was so much grass and land you do not have to worry about concentrated areas that reek of dog waste. The complex has doggy waste stations conveniently located everywhere, I hardly had walk far to get to a trash can. The dog park is wonderful and very spaced out. There is a dog wash station, a drinking fountain and benches to relax while your pet runs around. I had contemplated doggy day care because I wanted my dogs to socialize but I did not need to because we went to the doggy park everyday where they played with many different dogs. Just the pet aspect of Trellis is enough to move here. The complex is very clean and well maintained and has many wonderful amenities like the pools, tennis courts, laundry centers, and the gym. The apartments themselves are adorable on the outside and inside are newly renovated. I chose the modern cool grey option but they also had a traditional version with browns and warm tones. I did not realize until after moving in that there were no ceiling lights in the living room or bedrooms because of how much light enters the unit during the day. Make sure you’re aware of this and purchase lamps or it is pitch black when the sun goes down. The unit itself was smaller than ones I have previously lived in but in my opinion it was the perfect size, it was large enough for key pieces of furniture but not so large that I had a lot of cleaning to do. I will say I was not impressed with the stackable washer dryer unit, it was so tiny and I could only wash a few items of clothing at a time. I could do sheets and pillow cases but never a comforter. The unit had smart energy saving AC unit inside with touch screen and you can customize temperature at any time of the day. My electric bill was incredibly low and even in Florida’s horrible summer heat. Trellis maintenance service is remarkable. Soon after moving in it became apparent that the AC unit was not functioning correctly, it would freeze up and the unit would be blistering hot. We called the emergency line and soon we had someone out to look at it and temporarily installed a window unit for the time being. After a few attempts to repair it the unit was completely replaced with a brand new one. Every single maintenance worker was so kind. Anytime we had an issue they came as quickly as they could. Anything we had an issue with and it was resolved like sugar ants, garbage disposal, squeaky door, clogged tub etc. Not only was the maintenance guys wonderful but the girls in the leasing office were too, they always had a smile on their faces and were happy to help with anything. I really enjoyed that all living costs went primarily through the complex, like the rent, trash valet, water and spectrum internet and cable. It was all on one bill so no having to worry if you forgot something. The only thing I paid separately was the electric. The most I was worried about when living there was when the lease ended if I was going to get my deposit back. I have had many friends who lost their deposit and even had to pay more for the pettiest reasons and most of the time something that was there prior to moving. I knew the complex was new and beautiful and well maintained and tried my best to take care of it but I had normal wear and tear like paint chip, holes where screws were and etc. After moving out I had received word from the apartment only a week later and at only two weeks had my full refund back. I was amazed! I did not expect to receive any let alone the whole amount. I recommend Trellis to everyone I know!! Move here!! You...

Fun update years later on 8/27/23 because shocker nothing has changed:

Every time I write a review for Trellis, it astounds me how much they have screwed us over & over again. Let me start off by saying I pay $1979 for my ONE BED, ONE BATH apartment after it was raised over $500. Guess how much I paid when I moved in 3 years ago? $1150. Would I have willingly volunteered to pay such an egregious rent price increase? Absolutely not. It’s only because Trellis sent our lease under 60 days so we couldn’t give them ample notice. When approached on this matter, they gave us 4 days to research, tour, and apply for another place. Any sane being knows that impossible. We were forced to renew. Not a month later, they did a rent special & new tenants with bigger and/or nicer apartments are paying less than us - quiet tenants of three years. When confronted, they gave me a good ol’ “you signed a contract”. These people don’t care about you or your ability to survive. Get that fact straight. The community is gross. The grounds are unkempt. Trash valet misses trash all the time. It’s not worth your time & sanity to live in a place run by soulless skin bags. I will continue to make it my life’s mission to tell everybody how truly terrible Trellis at the Lakes is. Do not come here. Do not tell your friends to come here. If you know a friend who lives here or you do, leave as we will be doing because if it happened to me and all of the other people leaving terrible reviews, it’ll happen to you too.

Do NOT move here. This is our 2nd year living here and I regret resigning my lease. It was nice at first but it has gotten more and more disgusting. The walls have clearly been painted over at least 10 times. You can see the paint dripping down the walls and cabinets. There have been ant and roach problems forever. We have a problem with the deal in our door that we did a maintenance order on 2 times and nothing was ever fixed so ants and other bugs just walk right through the door crack. Last year my old car was broken into by popping the lock. I had family over and there was a drug deal outside of my apartment and a man holding a gun openly.

THIS YEAR less than a month ago, my car and 4 other cars just within my apartment parking lots (buildings 18-27) windows were smashed and our cars rifled through. It cost me $400 to get my BRAND NEW CARS window fixed. There are no cameras and poor lighting. I called the front office to ask what they would be doing to help prevent this from happening again and if myself and the other 4 peoples who’s windows were smashed would be helped financially at all. I was told that no “strong team meetings had taken place” despite this happening in other buildings lots as well, meaning that they don’t care about your property or safety. Later on, they put in a work order under US to put in another light. I won’t hold my breath. My husband called and we were told they could help us financially if we reached out to whatever community person. He reached out again and we were told again they couldn’t do anything for us or anybody else, that the owners didn’t think cameras were necessary, and the cops would be patrolling our complex. The owners don’t think cameras are necessary, however, they put one up by the trash compactor to make sure nobody was dumping extra trash or furniture that it would cost money to remove. Oh but we were told that it “doesn’t actually work”.

The apartments are old, gross, and need updates and actual fixes besides painting the outside of the buildings so they look pretty. My poor upstairs neighbor has to pound his carpet back into the floor at least once a week because the carpet was never stapled down. (Update 8/27/23: That neighbor had to move because they raised his rent just as much as mine and screwed him the same way as us) Nothing is ever done. Doubtful that anything will be done. Garbage place and I can’t WAIT for my lease to be up. I’m sure you’ll see the comment about reaching out to their office but just know that nothing will...

I have lived at Trellis for four years so I would like to provide a review for the benefit of prospective tenants.

First of all, the management company that ran Trellis when I moved here (Lincoln Apartments) is not the same company that runs it now. Trellis is managed by RangeWater Real Estate. When I’ve visited the leasing office for assistance, I’ve found their staff unhelpful and rude. They are not interested in helping existing tenants.

Maintenance - this is not 24 hour maintenance. Sometimes you will wait longer for a repair. Having said that, they did recently install a new washer/dryer in my unit after the previous one leaked. They also replaced my air conditioning system - both inside and out. I thank them for that.

Regarding their website, these are not ‘spacious’ or ‘upscale’ apartments. The one bedroom apartments are small in comparison to other properties that I have seen in the area - you can fit a queen size bed and chest of drawers in the bedroom but it feels claustrophobic. The walk in closet is small. The living room can barely accommodate a sofa and love seat and/or arm chairs. The cheap vinyl wood floors are starting to sag and buckle in my apartment as well. The carpets in the living room and bedroom are of poor quality.

Wifi - The Spectrum community wifi is very hit and miss. I called out an engineer to fix it for me since there were too many restrictions with the 10-20 wireless devices I could connect to their portal. I needed to hardwire my computer for work. TV channels stream through an Apple TV app and much of the time programs buffer or don’t load properly.

Condition of the Property - The main road through the property is 112th Avenue North. It has potholes. Like the rest of the property they just patch things up. My concrete steps and wooden stairs up to my apartment are cracked and need to be replaced or repaired. The property is not well maintained and suffers from a termite problem. Last year they repainted the buildings but missed most of the exterior of my unit and never came back to finish it.

Security - The property has no security. There are literally no gates into and out of the complex and there are three separate entrances into Trellis. I don’t feel safe here at night - especially since the street lighting on 112th is non-existent. This is a dangerous road with blind spots and I’m amazed no pedestrians have been knocked down here. They should consider adding additional speed bumps and traffic mirrors.

iApartments smart door locks & thermostats were installed in May. I’m now being charged $45/month to use these devices. $45/month to open my own front door. There was no reason to replace the existing keyed lock and digital thermostats. I suspect this is an attempt to upsell their apartments to new tenants to compete with other apartment buildings. Hardly something I would consider a deal breaker if I was looking for an apartment today.

Parking - Recently they introduced parking permits and expressed a desire to start charging tenants for parking spaces. A few months ago they re-painted all of the parking space lines and disabled spaces but could not tell tenants exactly when this work would be done. Some tenant cars were towed through no fault of their own. Others left town for a few days because of the confusion. This is a huge part of the problem here - a lack of communication by the office staff.

Rent - for a 12 month lease my rent increased $261 in 2022 and $308 in 2023. ‘Market rate’ was their excuse for these increases. They’ve added other fees to the rent such as valet trash ($35/month) which rarely gets collected by a third-party company.

To summarize, this property just isn’t worth the rent anymore. If management focused on fixing some of the issues I listed above, this would be a better place to live. Instead they just dream up more ways to milk their tenants of their hard earned income. I would not recommend living here....