The Helmsman — Local services in Savannah

Edit 2: The reason why the reviews are anything over 1 star is because these are intentionally blended with the ones from their temporary leasing office, NOT the apartment itself. If you’re going to read reviews, only read ones as old as about halfway through September—people deserve to know what a nightmare we’ve been through as residents. The reason why there are 5 star reviews at all is that the front desk staff was lovely. They’ve all mass quit now because the work environment has been horrible for them as well. By everyone, I mean everyone. They had to completely shut all communications down for a few days. As residents, this is scary. We’ve noticed more often that there’s no one guarding the left-open garage across from the night shelter. How long before we’ll be given a 2 weeks notice that we’re about to be kicked out of a building that’s shutting down? Maybe even in the middle of our quarterly finals. That would be horrible, and I wouldn’t put it past this place. . Another thing, our dishwasher hasn’t worked for the past 4 weeks living here. Someone did come to “prime it” like two weeks in, and was ugly to my roommate and sassed at us for not knowing to do that ourselves. He totally ignored us when we asked him to check the water valve, and it’s STILL not working, big surprise. It’s been about 8 days since putting in the second request. There’s a clause in our lease saying we’re allowed to move out it if no one has come for repairs for 2 weeks straight. Then, we wouldn’t be around to sue if they need to shut down. Hmm.

Yeah, the original review was kind of me laughing through it and angrily griping. Now I’m just filled with dread. Please don’t live here if you have any choice.

Original review: This has been a horrible experience. I’m with the first year of tenants. We were supposed to move in on the 1st of September. One week before move in, we received an email saying there were construction delays until the 9th. So, I drove a U-Haul across the the country on the 8th. Surprise! We get an email at 9:30pm the night before move in saying there were more construction delays until the 16th. They put me up in a hotel a 15 minute drive away from ANY academic halls.

We just got to move in. It was INCREDIBLY unprofessional and chaotic. No move in bins. I badly strained my back carrying all my belongings across two huge parking lots because it’s the closest we could get despite coming at my assigned move in time. ALSO both elevators were broken. Have fun carrying all your stuff up the stairs. NEXT I saw that the apartment has white paint splatters EVERYWHERE all over the ground. There is a ton of small damage-lots of holes, super dented fridge, torn corners of the baseboards, and a TON of paint dust on the counters. Also, even just looking at the tile in the kitchen, you can tell the builders didn’t really know what they were doing-huge gaps between the tile and power outlets. The beds are way too big for the tiny rooms as well. You can just tell they rushed to finish, and they weren’t properly prepared for move in.

Also, if you get a room with a window, make sure you’re facing outward from the building. My window is right over super bright string lights that stay on ALL NIGHT. They’re so incredibly bright that Ive been waking up at 3am thinking the sun is up outside. LASTLY! I’ve only lived here for two days, and the fire department is here. This is a fabulous welcome.

Edit 1: Found out why the fire department was there. There was smoke coming from the luxurious sauna that probably most of us will never use. Not steam, smoke, which leads me to assume there might have been some kind of an equipment malfunction. They let us know all the second floor amenities were flooded from the sprinkler system, but then I saw that water was spraying in a leak from the pipes lining the ceiling of the parking garage in the basement. I don’t think this was caused my any fire sprinklers…so glad they got it stopped pretty fast, but I’m not even convinced that the property is safe with how much...

This place is a nightmare!!!! I have read the other reviews and responses from the Helmsman and honestly the responses are infuriating!!! They are only there to save face with others who may be reading these responses. It’s just all a part of their exterior deception, like the photos and Instagram posts that are meant to create a facade! Everything you read is entirely true and not over exaggerated. I was there helping my daughter move in and experienced it all first hand. From getting the email at 9:30 pm the night before they were supposed to move in that it was going to be delayed yet another week (after the office told us for two days prior that move in was on track), to sitting in line for 4 hours to unload her stuff on a dirty sidewalk next to the homeless shelter that they conveniently forgot to mention was right behind the building! My daughter has had to notify Savannah police and scad security (as well as helmsman security) because of that!!! Then, charging everyone $20 for valet trash (four in one apartment is paying $80/month for trash pickup). And, that is never on time. There is a trash chute at end of the hall for days when valet is not picked up but it is locked half the time so they can’t use it. If they go to the dumpster in back to take their trash, they are yelled at by the people at the homeless shelter that it is not their dumpster. If they leave their trash in the trash room or leave their cans outside their doors after 9, they get nasty letters they they are going to be fined. On move in the dishwasher and ice maker weren’t working. The ice maker was leaking and still is after all this time. They have put in multiple maintenance requests and they come and say it’s working fine. Sure, it’s making ice but still spewing water out into the freezer all over their food! The place was construction filthy on move in day. It was obvious they had thrown this place together. The audacity to have two move in delays, cost parents and students thousands of dollars because we had to stay extra time shift around travel plans and work schedules, extend rentals on moving trucks and vehicles loaded with our kids stuff to to move into to literal filth! You couldn’t even have a cleaning crew clean the construction mess? And they promised a $100 incidental gift card. That’s a joke!!! They had to do laundry in the laundromat, eat out (not cheap in Savannah) and the extended vehicle rentals alone were thousands of dollars. There was paint splattered all over the floors and on the cabinets. My daughter has holes in her bathroom wall there they put the toilet paper holder in the wrong place and it had to be moved. She has put in multiple requests to have those repaired and they come, look at it, say they have to come back and then mark the request complete! I was there this week and there were construction guys in the hall patching holes. My daughter asked about her bathroom, yet again. She was told that they were not there for that and she needed to put in a maintenance request. She said, “I have put in multiple requests!” Also, we talked with management (Kia) on move in and sent her pictures. Still no one has repaired it! Let’s talk about the TV in the living room that’s hung so wrong! And how about the neighbors across the hall who smoke and the hall wreaks of cigarettes in this “smoke free” establishment. Management is fully aware and has even seen the cigarette packages in their trash can but nothing has changed. The TVs in the game room look amazing, but, oh yeah, they don’t even work!!! The thing that is most infuriating to all who live there is the letter to renew their lease, after all of this and they haven’t even been in the apartment for little more than two months! It’s a slap in the face and they keep slapping these kids! And it’s threatening them that if they don’t sign it they may not be guaranteed a space or that they will be with their same roommates. Really??? I’d like to see you legally try to enforce that one. You are a class action law suit...

EDITED TO RESPOND TO THE COMMENT FROM THE HELMSMAN: While my son WAS moved into a slightly more acceptable apartment, The Helmsman tried to increase his rent by $60 per month; however, I did fight them on this due to its breach of contract. We were prepared to move to a different apartment complex had they not agreed to honor the original contract rent amount. I still stand by my statements that the apartments are super small, especially for the amount of rent, and, having visited my son for Thanksgiving 2023, I witnessed a fair number of homeless people wandering around the building. My son even witnessed someone trying to break into a vehicle at the complex. They do have security, which is a good move on their part, but the doors to the outside continue to be either broken or held open with zip ties because the locks are installed incorrectly. Our son did take us around to see the amenities, which I'll admit are nice. If The Opus Group had put as much thought and money into the actual apartments, instead of the amenities that are probably rarely used, this might have been a decent place to live. There's so much space wasted on these things that could have gone into making the apartments larger and giving them actual closets.

I would like to start this review by saying that every single 1-star review you see is 100% accurate. I was present during the delays and the move-in process and witnessed it. All of the 5-star reviews were left BEFORE the building was even completed and definitely before the move-in disaster. I won’t rehash what many others have said, but if you only take one thing away from any of these reviews, please let it be this: DO NOT MOVE HERE!!! If you do choose to take the huge risk and move here, DO NOT BELIEVE ANYTHING YOU ARE VERBALLY TOLD – GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING. And for the love of God, GO TOUR THE COMPLEX IN PERSON so you can see how incredibly small and cheap these apartments are! Do not go by the floorplans shown on the website – those are NOT ACCURATE at all!!! My hope is that this apartment complex will have 0 residents next year. The problem is not just The Helmsman – it’s also the agency hired to run the place, Coastal Ridge, AND the parent company, The Opus Group. I’ve done a little research on both of these companies and hundreds of complaints have been filed with the Better Business Bureau, some of which have been resolved and some of which are still pending. I would encourage anyone who lives at The Helmsman to leave a review here and then go over to the Better Business Bureau’s page and file a complaint. The Opus Group specializes in throwing up cheap, substandard apartment complexes for students all over the country, I guess hoping the students won’t complain because they’re young. Parents of students who live in any complexes that The Opus Group is involved in need to speak out and file complaints, no matter where these are located. My son will be looking for a different place to live for next school year for sure. It’s frankly a slap in the face that The Helmsman has sent out renewals...