Alley South Lake Union — Local services in Seattle

I lived in Alley SLU for 3 years (Aug 22– Aug 25) in a 2 bed/2 bath in the South Tower. Overall I’d give it 3.5–4 stars. Plenty of frustrations, but nothing wildly different from other apartments I’ve lived in. I wanted to give a thorough, unbiased review!

Move-In: 3.5/5 – Process was smooth enough. Leasing office hours weren’t convenient, but we got our keys and reserved an elevator Our layout was different than promised—luckily better, but would be bad if it was the opposite -Not professionally cleaned; I had to vacuum a lot of black dog hair. Not disgusting but not great

Apartment Itself: 4.5/5 – honestly a great place. Appliances all worked, lots of counter space, huge windows with great light. Both bedrooms were spacious and the same size (bed, desk, dresser fit easily) Rent started at $3,333 for 950 sqft and only went up $50 total in 3 years No built-in A/C and it gets hot, but you can rent units

Premises: 3/5 – South Tower gate broke constantly. Elevator is painfully slow and the “up” button has never worked—you press “down” to go up -Guests and delivery drivers constantly confused North vs South tower; even an ambulance was delayed because they couldn’t find the right tower -Rooftop is great and usually empty. The grill worked only half the time and fireplace never worked. Furniture was replaced while I was here so it’s all new -Community room is nice, went from free to reserve to $150 fee + $150 deposit. Staff once waived it, but not guaranteed. It is free to use -Amazon lockers are great when not full, but about 1/4 of the time packages get left in hallways—I’ve had several stolen -Bike room has been ransacked; my tire was stolen and management refused to notify residents, saying they weren’t obligated to. Lock up everything if you plan to use it -Parking is across the alley—not terrible, just annoying. A few break-ins and I’ve heard of a car theft. They’ve upped security since but I’d still park on P2/P3 rather than P1 -Security guards patrol at night and seem nice

Management: 2.5/5 – Constant turnover. Every few months it seems it’s a new staff saying the old one “left things a mess.” -Some staff are great—kind, helpful, responsive. Others rude, dismissive, or absent. My Calls/emails have often gone unanswered; in-person works best. Although more than once I showed up at 5:15 to find the office closed even though hours say until 6 Current staff (summer 25) actually seem great! - hoping they stick

Maintenance: 2.5/5 – Urgent/easy things (garbage disposal, lightbulbs, A/C install) = super fast. -Anything less urgent/not routine gets ignored. My blinds didn’t work from day one—3 years, six tickets, multiple emails later, still not fixed. Same with the rooftop fireplace and elevator button. Had a whole debacle requesting a second A/C: front desk approved it, but maintenance closed the ticket twice without reading notes. -Emergency maintenance is weak—calls are always unanswered, sometimes they’ll text instead. Most issues deemed “not an emergency,” even when I was locked out of the bike room bc I was given the wrong key or when someone sprayed pepper spray in the hallway

Area: 4/5 – 15–20 min walk to Pike Place, Lake Union, or Capitol Hill. Not a ton directly around the building, but a few cute shops/cafes -I’ve never felt unsafe. Occasionally unhoused people near the church, but never an issue

Move-Out: 4/5 – After seeing negative reviews I was nervous, but the front desk explained once you move out any bills (mainly last month’s utilities) go through a collection agency since you’re no longer on the tenant portal. This isn’t debt collection and doesn’t affect your credit as long as you pay on time. -Move-out itself was very straightforward and easy.

Overall: 3.5–4/5 – For the price, location, and apartments, Alley SLU is a good place to live—that’s why I stayed 3 years. The biggest downside is management and maintenance being unreliable. Hopefully you won’t need them much, and you’ll be happy here! Maybe this newer management team will actually stick and make...

UPDATE: Upon moving out, I was notified that the small remaining balance I had from my utilities had been sent to a collections agency. I was able to pay the full balance before the deadline, however they never notified the collector that it had been paid. I am now being harassed for a balance that was paid directly to their property manager.

I strongly suggest refraining from signing a lease at this property

Original review:

Originally gave the building a 5 star review, adjusting the review to reflect recent experiences that I have had living here. The main issue is that the building is poorly managed, I’m not sure if it’s the entire FPI management company or specifically this building but there has never been a time when an issue I have had was resolved in a timely or efficient manner.

The two biggest issues are utilities and maintenance. Utilities in this building are charged based off of hot water used, because cold water is not metered. This has resulted in the artificial inflation of water costs to about 300% of what the should be charged given the cost in the City of Seattle. The building also regularly double charges for Valet Trash (which in and of itself is a scam). If residents do not explicitly ask for this charge to be corrected, they are expected to pay it, allowing the property management company to pocket money that belongs to the residents. When these issues are brought up to management, it seems that there is very little care to address the issues over the long term.

Secondly, the building is in bad shape. It sticks out in a neighborhood of newly constructed or well taken care of buildings. The building was constructed in 2006, it is not even 20 years old but is in dire need of maintenance, stairwells have a mix of different paint colors, light fixtures do not match, elevators are frightening and archaic. The units themselves are “renovated,” meaning they got painted and had grey hardwood installed. For example, the cabinets were not replaced during renovation, but painted over, so tenants are left with poor quality finishes, that would be acceptable in more affordable housing, but not housing that is priced at market rate. The quality of the units does not match the price you pay, especially compared to what else you can get in Cap Hill, Cascade, or SLU.

Both of the units that I have lived in at this property have had issues and were extremely dirty when moved into. First unit has pet urine on the walls and the staircase, the second unit was overall dirty, dusty, and poorly maintained. Again, not matching the price that they charge for units here.

However, the biggest issue so far has been maintenance. When I moved into my second unit there were so many issues that should have been addressed by licensed contractors, but instead were left as is or covered up to make it look like they tried. Some issues that I encountered were bathtubs that need full replacements, doors that are so poorly fitted, you can see daylight coming through the side, water damage in the bathroom, shelves left over from previous tenants, poorly installed appliances, missing paint, rusting light fixtures, the list goes on. In order to get some of the issues addressed, I had to constantly email, call, and text for someone to come out. When someone did come out, the issues are resolved in a way that makes me question the background and abilities of the people they have working on units. For example, The front door of my unit had to be replaced, not only was the replacement painted the wrong color, but it was not correctly installed, so now there is more damage than it started with.

I honestly cannot in good faith recommend this building, no matter how low they price the units, no matter the signing offer, my experience has been deplorable and stressful. I will adjust the review if I see any improvement in how issues are resolved in...

As others have mentioned, the maintenance and front office staff are appalling.

A wooden tread on our staircase came off because the bolt holes were completely stripped. We submitted a maintenance request on March 19 to have it replaced. They didn't come to inspect the tread until March 27 and said they needed to order NEW parts on March 29. With no fix in sight, we reached out to the front office on April 8. The front office claimed that maintenance still did not have the equipment to repair the tread and was considering hiring someone else to fix it. It wasn't until April 17 that maintenance informed us they had fixed the tread THEMSELVES. However, on May 1, the same tread became loose again. We discovered that their "repair" involved inserting broken small twigs, likely from our front porch, into the bolt holes and re-bolting the same bolts back into the tread.

On May 1, I contacted the front office, explaining that this "repair" was completely inadequate and dangerously unsafe. I reminded them that RCW 59.18.070 requires building owners to commence remedial action within twenty-four hours if the defective condition is imminently hazardous to life. I received no response. On May 8, after I had fallen due to the broken tread, I reached out again. Still, there was no response. My partner forwarded the email to the front office on May 10. We didn't receive a reply until May 21, stating they had a plan in place and would reach out by the end of the week.

I went to discuss this situation in person since emailing was clearly ineffective. I asked them why there had been such an issue with trying to repair the tread, as we had been attempting to resolve this for over two months. One person in the front office claimed they were not aware of any issues with repairing our tread, even though this was the person directly replying to all of my partner’s emails. While discussing how this tread repair had taken far too long and how using twigs was a safety hazard, another front office staff member confidently said the repair was "temporary," as if this was a sufficient response. It was not only ignorant to assume that twigs were adequate for repairing Alley SLU property, but none of the responses we received mentioned that the repair was "temporary." After hearing this, I realized they had no intention of properly addressing the non-compliant safety hazard in our unit.

FRI and their staff clearly do not care about the safety and well-being of the tenants at Alley SLU, nor do they care if they violate Seattle tenant lease laws in...