Sentral First Hill — Local services in Seattle

I've had a ton of problems with the new staff here after Daydream started running it. The same exact thing happened at my previous apartment where another company acquired it during my lease and everything was a lot worse. I signed a lease with Holland, and they were great. Now, no one knows anything when you ask questions. Also they never answer your emails if you email the general account when Holland would answer my emails within a day.

Some people roll their eyes and don't get you your packages. Other people insist they will not check if you even have packages unless you have confirmation of delivery. They keep your packages in a room that you cannot access where you get no notification of delivery and then don't want to check for you. I have asked sometimes for one package and gotten several I didn't know about that arrived months ago, so I don't see why they make it such a big deal when I want to check since I don't get any notification at all, so I have no idea.

Some of them are nice like Azuree at the front is very helpful and kind and the maintenance is great and responds to work orders very quickly and does a great job. Overall the building itself is very nice and clean, but there seem to be at least 20 people who rotate in and out, so it's rare to see the same person twice. They also work at different properties on different days so no one is there the entire week.

Also the amenities have been closed for almost the entire year that I've lived there. This is understandable due to the pandemic, but I've been paying pre pandemic rent prices after losing my main source of income. There were no concessions and we were still paying for all the amenities while rents are going down the entire year I'm stuck on this lease of a price that is much too high in the pandemic market.

Update: I decided to move out because after signing my renewal they "lost" my lease. Then it took a huge effort to figure out how much they would charge me. The manager Jenn was giving so much attitude because I wanted to know how much my rent would be after renewal after they "lost" my signed lease. She said why would she know such information when she is the manager.

She emailed someone to give me the information and cc'ed me on the email. Turns out she didn't really ask them my main question, so they didn't respond to it. I had to call another office to find out. I wanted to know asap I would need to give notice in the next 3 days to leave, and I wanted to leave at that point but then thought about staying because it would be such a hassle. Finally after a ton of unnecessary work I found out that to sign it again it would cost more than the original renewal that I got the month before as they "changed their policies." Also the same model apartment I was living in just rented out for $500 less than I was paying, and they wouldn't match that price or even close to it when I asked even though I could have applied to that other apartment. It felt very sketchy, so I decided to leave but had to scramble to find a place in a few weeks which was very stressful. After moving out and scrubbing the whole place down for hours, they are now charging me $200 for a cleaning fee which is basically the whole deposit just because they can. This building is a total scam. I would not recommend it to anyone.

Now living in my new place I am so glad I left. My new place is in a better location, is cheaper, the building is just as nice, I have a better view, and my apartment is much larger. The price for what you get with the management and the super tiny apartments is not...

The online process was horrific. Fees weren’t clearly stated before money was taken and it caused a lot of confusion. It’s also illegal to take money before lease viewing. We had to re-sign the lease twice-make payments twice-got notification on move in day that our reservation was going to be rejected due to these tech issues with the new system(alll very stressful). We drove an hour to speak to staff days before we were to take residence to clear this all up. Had we not done that we wouldn’t have moved in at all. Staff’s helpfulness and hands on approach to assuring us the unit would be here were the only reason we proceeded. Can’t say enough how they saved the deal-but the website was horrible. The fees just needed to be placed in fine print on the listing with the amenities (parking and pets are extra ). The door code didn’t work on our apartment upon arrival because of some tech issue but maintenance was on the spot immediately and showed us everything else we needed to know about the unit in advance including how to use the trash chute -so it was handled well! They even were willing to flex our move in time-but had we shown up at 4-who’s to say maintenance could have helped. All while we had luggage and dog in tow standing in the hallway. The units bed blanket were already covered in dog hair but we came with our own thankfully. There were some nice touches to make starting out nice; sponge, dish soap, towels, dishwasher tab, some toiletries and paper products and water bottles). Also a separate lease for stay clients would be nice-we had to ask about professional cleaning requirements etc. The sofa had stains that were gross and we did our own walk through to document damage that was done prior our arrival-and staff likely should do this with folks or at least mention it. But again we put that on corporate/policy not the building folks. They greeted and reassured us all along. Parking being assigned ahead might be a nice touch-and to include ADA. We were lucky and found a spot to unload but even that was dodgy after we checked every guest spot and it was occupied. Thankfully we had handicapped plates and could find one place to unload. The only extra touches that would be great are coasters and a valet bowl for small odds and ends vs art-but a minor detail. We just wanted to ensure we didn’t damage the beautiful wood table. The unit is beautiful and nicely laid out -and we did get cozy quite quickly. So some good-and some...

UPDATE JANUARY 2021:

I'm updating my review as the new manager Jenn has been on board for a few weeks now and is already making a really positive difference in how i feel about living here. This is the sort of management we have been lacking for several months where we had seriously considered moving out.

Jenn has already addressed some of the serious issues - she ensured the ongoing boiler issue was fixed ASAP, dealt with the parking issue and distributed parking permits, has seriously improved the way packages are stored by having them delivered to your apartment on those heavy mail days and she is also addressing the high turnover of staff. Importantly, she is not only doing this but she is frequently communicating this to residents (too much info is better than none at all!). We have been lucky to have the wonderful Azuree work here for the past few months and we are glad she is staying on in the team.

Hopefully she will start the residents Q&A evenings (that we had a whole 2 of before the first manager changed left) as this was a great way for everyone to safely get together and hear what is happening in the building as well as being able to offer suggestions and contributions, it felt like everyone participating (staff and residents) left those sessions quite content and positive so here's hoping we can start to get that community feel back.

Speaking of which - there were several suggestions and ideas mooted from those meetings (bigger parcel room, bigger pet area on the roof, some shade on the roof for the super sunny days and cover for those wintery wet days .. I'm sure there was more) that i hope we will see implemented in 2021 as they seem to have fell off the radar after that initial team of staff left.

I do still have concerns about the vision to have short term rentals, (though I suspect this will not be fully realised until long after COVID) and I am also not a big fan of using the pincodes to get around the property - the fob helps for common areas but I do hope that the ability to use a smartphone (that we were promised back in July/August 2020) is rolled out sooner rather than later

With more time and further opportunity to change things up in a good way, I'm hopeful that this place may feel like the 5 star property that it...