Cortona at Forest Park — Local services in St. Louis

This is a late review so things may have changed but here is my experience.

I lived here for about 4 years and moved out in the middle of the pandemic. In the first two years there was an incredible staff getting everything right. And then the building was sold to another company and things started to get worse.

The staff has no idea how to manage such a large building. I doubt that they ever lived in a big city or have any experience with condominiums. They were so terrible that I've seen them stage a bogus scene for what appears to be a manager visit.

First of all if you move to this building you should know that anyone can walk in to the building. The main entry is open during the weekdays. They only close it during the weekend. Side entry's are card only. There is however no security during the day time.

The management may decide to enter your building unexpectedly. You are only notified a few days in advance. They have to replace CO2 detectors twice a year and cannot plan ahead of time. The first administration was extremely cautious, making every attempt to respect everyone's time and privacy. Later management treats it as a college dorm.

The management handled the pandemic poorly. Ignorance was clearly apparent. They have made little effort to educate tenants and have essentially pretended that nothing is happening, other than the placement of disinfectants throughout the halls. People became infected with Covid, and we had no idea where they were residing. Management was never proactive in keeping everyone informed.

There is no generator for such a massive building, which is common for such condo-complex in many cities . We've seen outages that lasted days, and everyone had to empty their refrigerators to avoid being poisoned by spoiled food. This happened several times. When there is a tornado warning in the winter (which happens a lot), expect to be in the dark. I once got caught in an elevator and had to contact 911 for help. Firefighters literally saved me.

There is a pool and a gym, however tenants cannot use it. With strangers around, the pool, in particular, transforms into a vegas-style party pool. People drink excessively, and there was always a mound of debris around the pool that has not been cleaned in days. The pool was always dirty. The gym is too small for the size of the building and is frequently overcrowded in the morning and evening.

The corridors were also constantly filthy. There isn't enough vacuuming or cleaning. The building is severely understaffed.

The materials utilized in the units are total garbage. Cheap plumbing is a constant source of problems.

Happy hours are typically planned to create a phony sense of community. Under the original management, there were well-organized ones, but it eventually became a burden for them. The personnel does not put in adequate effort. You can have good BBQ once in a while, but just once a year. They should invest more into community events however it is still good that you get the chance of meeting with your neighbours and make friends.

They do a few things correctly. First and foremost, package management is efficient. In four years, I have never had a missing package or any difficulty obtaining my package. They have separate parking spots for electric vehicles, and the monthly parking fee is inexpensive.

If you have a car, the location is fantastic. You would not want to live here if you did not have a car. The forest park is not easily accessible. It takes 15-20 minutes to walk to the park, and it is not a safe route. However, once in the park, there are plenty of opportunities for walking and cycling.

There is a fantastic coffee shop nearby and Jimmy John's is a plus. Highlands plaza is safe and quiet to walk at night.

The structure could be ideal for recent graduates searching for a place to live. I would not recommend this building to working professionals. Every day, fresh possibilities sprout up in the city.

Things could change under new leadership with greater...

A great apartment community with absolutely amazing management and maintenance team. Everyone working here is an absolute professional. Maintenance is always very prompt and works around the clock to help you with your needs. If you have emergencies or urgent requests they even come late at night. The leasing office does all the right small things that make you feel at home; from holding packages for you to leaving them in your apartment (upon your request), they really do help you out. Sam and Mary were the primary people I dealt with for most of my stay here and they were very kind and accommodating. My limited conversations with Jake have also been the same experience. Even the security guards that patrol at night make you feel well protected. My family visited a while back; they arrived late at night and they saw the security guard at least 3 different times within the span of about 15 minutes of me walking them around for a quick tour. That says a lot given that most of the time security simply stays stationary somewhere. These people actually walk the premises and the parking lots and everything. Whoever is doing the hiring and managing of the property is doing a great job. The only critique I could possibly have is relatively small. The building is kept in great shape most of the time however I would say the hallways, elevators, etc. could be cleaned a little more often. The gym has everything you need to lift weights or do cardio, but it also could use some more attention cleaning-wise. I often find dust/dirt on the floor but its relatively minimal although it'll be a random chunk. The floor mats in there recently started lifting up and it hasn't been attended to, at least not that I've seen. Im sure the hesitation is due to there being a giant, heavy cable machine on top of it. Again, they're minimal things that are honestly blown out of the water when you factor in the rest of the property management's work. I would recommend moving here, especially if you are new to the...

I've lived here between 2023-2025. While the apartments themselves are fine- it's the experience living here that I have been having constant issues with. We moved into an unfurnished apartment that had paint splattered all over the floor and bathroom/kitchen counters. We asked them twice to remove the paint yet the paint splatters were never removed.

From the time we moved in till we left we were battling an invasion of worms (millipedes?). While they did try and spray for them the problem never went away.

The apartments sit without water for hours during the day several times a month, sometimes with enough notice and other times with only an hour or two before they switch it off.

The one parking gate was broken for months, and after submitting requests to fix it the requests were marked as completed without doing any work to the gate itself, telling us they know that it's broken.

Expect to have them enter your apartment for so many different inspections multiple times a year, dragging mud into your apartment in the process. Instead of trying to schedule everything at once, they drag this out by constantly invading your privacy.

Grills were usually pretty dirty, catching on fire from all the fats and sauces on there from the days before. Clearly they're not cleaned often enough.

But on top of all this it was the management with their list of excuses and attempts to gaslight us into why we're making things up, or why it wasn't an issue.

A shame that this is the first 1 star review I've given.

Edit: Management called asking for feedback and ended up attacking instead of listening saying the...