AVE Tampa Riverwalk — Local services in Tampa

I know when I read reviews - specifically regarding where I might live - I want them to be as transparent as possible; so that is my goal here.

The bad first:

Leasing started off kinda rough - we had an agent leave the company with no communication. Eventually, our leasing process was taken over by another agent. We ended up losing the unit we wanted as a result. We did end up with a unit that has a better location for the same cost.

I will say, it does feel like the unit we got could have received more TLC before we moved in. We have minor issues in almost every room - our kitchen has cabinets that are falling off, the built in desk isn't fully secured, the carpet in the bedroom is lifted creating a roll, we had to get our blinds replaced in our living room because they kept breaking, and my shower has spots on the floor that will not go away no matter how hard I scrub.

Speaking of my shower, it's a glass sliding door and the whole door has fallen off on me about 4 times. Maintenance (Leo) has been amazing about fixing it every time, but it took the builders coming out for it to actually be fixed.

I'll go out on a lim and assume the reason we got the unit we did for the same price as a lower floor unit, is because of these issues.

When we moved in, the building was at about 60% occupancy - it was quiet, parking was easy, & amenities were fairly empty all the time.

Now... the parking garage is a nightmare - I simply don't think people know how to park, that or the garage just doesn't have enough spots for the number of residents with cars. My car has been hit once already - while it was parked. There also are blind turns with no mirrors - I'm surprised I haven't seen any accidents, truthfully.

When August/September rolled around, I noticed a large influx of University of Tampa students moving in - they seem to be occupying the 2 bedroom units, cramming as many of them (4 total) into a unit as possible for cost purposes. This has significantly increased the number of people in the building.

The pool is almost ALWAYS packed - the worst part is that there aren't enough chairs on the pool deck to hold everyone (and by everyone I mean there's probably 24 chairs total). The pool also loses sun at around 3pm since it's not on the roof - basically, if you work a 9-5 you won't be getting any sun by the time you can go to the pool.

Now for more of the positives:

I will say, the building does stay fairly quiet outside of the amenities. There is construction right outside our unit & we hear it for sure, but it's not nearly as loud as it could be. In terms of neighbors, I don't really hear anyone above us.

I will say I am BIG on safety. AVE is one of, if not the ONLY apartment complex I've toured or been to in this area that has 24/7 on-site SECURITY. Many luxury complex's around here have 24/7 concierge, but that doesn't mean much to me in terms of protection.

We're also allowed to have Ring Doorbells as well - many other places do not allow them.

The leasing team and really all of the staff here are amazing - they are very prompt and meet my needs when issues arise. Ethan, Jess G, Thalia, Leo, Leo's sidekick who I don't know the name of :( , and Maggie - all amazing.

For the location of the complex, you are getting quite a LOT of square footage compared to say, Water Street. My bedroom here is about 14' x 12' which is HUGE compared to a complex like Cora where the bedrooms are about 10' x 10'.

Being right next to the Library, River Walk, and Straz Center is also nice. You can walk to just about anywhere around here. I do wish there were more restaurants/shopping around this area, though. For that you have to go to Hyde Park, Midtown, or Water Street.

Finally, I will say that the maintenance team does a well ABOVE AVERAGE job at keeping everything super SUPER clean all the time. They're also incredibly...

Been living here since May and for the most part it's been great. Responsive staff, clean public spaces and great amenities. Wonderful maintenance people and great central location to many places. 24 hour security is great and friendly. Parking is hit or miss. When I first moved in, parking was pretty easy but now it seems there's so many more people that it is now always tight to park. The corners in garage are very tight and it's a battle to get out without possibly cutting a corner to a surprising car going too fast making a wide turn. The apartment itself is new but there's many places where the finish may have been rushed or just not done well. In my bathroom, the marble has a brown substance all over that looks like dirt that cannot be cleaned no matter what since day 1. The shower grout also got on floor pan when they grouted the tile but no one made effort to clean so that permanently remains all over. The shower door seems to fall off it's slide often. Shelving is pretty flimsy and there aren't many storage spaces in apartment. All of these issues above are not a big deal to me as nothing is perfect but trying to be as transparent as possible.

Gave a 4 only because of 2 things that directly impact my experience so to others may not be applicable.

EV charging: they have 4 chargers here for a large building and the costs are absolutely insane. It only charges at a speed of 4 KW and they charge .25 a KWH as well as a parking fee. Normal charging session is around $10-15. If you leave your car parked once charged, you incur parking fee which can get expensive as it's a $5 an hour charge. Saw a person rack up to $80 recently. Talked to management about it and they seemed to genuinely care but then actually made little to no changes. When I moved there, leasing person made it sound like charging was free so if was a surprise to see such high pricing. This issue alone is the reason I'll most likely not renew.

Furniture - All apartments don't come with a standard island but they offer you the ability to rent it with your apartment. I had inquired the cost while on tour with my leasing specialist and she told me it was $50 to rent. I took her up on it but came to find out on my rent that this was actually a $50 monthly cost. Had I known that up front, I would have never agreed to rent a piece of furniture at that cost and instead went out to buy one.

EDIT: 3. Another big issue to me is the terrible mobile connection in the building. Luckily, the wifi is great but for some reason, mobile connection is not great...

AVE-rage Apartment is their name in reality is below average.

Live the Nightmare:

Building is wood frame which makes it possible for you to hear everything your neighbors do with that being said…

STAY AWAY from unit 620. Do not rent it as you will find undesirable neighbors in unit 720 who stomp, drag furniture and slam onto the floor consistently throughout the day and night. Be ready to live miserable lacking peace and quiet. Forget about sleeping courtesy of your upstairs neighbors.

I’m seriously concerned about the welfare of the Dog in apartment 520 who only comes out to the balcony to potty where fecal matter and urine takes over the 620 balconies.

Beware of the usual cleaning your upstairs lady will do since her mopping bucket usually gets dumped on the balcony leading to all that debris, dirt and sometimes bleach will fall on anything you have or yourself if you wish to go out into the balcony.

If you do rent it and complain your upstairs neighbors will make your nightmare a living hell!

Rented this apartment for 3/13 months out of which 2 I spent without a dishwasher.

Management offered as a solution canceling my lease and leaving immediately when management (Megan) went into my apartment and witnessed first hand the outrageous behavior of our upstairs neighbors. Technically I was evicted without a formal process or at least that’s how I perceived it since Management wouldn’t confront and impose some sort of consequences for the residents of apartment 720. I wasn’t offered at any point a rent reduction, What was offered was to move me out of the building but upon accepting the offer they had to talk to Thomas who immediately took it off the table claiming it was only if I wanted to move within the building.

Get used to intoxicated students and neighbors who won’t pickup after their dogs… I had a recurring neighbor whose dog would leave a price outside my door at least twice a week.

They are diligent to get you into a contract and collect payment but when it comes down to fixing something it will take days to weeks for them to reply or pay attention...