Lantower Westshore — Local services in Tampa

The good: Maintenance was always very quick to respond to issues The appliances are updated, and the apartments themselves are nice Staff is always very good about furnishing guest passes for the garage if you have guests staying over. There are a fair number of common spaces (pool, gym, game room, and office) which are quite nice and have been recently renovated.

The bad: I had my bike stolen within the first month of living there, despite it being locked and supposedly behind a locked door (the lock was constantly broken, and as a result allowed people access to the room even if they did not have a key They force you to use a 3rd party named Fetch as a parcel service for packages, and this is one of the worst companies. They lost multiple packages of ours for which they never reimbursed us. They force you to pay for trash valet service, which is supposed to pick up trash before 9pm. They would also get angry if you did not bring in your trashcan before the following morning. However, our trash was routinely not collected until 2-4 in the morning. We are not going to wake up early in the morning just because the 3rd party service you all use is often not timely. As a result, we just started taking the trash out ourselves (so in other words, we were paying for nothing). Your apartment will have waves of fruit flies, and there is nothing you can do about this other than have maintenance spray. We did not leave any produce out, and were constantly dealing with fruit flies. It got to the point where we were taking the trash out every single day, and plugging the drains at night. Move out: when moving out, my recommendation would be to not spend any money or time attempting to clean your apartment; they will charge you any way. In our case, they charged us over $400 for carpet replacement and for a deep cleaning of the appliances. Prior to move out (we moved out a week before our lease was up), I spent 3 whole days cleaning the apartment from top to bottom. This includes everything from wiping down and repainting some of the base boards, to scrubbing all of the appliances, to wet-vacuuming the carpet. We even patched and repainted holes that were in the dry wall that were there when we moved in! In other words, we literally left the apartment in better shape than it was when we moved in... When we provided evidence (photos of the carpet right before move out), the complex claimed that they spoke to maintenance, and the evidence that they provided that the carpet needed to be replaced was a bill... And just in case you think I might be a bitter former resident attempting to get out of paying, no. For instance, we accidentally put a hole in the screen, and we were unable to repair it ourselves, and we have no problem paying that 50$ fee.

Tl;dr: The amenities are nice, but the apartment is in a rough area, so anything not behind a locked door is likely to be stolen. They will gauge you at move out, so don't even bother wasting your time cleaning.

Edit: Now, that they have responded with more fabrication, I will also post photos. For the record, they responded to this review within 24 hours, but did not give ANY of this information in their email responses, and STILL have not responded to my last email (which was simply me asking them for evidence other than just a bill that the carpet needed to be replaced). Attached you will find photos of the carpet right before we left. There are no deep stains and we never bleached the carpet... They are also referring to the carpet in the "2nd BR". Our apartment is a 1BR apartment, so it sounds to me like they are responding to somebody else...

Update 2: I sent a second email the same day of their response to my review (in it, I asked for the pictures they purportedly had of the "filthy" state of the carpet and appliances); they have still not responded. I wonder why... But, they HAVE now sent the balance to collections, despite claiming they have "made...

I’ve watched this apartment community go downhill and figured newcomers should be warned about the numerous structural, managerial, and security problems that have presented since I started living here years ago.

PRICE: While the advertised rent is slightly cheaper than neighboring apartments, you will also be charged with monthly “lifestyle” fees that total up to $200. Nickel and diming residents is not luxury.

SECURITY: The garage entry gate and several pedestrian entry doors are constantly broken and left ajar. Maintenance takes up to several weeks to fix these issues. As a result, package theft is rampant. Not luxury.

FETCH: Lantower partners with Fetch, a 1.7 star rated (129 reviews) package delivery service that has had multiple complaints of stolen packages, dangerous drivers, and poor service. Worst of all, you’re forced to pay for this service and the contract you sign releases Lantower AND Fetch from liability for stolen or damaged deliveries. I have had Apple products, luxury items, and furniture stolen by these people with no recourse. This isn’t luxury.

PEST INFESTATION: My apartment has been plagued with drain flies and roaches since day 1. The weekly pest control visits (another monthly fee) has never fixed the issue. Drain flies have infested the plumbing of the entire building. Other residents I know here have resorted to covering all their drains with plates when not in use. Not very luxurious.

SEWAGE: I have woken up several times to sewage seeping out of my bathroom sink. There is a constant smell of sewage coming out anytime I turn on the water. This seems to be an issue across other apartments here as well, friends and neighbors have complained about the same thing. Sewage is not luxury.

NOISE: You cannot walk ten feet without a dog with severe separation anxiety barking at you. Management does not enforce any of its pet policies. The perimeter of the building is littered with feces. Constant noise and smelly premises are not luxury.

AIRBNB/EXTENDED STAY: Several are run out of this building, resulting in a rotating cast of visitors who make noise, party, and open the building for their friends. Fighting through a drunk crowd to get to your apartment is not luxury.

POOL: Due to the height of this structure and the courtyard style pool, there is limited sun that reaches the pool throughout the year. The grill adjacent to the pool has been out of order for six months. Longstanding broken amenities is not luxury.

MAINTENANCE: Only the first floor is cleaned and upgraded to provide a shiny exterior for apartment tours. Take a walk through any of the other floors and you'll find the dingy hallways that are poorly lit, filled with trash, and smelly. Not luxury.

VALET TRASH: Another mandatory fee for this service who only picks up trash 5 days a week. But even that is inconsistent - trash days are often completely missed across the entire floor. Trash collectors will often leave trails of garbage juice down the entire hallway, which are left uncleaned by Facilities for days on end. Hopping over trash puddles during my morning commute is not luxury.

PARKING: All spots are aggressively narrow. Your car will get dinged. Guest parking is severely limited, with maybe 15 spots total for the whole building’s residents. They recently further reduced available guest parking by zoning out a spot for paid, reserved parking. Management has also recently cut down on guest parking passes from two weeks to one week. Not very luxurious.

You can find newer, cheaper, and better accommodated...

DON'T DO IT!!! Looks nice at first, but you will regret it later! Rating used to be 4.5 when I moved in and now down to 4.1 (as of 3/6/20 and will continue to update). Nice building, but horrible management (see below).

I moved in recently and can't share my real name, because just as others have posted here, they will target you as a "problem tenant" if they identify you for voicing your concerns.

Today's (3/6/20) announcement from management: "The City of Tampa will SOON post "NO PARKING" signs in front of the leasing office and on the east side of the community and kindly issuing $30.00 parking tickets."

So you know, theses spaces are normally free guest parking spaces in front. Come take a tour and when you come out you will most likely find a ticket on your car.

1/31/20 announcement from management: "Effective immediately there will be a $75.00 charge for resident's that are locked out of an apartment during NON-BUSINESS hours... you will be required to provide identification and then pay by check or on the portal prior to being let into your apartment."

I never heard of a "luxury" apartment that charges tenants to get back inside, PLUS you can't enter unless you PAY FIRST!

12/18/20 announcement from management: "We have been receiving a lot of violations over the past week, primarily residents placing their bag of trash on the hallway floor and not using the trash bin."

It's not only garbage violations, but the city health has been brought in for the dog feces around the building that has been infecting dogs with intestinal parasites. Take a walk in front of the building and you will see the "no poop" signs that they were instructed to put up because of that.

12/4/20 announcement from management: "We have been getting many complaints regarding smoking."

Honestly, the list goes on, including: 1) horrible cell/wifi reception in building, but especially gym so forget music during your workout; 2) No space in parking garage and a tow truck that tows every night and can tow you by mistake or put an orange sticker that doesn't come off your windshield without damage; 3) the key fob devices don’t work a lot and you’ll be locked out and wait for people leaving to let you inside; 4) do you need more reasons? ... but so many problems for a premium "luxury" apartment price. The office staff are nice, but unfortunately do not know how to properly run this place. Don't be fooled by the nice downstairs gym, pool and common area they love to show off at first. Make sure to walk to the stairwells and hallways. We have seen trash left in the same place for a at least a week. The elevators also smell like urine. If you don't believe me, then take your dog into one and watch how they love the smell of the floor of the elevator.

Our family is debating breaking our lease and finding a new place in Tampa. We saw better places like Millennium and Novus nearby.

Bottom line, if they changed the management and stopped trying to nickel and dime you for everything then this would be a great place. Perfect example of a nice place run improperly. Trust me... DON'T DO IT! To break the lease you need a 60 day notice and 2 months penalty (so 4 months penalty overall to leave)! Read the contract well if you have money to gamble away...