University Lofts — Local services in Tucson

(sorry, this is going to be long and detailed) IN GENERAL: I lived here for one year as a graduate student and had an average experience. The building is relatively well maintained, but a bit old and undergoing updates…my porch light went out and it took over a month and a half to fix because the repairman had to change out all the wiring. However, management did just replace all the central air/heating units so they’re very quiet and very accurate to temperature…very good in the heat of the summer and the cold of winter. I lived on the 2nd floor out of 3 floors. And I had the un-remodeled unit, which was a bit old. And I don’t think the floors were too thick or sturdy because I could hear everything happening in the apartment above me, which was really annoying at times, especially when you’re trying to sleep and people are just stomping around above you. The bedroom size is great, tons of space, and the living room is decent, but the kitchen is too small for anyone who actually cooks and wants a functioning kitchen. The kitchen occupies just one wall, with fridge, stove, small counterpace, and sink all in a row. It’s almost like a mini kitchen that you would find in a hotel. But as a person who likes to cook, this did not work out for me. I only had about one foot of counterpace to chop, mix, and prepare stuff on. In the end I got another table to place in the living room where I could prepare my food and then just move back and forth to the kitchen area.

WHY DID I MOVE OUT? After living in Tucson for some time, you learn that there are monsoons...and the WORST part about my apartment was that EVERY time it rained, I would get cockroaches coming up my drains and into my room. They were HUGE and fast! And I am not a dirty person, with food crumbs everywhere and junk everywhere, so it was very alarming to get cockroaches, on the 2nd floor, every time it rained. I told the management and they said oh yeah that’s normal, just pour bleach down the drains…which I did, and it helped sometimes, but I don’t think that’s normal, and its not an experience I’ve heard from many of my other Tucson friends. All in all I did not enjoy living here. After about 3 months I was ready to leave, but I stuck it out for the remainder of my lease…with tons of bleach and a makeshift extended kitchen table area.

LOCATION: The complex is in a good location for undergraduate students, walking distance from campus and from the University Ave bars and restaurants. But I found that as a grad student, this location is not too good for studying. The neighboring fraternity houses and the high number of undergraduates living in the area provide a constant source of noise. If you need peace and quiet to study, I suggest another place.

PARKING: Parking is not guaranteed. There is some limited free street parking if you want to take your chance, or some permit-time spots if you want to move your car around a lot during the day or risk getting a ticket. There is a dirt lot, some paved, and some covered parking, but unfortunately there is not enough to just give parking to all residents, so that’s an additional fee. And the parking area has a ton of potholes, so beware if you have a low car.

LAUNDRY/POOL: While I was staying there the laundry machines broke down several times and because they took so long to fix, I had to find other places to do my laundry. Also there is only a laundry room on the bottom floor, which is not as convenient as those complexes with laundry rooms on all floors. There is a pool which would be nice to chillax at during the hot days, but there is a tree right next to the pool so there are constantly leaves in the pool and at times it was kind of a funky green color, so I never...

Entire two year experience wohoo!

Lived here for a total of two years, two companies ran the place in that duration. I think they’ve been bought out or something, I am unsure. However, the worst thing to happen was when I left.

They scammed me out of my security deposit, it was about 950$, and what was returned was less than 10%. I even had to leave earlier than the contract which was confirmed by their staff, and an employee came to do the final checkout. He saw the place and said, and I quote directly “this is one of the cleaner one’s I’ve seen”. The place was left clean, with everything being the same as when I originally took the place except for one thing. The plastic blinds were broken for one small section of the window, besides that, NOTHING ELSE. So, were now talking a month or two after I left, I got the check, and it was the amount (

RUN THE OTHER DIRECTION... My experience with Bright Properties was an abysmal one overall. For the first two years of my residency at University Lofts, things went fairly smoothly and issues were dealt with in a timely manner. My last year, however, things were awful. My shower flooded my bathroom due to shoddy plumbing and there was zero urgency in addressing this, resulting in mold and floor warping. The tenant above me was an absolute nightmare; normal apartment noise is no problem to me but living under a night club that is apparently open 24/7 is unacceptable (see full review for the various lit musical selections that came from the un-affectionately named "Klub Lofts") . My bike was stolen and my car was broken into due to the somewhat sketchy surrounding area and the non-existent policy on towing cars without Bright Properties' stickers. Perhaps the only amusing thing over the past 4 month ordeal was watching severely inebriated members of the neighboring "Country Frat" chase people around with lassos (don't worry, they didn't catch anyone) and pee behind copious amounts of pick up trucks (I wouldn't walk through their part of the dirt lot to get to class if I were you). Please see the link to a Google Doc for the full review posted below; I had to add asterisks to be able to add the link to the full review so just remove the asterisks. You may want to grab a snack and settle in, it's a long one. **Also, there are reviews on many platforms including this one, that were the result of Bright Properties offering tickets and incentives in exchange for positive reviews around March of last year, thus the result of the spike in positive reviews from about a year ago; potential leaser...