Elysium Fourteen — Local services in Washington

Good day Bell Partners Team and Byron,

We are sorry that we are sending Byron's review months after our move, however, life and our new place got the best of us. Our experience at Elysium Fourteen was an incredible one. We rented at a lot of locations but Elysium Fourteen was the best rental experience compared to all the other rental places we rented from. The Community Manager Mr. Byron Tonic was what also made our experience so incredible. When we needed something fixed he would respond immediately by fixing it that day or the next day. When we had minor issues, which was once in a while, Byron would respond to our emails and address the issues quickly. You don't get that kind of experience with other rental properties. He made us feel like he was only providing a service to us. That personal attention is priceless when living in a rental property. The fixtures are like no other rental property, the apartments are like new and the name brand Bosh appliances are high quality compared all the other places we rented. The windows are close to sound proof, considering that it is right on 14th and U Street. We never had a noise issue. We still have friends in the building and they recently told us that they now added smart lights and plan to do future upgrades to the apartments. We loved that we felt very safe, which is what we were looking for in a rental property. We had no rodent or water bug issues at all. The building is super clean. We loved the gatherings that we had at Elysium. The events helped bring the Elysium community together. The building is amazing and the location is perfect, so it was a smart investment for Bell Partners Inc. The building doesn’t have a lot of amenities but they worked out deals with local gyms and fitness studios to include Barre3 on 14th Street, which is an absolutely amazing studio, so thank you for allowing them to be a part of the Elysium 14th Street family. Thank you for leaving the flyer up in the elevator. Once you have experienced Byron Tonic’s community management services and the building you will instantly feel that you made the right choice to become a tenant and to be a part of the Elysium family and Bell Partners. We felt really lucky to have experienced the best building Community Manager Mr. Byron Tonic and to have found the Elysium building. Now that we are home owners in DC, we will never forget our experience there and we will continue to recommend the building to our friends. Thank you so much again for an...

Kettler management has provided terrible service. Would not recommend given the high cost and low quality of maintenance and customer service.

I moved in July 2024 under Bell Partners management and the experience for me was excellent - responsive maintenance, professional and timely communication, well-maintained building. I happily recommended E14 to friends and colleagues.

Since Kettler assumed management in May 2025, service quality has collapsed completely.

Habitability Issues: • HVAC system fails repeatedly (reported 6+ times over 5 months) - unit reaches 78-80°F despite multiple maintenance visits • Water pressure severely degraded since first-floor renovation - no timeline for resolution after months of complaints • In-unit washing machine drainage issues unresolved after multiple reports • Call box non-functional for nearly 2 weeks

Security & Professional Concerns: • Unresponsive to security accommodation requests (important for many DC professionals) • Proposed lease renewal included invasive addendum granting rights to use tenant likeness/image for advertisements • Building manager is rarely present and, when available, has been rude when approached about these issues

The Impact: Under Bell Partners, I actively referred friends to this building. Since Kettler took over, 3 separate friends moved to DC and were interested in living here. After seeing these issues firsthand, all three chose other buildings. That speaks volumes.

Administrative Dysfunction: • Lease renewal delayed 2.5 months despite multiple requests beginning in May

Not Worth the Premium Cost: This is one of the higher-cost buildings in the area, but Kettler's management provides nowhere near the quality of service that price point should command. We're long past the "management transition period" excuse for any of this. The building itself is beautiful and well-located, but current management cannot maintain basic standards or accommodate reasonable tenant needs.

Update: I'll update this review if management addresses these...

cannot emphasize enough, PLEASE DO NOT MOVE IN TO THIS APARTMENT. I was 2 weeks away from moving into my apartment ( we had signed our lease a month and a half earlier). I then get a call from a leasing agent, Rachel, saying “just a heads up, the current residents aren’t moving out so you can’t move in, sorry!”. First of all, a thoroughly unprofessional way to handle this information. They offered no solution to the problem until I then proposed that I could move into an EMPTY unit that was similar to the one I had signed a lease for. They said they would look into it but it would cost $1100 extra, and they were annoyed that I felt they should honor our previously agreed upon rent amount. Management seemed throughly unconcerned with this price difference. When I pressed them to honor our previously agreed on legal contract for this new unit, they left me waiting for two days and were incredibly hard to reach at this time. I literally had to call multiple times a day, all day, to get anyone to answer. Another leasing agent, Kiara refused to give us upper managements contact information and just kept saying she didn’t know what to do. At last I was told I could move into the similar unit for more money, however the unit was not actually empty as they had previously said, and instead I would have to move in over a month later.....may I remind you I was less than two weeks away from my move in date. The management acted as if this was a common occurrence and they should not be held remotely responsible. I had to repeatedly hound them to get any answers to this predicament and they acted bored and annoyed when I would call back when I failed to hear from them as promised. Overall, I am glad I don’t have to deal with this management long term and seriously caution anyone to try and deal with this incredibly incompetent, inattentive, and lazy staff. Clearly a legal agreement and signed lease means nothing to them. Save yourself the stress and...