Parc Riverside — Local services in Washington

EDIT – July 2025 I need to update my review for anyone considering moving in: this building is NOT SAFE.

Last week, we received an evacuation notice by email. Yes—an email. No alarms, no door knocks, no calls, no building-wide announcements. Just an email sent at 9 PM, instructing residents to evacuate immediately but explicitly not to pull the fire alarm as it could “make things worse.” No explanation was given in that message or in a follow-up email sent 10 minutes later. I only saw these emails after 10 PM. Based on information found online, it seems this was due to a potential gas leak—something extremely serious. Thankfully, nothing happened this time, but the complete lack of a real-time, coordinated emergency response is terrifying. This building is clearly not prepared for any actual emergency. Do not rent here.

One more issue: pest control. They sent an email late Thursday evening (before the long 4th of July weekend) saying my unit would be inspected and potentially treated. Since this required access, and the nature of the treatment was unclear, I stayed home and worked remotely—which is not something I can just do anytime. No one ever showed up. I called the office after noon to find out they had skipped my unit without any notice or update. Yet another example of poor communication and disregard for residents’ time.

Before the edit: I’ve lived in both the East and West buildings of Parc Riverside since early 2023. At first, it seemed like a great place—well-maintained, good amenities—but by late 2023, things took a sharp turn for the worse.

On the West side, some pet owners treated the hallways like an indoor dog park, letting their dogs run freely and relieve themselves wherever they pleased. While the messes were cleaned, the carpets were permanently stained and smelled awful. This wasn’t just a rare occurrence—residents frequently complained in the building chat, and stepping onto the wrong floor once, I could immediately tell the same thing was happening elsewhere. On top of that, young children ran through the halls unsupervised at all hours, including past 10 PM. After months of this, I moved to the East side in April 2024, hoping for a better experience.

Unfortunately, things only got worse. Elevators started breaking down one by one, and now we sometimes go days without a single working one. One lobby elevator has been out for nearly a year, while the other is “repaired” only to fail again almost immediately. A neighbor recently got stuck inside for 20 minutes, and from what I heard, the emergency system wasn’t much help.

Then there’s the water issue—some days the shower is scalding, other days barely warm, and adjusting the handle does nothing. Want to take a relaxing bath? Only if you’re lucky enough to get the right temperature.

And then there’s security—or lack thereof. A resident was shot and killed in his own apartment. Management called it an “isolated incident,” but with frequent car break-ins and vandalism in the garage, it’s hard to feel safe. Meanwhile, young kids are often left unsupervised, and I’ve personally seen the concierge buzz them up in the elevator alone—which doesn’t exactly inspire confidence in building security.

How did management respond? With events scheduled at the least convenient times. The most absurd one? "Coffee with a Cop" at 10 AM on a weekday, with little notice, right after the shooting. And to honor the victim, they set up a temporary plaque right where food deliveries are placed—which felt more careless than respectful.

At the end of the day, this building is unsafe, poorly managed, and not worth the high rent. No matter what they offer, think twice before signing a lease—you’ll regret it...

We lived at Parc Riverside for 18 months and loved it at first. After moving in, construction really ramped up on the new building, which was a little inconvenient, but an understandable situation and one we knew was coming. What we didn't see coming, though, was the rest of the experience:

The Kitchen Appliances. The appliances are basically entry level stainless steel items. They seemed nice enough when we toured, but we quickly found that they simply didn't match in quality the price we were paying in rent. The oven heated exceptionally slowly and some of the burners cooked unevenly. The fridge was small given the size of the apartment, but these items alone might have been tolerable were it not for...

The Laundry Combo Unit. The stacked apartment washer and dryer in this unit is exactly the sort of thing you might have had in your apartment in college. It's small, it's noisy, and both the top load washer and the attached dryer had nasty habits of damaging clothing, even after being serviced: buttons ripped off regularly, the dryer routinely left black, permanent marks on clothing, and the dryer drum fell out of its track on numerous occasions. Still, this might not have been too serious, except...

The Elevators. Parc Riverside has two elevators that go to the lobby and one service elevator at the other end of the building. During the time we lived at PR, at least one elevator was out of service much of the time. In the last six months, there were multiple occasions where the entire building was running on one elevator. Wait times to exit the building or get up to the apartment could be as much as ten minutes when this happened. With only three elevators to use, if one went down and a resident moved in or out, the disruption could be substantial, especially during the week as people are heading out or coming back home. Still, our unit was on an upper floor and we liked the space, but then there was the...

Lease Renewal. When our lease was ready to be signed again, our rate increased by over 10%, meanwhile, none of the above issues looked like they'd be going anywhere soon. Further, the complex began charging a monthly fee to purchase liability insurance on our behalf, but their rates were higher than what our existing insurance provider was charging, even with the volume discount they must have gotten. Not cool. We might have gotten over paying so much more for the place, but then there's...

Parking. Parking in DC is always expensive, but after paying $200/mo for a space, I really didn't like how often I would get in late and find literally no space where my vehicle could actually park. The garage is shared with the neighboring building (condo apartments) and they often used PR labeled spaces like their own overflow space, worsening what, at certain points, was already a very limited parking situation. This got better toward the end of our lease, but likely only as a result of residents leaving. In fact, they eliminated more spaces as we were packing to move. All this said, you can't talk about PR without mentioning...

The Thin Walls. I've lived in apartments and condos for years, but for the rates you'll pay at Parc Riverside, you'll get all the sound dampening you would expect at a much older building for half the price. I could hear my neighbors sneeze in their living room. I knew when they went to the bathroom. Late at night, I could often tell you what they talked about.

Put all of these factors together and the business case starts looking a lot better to absorb the cost of moving to a higher quality property where these issues simply...

If you are thinking about living in Navy Yard, I highly recommend looking at one of the other several "luxury" apartment complexes in the area. There are several issues with living here, but just to name a few:

You would think if an apartment complex charges $250/month for parking that it would be safe, but that is not the case. My car was stolen out of the "secure" parking garage less than a month after moving in. Management's response, going up to the regional manager for Toll Brothers, was essentially: "That's unfortunate, but it's not our responsibility to provide safe parking to our residents". The security here is completely inadequate for the area, and management took zero responsibility and offered essentially no reimbursements or concessions. What a joke.

Don't expect to be able to make phone calls when living here. We live in the penthouse level (supposedly best reception), and it's borderline impossible to make calls. The cellular service (across all carriers like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile) constantly break up and drop. Both Wi-Fi calling and cellular service are the same, I've spoken to several carriers and they all say it's on the building to get the service improved. I've resorted to having to go to the roof to make personal phone calls. This has been brought up to management several times, and they essentially say it's not their problem (sensing a theme?)

They grossly overcharge for water and sewage costs. The previous tenant for my apartment unit was getting charged $150+/month as a single tenant. We told management that something seemed off and they conducted "tests" and said everything was working fine. Then I spoke with my neighbor who said the previous property manager told him that the majority of residents were getting constantly overbilled for water and sewage, and who also would get charged $100+/month when he was out of town the entire month. After telling management this information, they finally admitted something was wrong. That was about a month ago, and no communication has been sent since either to myself or the wider community. Pretty sure the "pools" on the roof are draining through the units and everyone in the building is getting overcharged. Management (at least the old property manager) was aware of this and chose not to tell its residents or fix its plumbing, while actively denying allegations. If it's not illegal, it's at the very least negligent and incredibly shady business practices.

Do not make the same mistake I did - live somewhere else.

Update (11/20): Another car was stolen out of the garage today less than a month after my car. Nothing was done to make parking secure after my incident. You are better off parking...