The Yards Collection — Local services in Washington

Don't move here-- they'll offer you a move-in special that they don't intend to honor & then the leasing office will ignore you .

I chose to lease my apartment under the pretense that the first full month's rent would be free, and that my amenity fee would be waived due to my active duty military status, as advertised on the website and by my leasing agent.

Sometime during my move-in process, my leasing agent quit and no one informed me or followed up with me; my welcome experience to Guild was a text from my (former) agent telling me to pick up my house key from the concierge at Twelve12 on my move-in day.

When I noticed in my rental portal that I had been charged the amenity fee and the full month's rent, I immediately called and emailed my agent to try to get it sorted out. Of course I got no response since he had left the company and no one had bothered to follow up with his clients. It took multiple messages in the online portal and complaining about my issues in my move-in survey to finally get a response from leasing management. After explaining my issues, the leasing manager ensured me that I would be credited my amenity fee because of my mil status, but that my move-in deal had somehow changed from first full month rent free (~$2500 off), to $500 off, yet I was never informed of that. When I pressed her for details about when exactly the deal changed since I applied and was approved within 24 hours of touring (where I was informed of the deal in person, and read the deal on the website), she had no answers for me and said she would "do the full research and get back to me tomorrow." Surprise, I never got a response from her again despite multiple follow-up emails.

When the new leasing manager took over, I reached out to him concerning my same issues that had been left hanging. When he still had the chance to convince me to renew my lease, he was very responsive and appeared eager to clear up my leasing issues. However, once I sent my notice not to renew, he stopped following up on our email chains and it once again took multiple emails over several days to elicit any response. I asked several times for the regional manager's contact info so that I could work with them, and each time I would get a quick response with an explanation/excuse for the delay & my request for contact info conveniently ignored. I would get one or two replies then conveniently he would just stop responding until I repeated the cycle. Attempts to communicate with management in this complex are some of the most exhausting experiences I have ever dealt with.

It'll be a year for me here next month, and I still haven't been credited for my amenity fee (after being assured I would 3 times), much less my move-in deal.

My entire leasing experience has felt like a deceptive business practice and false advertising. On top of that, most nights when I come home to my "smoke free" building, the elevators & my entire apartment smell so strongly of weed or cigarette smoke. The vents in the bathrooms pump whatever scents your neighbors are producing (smoke, bacon, cookies, etc) straight into your space to the point where it's nauseating.

Also, It took months of complaints by multiple residents and numerous excuses and delays by management before any of us got our mail keys. Not to mention the non-stop construction under the west tower that literally had their apartments shaking.

Visually, this apartment has been beautiful-- and the maintenance & cleaning staff have been incredibly prompt and extremely professional. I wanted to love living here, but the blatant lack of care by management for tenant issues is what ultimately drove me not to renew my lease.

I wouldn't recommend this building to anyone; especially not active duty military-- they'll play you live a fiddle and laugh all the way to the bank. I originally felt like the move-in deal made up for the steep pricing and lack of amenities compared to other buildings in the area (pool, gym), but the joke was on me as I'm now out ~$3k that I was told I wouldn't...

On multiple occasions (6 by my count) - maintenance would not respond to maintenance request, or not resolve the issues at all. My thermostat/AC/heater would only heat to 76 degrees, or cool to 67 degrees, not much room for nuance. When I would put in maintenance request, they would enter without my consent, change a filter and do nothing. Additional service request yielded the same half-hearted effort.

Many residents would often complain about marijuana smoke permeating throughout the complex – a violation of the building rules. It appears all bathrooms were under a single ventilation system, so my guess is that another resident (or several) was smoking in their bathroom and it was spreading through this central system (the smell was strongest in the bathrooms). Complaints were put up on community boards and in the elevator – but management did nothing to resolve the issue. Whenever I would put a complaint through the online system, it would simply get closed out and was never acknowledged (6 times). Management’s public response was that they were unable to evict tenants, due to COVID-19. Got it, but simply ignoring the issue is not a reasonable solution. It was very frustrating to come home to the smell of bong water smoke.

My car was towed on property – long story here. There is a parking garage for the building, and on December 1, 2020, the interior door stopped working. I got stuck in the garage for nearly an hour before I was able to get out. I reported the issue to the front desk, and they were lost on what to do. Worried I would 1) not be able to bring my car out to head out to work (I’m in the military and often work odd hours) and 2) my car battery would drain due to the cold (all electric vehicle) I told them I would store the vehicle in the loading dock (on property). I’m not sure the concierge processed this, but nonetheless, my car was towed the next day. I’ll except the blame in that I should've come back to my car and moved it, but I honestly forgot. When I did go back out to my car the morning of the 3rd, I realized my car was probably towed, and I went to the management asking what happened. They initially claimed that no one towed the car and that the police probably saw it, realized it should not have been parked in the loading dock and towed it. I did not think that was not the case, as it was private property (I later confirmed I was correct). To summarize, they had my car towed, did not contact me, and then denied doing so. After a week of investigating, I confirmed they towed my car and rather than determine who the owner was, simply had it towed and denied doing so. Nearly 500 dollars later and two days off work, I was able to find and retrieved my car.

I moved in June 2020, during COVID. There were many signs/restrictions in the public spaces throughout the apartments but were not adhered to by residents. Week after week, there would be large gatherings (as many as 40 people in some instances) in these public spaces, with no one wearing masks. Due to the layout of the building, other residents would have to transit through these gatherings. Worst of all, these gathering would occur with concierges posted about 50 feet away, well within earshot. They did eventually tighten this up, but nonetheless, they were very slow to react.

For the amount residents pay to live here, I would’ve expected higher quality management and care, and this overshadowed the positive attributes of living here. Please read other reviews or this property, don’t just take my experiences, for better or for worse -- but I cannot in good conscience recommend The Guild due to the poor quality...

I lived here for one year. I do not write a lot of reviews, but I thought an honest review would be helpful for anyone considering this property. I’ll list the good and bad with some detail, but provide a quick summary first.

The Gist: Loved my actual apartment. Is it worth the inflated price and begging the leasing office to talk to you? I’ll leave that to you. Believe negative reviews about leasing and management. But check-out the units, common areas, and noise levels for yourself. I would personally never lease from Brookfield again—ever (Never ever).

Here’s the good stuff: Apartments are beautiful. Highly recommend the second floor—highest ceilings and biggest windows, unless you have penthouse money. Location is great! Yards Park is great. Right by the Nats and DC United. Riverwalk along the Anacostia is so pleasant. Lively enough, but quiet most nights. Quiet. Other than occasional hallway noise, I never heard my neighbors! Though I have seen plenty reviews to the contrary. Front Desk folks. Mostly friendly and helpful for basics. Nikki is the all-star of this team! Dogs. Lots of cute dogs.

Here’s the not-so-good stuff: Common areas. Fewer amenities than all the other buildings in this area and price range. And not that well maintained. Examples: courtyard fireplace never worked; decking in courtyard is buckling (good luck not tripping); grill out-of-order for months; broken gym equipment; etc. Maintenance. The staff is helpful and polite, but there will be issues and they will recur.

Here’s the BAD stuff: Price. Super inflated. Seriously, snag a place somewhere else with better leasing/management and more amenities. Your buck will go further elsewhere. Leasing Office. An actual nightmare. Never provide you with any information. Never answer the phones or call back. Never reply to emails. They are disorganized, unfriendly, and seemingly have no idea how to do their jobs. It is wild, y’all. For anything, it will take several calls and emails to various members of the office to get any help. And even then, you’ll get incomplete solutions and some attitude to boot. I have anecdotes galore to back this one up! I kid you not, it took me 3 months, countless phone calls, and emails to give them my deposit on an apartment! They fired people mid-leasing process and never let me know. They failed to send me a lease until 5 days after—yes, after!—the start date, so I ended up in a different apartment. (Don’t worry they lost a ton of money on the deal!) They will not provide information on anything other than lease renewal. They called 2 days after I moved out to ask when I would move-out. I guess they lost the form? Seriously, it’s all bad in the...