GrandeVille at Greenwich — Local services in West Greenwich

Nicest luxury apartment I've lived in (and I've lived in several) in Rhode Island. Move-in process was smooth. Grounds, traffic, neighbors, clubhouse, gym, sauna, pool, trash removal - all excellent. The staff are nice and helpful usually, and the apartment was nice to live in with great appliances, clean and tidy appearance and good soundproofing (mostly). There are adorable bunnies that live in the area and they come out at night and during the day and their babies are about in the summer. It's awesome. The landscaping is wonderful, and the neighbors are good - no loud obnoxious noise (usually) and no rude, inconsiderate tenants. You are walking distance to a WalMart, Home Depot and BJ's, but you're at the end of the boulevard so you don't deal with the noise and problems of constant traffic to a WalMart. The lighting is good and the events they put on are pleasant (I only attended one during the Fall of 2021 due to the pandemic, but the trivia night was fun and well-done:). The business center was nice, and though I never used the pool or gym, they all looked well-kept and nice. The mail system is great - a nice LuxorOne remote access storage place to keep packages safe - although you're not in the type of neighborhood where packages will get taken anyways. The reviews here on Google convinced me not to look here at first because they said the road was bad (it is awful but not enough to not move here) and climate control didn't work, but it is the nicest place I've seen in Rhode Island - a hidden gem. Climate control not working is usually due to operator error (you need to manually turn on the gas in the carriage home, and there is a switch to flip at the bottom of the stairs for an electric heater - it takes 3 seconds to do all of this, although it's not obvious and they didn't make this known until the fall and mid-winter). My move-out process was very smooth, too. The price point is deservedly higher than other luxury apartments in Rhode Island, but that's because it's a league nicer in many ways. The more expensive places in Providence aren't worth it because, though Providence is nice and some of the apartments are, too, you have noisy inconsiderate neighbors (super loud biker groups and people who blast music at all hours) as well as petty crime (car break-ins, robberies, littering, etc.) that is only getting worse. If you work in Providence, the commute isn't bad. Bottom line, nicest apartment I saw in Rhode Island and worth the money. Suggestions - My neighbor's apartment flooded in the winter and the alarm wasn't turned off for three hours in the middle of the night. It took about an hour for an emergency maintenance technician to respond (which is somewhat understandable at 3 a.m.), but then another two hours to turn off the alarm. I stood outside in the snow at night in below-freezing weather for three hours, which is fine because I'm a healthy adult man and have been in much worse, but if I was older and in poor health, that could have been dangerous. The reason was clearly because the polite and helpful, but incapable, maintenance technician was able to help keep the flooding down, but didn't speak English and didn't know how to turn off the alarm. The main technician didn't get in until normal business hours and, again, although helpful, were I not understanding and in good health, most other tenants would have had a MAJOR issue with this. The solution seems to be to train all emergency technicians on how to turn off the alarm. Sometimes my emails about small fees would go unanswered, but usually people answered them and when I called they were very polite and helpful. The weather-proofing in the carriage homes needs to be redone - the gaps between the door and the doorframe are big enough to stick a pencil through, and it strains the climate control especially in the winter, as well as gives insects a nice highway to enter the apartment in the summer. That being said, it was warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and the occasional nature visitors...

Here's a detailed review of our experience;

My wife and I along with our two cats lived in Grandeville for a little over a year. Overall we were happy with our experience, but moved to be closer to our work.

I can only speak on the unit we lived in, which was a C3 Birmingham (2bed 2 bath 1608 sqft)

Pro's: -The leasing staff was helpful and professional during the move in/out process.

-The location of the community makes it very convenient to get around the state. Being right off I-95 makes it very easy to get around. Having places like Walmart and BJ's across the street from the community made grocery shopping pretty painless.

-The unit we lived in was huge in terms of space. The ceilings in the bedrooms and living room made the unit feel extremely spacious. Our unit also came with a balcony which we used frequently in the spring/summer.

-The only amenity we used was the pool. It was nice to sit by the pool when you didn't feel like battling the beach traffic and crowds. Mornings/early afternoons tended to be more of a relaxed vibe, while afternoons and evenings were more family-oriented.

-Parking is unassigned and we never had an issue parking in front of our building.

-We had a good experience with the maintenance team. It typically took 24-96hrs for the issue to be resolved. We did have one urgent HVAC issue that was resolved the same day.

-The property is well-kept, clean, and feels safe during all hours of the day. We probably had x3 decent snow storms while we were there and the grounds team had the parking lot and sidewalks cleared well before the morning commute.

Con's

-It is expensive to live here. This was our cost breakdown, obviously numbers change so check with the leasing office for the most up-to-date numbers. For utilities we kept our temp around 68-74 year round.

Rent: ~$3200 (this includes pet fee, water, trash, sewer) Utilities: Gas $30-80/mo and $220's (JAN-MAR) Electric $120-180/mo and $160-340/mo (JUN-OCT)

-For the price we paid our unit was very much out-dated in terms of appliances and finishings. All the appliances work fine, but cosmetically they are out-dated and decently beat up. I suspect that things will slowly be updated has they get to the end of their life cycle. For example, our washer broke and needed to be replaced. The replacement was very nice and modern.

-Depending on where your unit is located on the property you could have a nice view of the Walmart, the nursing home, other units, or border I-95S. We had a great tree-line view (felt like we were in VT when it snowed) but had I-95 right behind the trees. Be aware you will hear fast cars and trucks go by even with the windows closed. It really isn't that bad and overtime it turns into white noise.

-Could just an outlier but we had an extremely noisy neighbor. If they were loud you could hear conversations...

This is an update to a roughly 3 year old review I did of GrandeVille. Having rented at now 5 different luxury apartment communities in almost as many years, I think the 3 stars I initially gave was a bit low.

Originally I commented on aspects like location, the unit itself, and the condition of the road leading up to here. The location is fantastic! I consider it the best of all places I’ve lived at. Very convenient to 95, not far from work in Warwick, and plenty of undeveloped woods in the area. I wasn’t a fan of having laminate flooring in the living and dining room (prefer wall to wall carpeting….bucking the trend, I know). Bottom of the stairs in my unit got chilly in the winter. The A/C did struggle a bit in the summertime. And Center of New England boulevard is still a mess that appears to need a full-depth rebuild at this point to properly fix it. But not bad enough to solely rule out living here, just a consideration. The proximity to one of the nicer Walmarts around, as well as being just down the street from the state’s only Cracker Barrel, were huge benefits.

One thing I initially forgot to note is that parking can be limited so be mindful. The unit itself had nest thermostats which I started taking for granted back in 2018-19 but now sorely miss. And as for the need for upgrading the kitchen, that looks like it’s been done now.

Now for the rent. I thought the roughly $1,500 I was paying was high back then, but things have really soared in recent years. It appears the $2,300 or so being asked for the same second floor Augusta unit is not a fluke. I’ve effectively been priced out of here unfortunately. While rents have increased universally, the difference here is double what I’ve seen at other communities like the ledges at Johnston and my current home at ReNew Western Cranston. These are some of the largest floor plans around, and some units do have attached garages, which appears to be quite a rarity, so that could help justify the high prices. In the big picture, my paycheck hasn’t caught up and I wouldn’t be able to return if I was interested unless the rents moderated a bit.

All in all, this is a really nice community that was one of my favorites. You get more from here than a lot of other places, yet it does come at a cost. If you’re able to foot the bill, then it’s a place you’ll be proud...