Elle of Buckhead

Great apartment and location! Across the street is Buckhead Atlanta which has a ton of restaurants and shopping. the staff is always friendly and maintenance is prompt to fix any issues inside the apartment. I am on a top floor so I do not have an issue with noise. They do have hardwood floors so I am sure the noise isnt blocked 100%… but that’s apartment living! The manager in the office is always professional and super easy to talk to! The interior of these apartments are gorgeous! Nicest apartment I have lived in. The rooftop and pool area makes for a nice getaway with friends. Would recommend to any of my friends moving to ATL!

I’ve lived at Elle of Buckhead for a little over a year now and highly recommend it. The office staff and maintenance team are very friendly and the location is unbeatable. I have a two year old dog, so having an area where he can run around in Buckhead was an amenity most properties did not offer. The park is perfect for him, and it’s quite a social spot around 5pm. The staff is great, any minor maintenance requests have been completed the same day I call them in, and the night concierge team are very nice. I see them more as I work during the day, they are normally walking around the property at night or help with packages. I’ve had no noise issues, despite the construction across the street (which is now over) and the area feels safe at night walking to and from Buckhead Atlanta. Great pool, ample guest parking, and by far the best location with shopping and dining next door. I’ve lived at several buildings in Buckhead and Midtown and this one is by far the best.

Terribly slow elevators.
Urine and excrement in common areas.
Unkempt hallways.
Management regularly boots tenant’s vehicles unnecessarily.
Less than helpful staff.

I lived at the Elle for 2 years and while the property appears to be nice, it quickly became evident that they used the cheapest possible materials during construction.
The overhead lights in the apartment burnt out every two weeks and had to constantly be replaced. Eventually, I gave up on having them replaced. The «wood» floor boards in the apartment are made of this cheap paper material that is extremely delicate. As a matter of fact, 3 of the boards had peeled up and required replacement before I moved in. I noticed these on the initial walk through.
The parking garage is filthy and Pharr road is SO much traffic due to the new mall that this location is an inconvenience.
The customer service at this place is also terrible. Often times no one is present in the leasing office so done be surprised if you find yourself waiting for over an hour.
Upon move out, I did not receive any notice of damages or other charges. It was not until 6 months later that I was contacted by a collections agency. I find this ridiculous and disrespectful.
Furthermore, most of the charges are not legitimate and some were even promised by the assistant manager upon move out that they would not be charged. However I did not receive this in writing and that assistant manager has since left the property. To make matters worse, the new manager is refusing to adjust the invoice and is refusing to speak.
All in all, I would not recommend living at this apartment. The building is cheap, the service is terrible, the traffic situation is awful, and you will be stabbed in the back once you leave. If you’re willing to pay this tier of rent there are plenty of other properties in the area to consider.

We lived there for two years and we loved it. The place is top of the class. The amenities are great. And the staff, in particular Leasing Manager Jonathan M., were always courteous and professional. I’d recommend anyone to check out The Elle. The location was great. The apartments very nice. And the experience memorable.

I’ve lived here for over a year and there are definitely pros and cons to living here but I wrote this review to give an honest assessment. If you’re apartment shopping in Buckhead and midtown most reviews are negative reviews and I think this place deserves better than it’s current ranking on Unilocal.To put this into context I have looked at the following and given what you get for the money at Elle I have chosen to stay another year.
Apartments I have looked at within the last 6 months: 05, Skyhouse Buckhead, 331 Ponce, Eon @ Lindberg, Residence, 92 W Paces, Terminus, Gramercy, and several others around Piedmont Park.
PROS:
Great location
Good interior fit and finish (granite, double vanities, hardwood floors etc)
Quite (largely dependent on your neighbors and location in the bldg so renter beware). I have only been kept up one night by noisy neighbors since I have been here and I knew they were having a party on a Fri night.
Parking garage is never crowded (I park in the basement).
Security — although some people leave the doors open I feel pretty secure at the Elle and even moreso I’m that much farther away from the Lindberg Marta station and close to a police station.
Pool
Amenities
Maintenance staff are usually on top of all requests
CONS:
Rent Rates — slightly above avg (+250) if you are looking in this range of apartments but the location and other pros above offset this. They also go up every year between 70 and 150… on average so be prepared moving in. The cheapest time to lease/​renew is between Oct 15 and the end of Dec.
Water/​Trash rates — I have a 2 bedroom and have to say that $ 130/​avg for water and trash is about $ 50 over what I would typically expect. Somewhat of a racket.
Additional key fobs — If your significant other visits a lot and hasn’t officially moved in they
must sign on the least (and be financially liable) if you want to give them their own gate fob and parking decal
Dog breeds — they limit no only the standard aggressive breeds (pits, shepherds) but also some smaller dogs like Chihuahuas so CHECK before you move in.

Disclaimer, I have not lived here, but the utter disregard of customers and lacking service was evident just from one visit to their welcome center.
The story: On a Saturday afternoon I walk in to see their apartments. There are 3 people working, one sitting on a phone call, another with a customer and the third just sitting there. I walk in to the available member of staff (Kaley) and ask to see an apartment. She asks me if I have an appointment… wait what?! I am trying to see an apartment, at a complex where they charge generously to keep sales staff on site and you are going to expect people to schedule appointments? Now, tell me, how should an unsuspecting visitor know that they have to schedule an appointment at this community? This is not a generally accepted practice in the business and a complete anomaly. I am not going to view a house that a realtor or owner is selling, I am going to view a complex WITH A DEDICATED TEAM OF SALES AGENTS. Anyways, continued…
Ok, I politely say no, and she says to come back in 45 minutes, even though she did not have any other customers there in the 10 minutes that I’ve spent in the welcome center. The other member of staff was already off the phone as well but also did not want to show anything! Three people, two doing nothing (presumably waiting for their scheduled appt people to show up) and one person doing real sales work. You are going to tell me this is an efficient way to spend the money that residents are paying for rent?
Nonetheless despite two of the three reps looking very available, her response was that they don’t have people to show an apartment! I was just wowed, at the price point we are talking about, they should ALWAYS have people available to show a damn apartment, there is just no excuse whatsoever.
This complex is so insanely overpriced but located in a high demand area, they feel invincible. They really just don’t seem to care about getting customers and judging by the other Unilocal reviews, does not look like they care about retaining customers whatsoever, I obviously can’t speak to that part.
So, let me end this with my hopes for this Unilocal review… I genuinely hope this will be one small piece to contribute to dissolution of terrible businesses like this that survive because of location and discredit their customers or especially potential ones.

My mother has been living here for two years. She raves about the management and staff. Jonathan, Jenna, and Kayleigh are always a great help to her. Whenever she has problems they make sure to take care of it. They take true interest in the suggestions my mother has brought up to them and do their best to implement it. The place is extremely well kept and has been a pleasure for my mother to live.

I lived there for one year and this place has some positive things as well. The apartments are nice, it is clean, the pool is awesome, they have ²⁴⁄₇ security service, gated community, rooftop with a nice view.
Now the negative: totally overpriced, getting in is like visiting someone in prison I assume, only a few visitor parking spots, you can buzz visitors in but you have to go get them because it only works for one door or the gate if they are not coming through the lobby. The worst thing for me was that it is freaking loud. And I’m not even talking about the construction. You hear every step of the neighbor above and you can hear phones ringing from your next door neighbors. The residents are often loud as well (talking about obnoxious rich kids). Oh yes and they puke in the hallways and the parking garage… And even with the construction being finished you still have the noise of leaf blowers at 1 am and trucks loading and unloading. Plus the whole complex shakes when a truck drives by.
When I moved out I got an email a few days later that I don’t have to come for the move out inspection since everything was fine. Three weeks later I get the final statement. First of all my end of lease date was wrong and then they wanted to charge me $ 125 for work they had to do on the hardwood floor… Still haven’t reached an agreement since I only hear back from them once a week. The floors were scratched before I even moved in, the invoice they sent me didn’t even have my apt number on it… To be continued.
I wouldn’t move in there again. It looks awesome and I was a little blindsided by the luxury look but after a year I can honestly say this is not worth the amount of money you pay ($ 1,300 for a studio).

This place is absurd. My girlfriend lives here and I visit a lot. They have about 15 visitor spots available to park, even though there is AMPLE parking around. They booted my car, $ 75 a day, even though I had a written letter from the person on staff saying not to boot because there were no spots available. This place is a racket, they must be getting a piece of the parking fee otherwise their idiots for pissing off so many residents. Oh, and their hot water last about 10minutes so I hope you shower fast.

I’ve lived at Elle for a few months, and I will not be renewing my lease.
Despite the beautiful apartments and nice views from the gym, the people that work in the office have ruined my experience here.
I travel for work during the week, and one Monday I came out to my car (after not driving it for a week because I was out of town) and found it booted in the parking deck. I noticed that my parking pass had slid out of view (apparently the passes are actually stickers), I had to pay $ 525 to get my car unbooted. I went to the office later that morning and I asked them if they could help me out in this situation in a really respectful manner (I have seen angry residents — and no one likes to deal with them). Instead of showing any sort of empathy — the property manager wanted to focus on how I must be dumb because the parking passes are stickers. It’s probably not a good idea for a manager to try to belittle the intelligence of their residents in a luxury community.
I told my story to a couple friends who were looking to move here. Some of them were immediately turned off and others still came to the office to look at apartments. I had two friends who felt mistreated by the leasing agents in the front office (rude, unattentive, and did not show them apartments because they said they didn’t have time — it was 1:30pm).
It’s really disappointing, I wish they had a friendlier staff. I am not the first person to experience this, and I wish it didn’t bother me as much as it does because moving is a pain.

I’ve lived here for almost three months now and I must say I really do love it here. Sure it does not have a high rise view of buckhead, but it definitely has one of the best interiors and pools around for the money.

I’ve been here for around 14 months and about to move to other cities
here is the update and I only talk about negative things here, all the good things are in my previous review:
1. a lot of annoying people moved into elle
extremely loud music in late night, like 12 a.m.
play music in public business office room
2. Gym’s TVs often respond to remote controller in very wired way.
slow response or only respond after several commands
it’s never been good since the very beginning

I consistently hear about car break-​ins and if car doors are left unlocked, people come back to find all of their things riffled through.
This is in the GATED parking deck, one of the reasons we moved in. Our friends even had their car stolen from the parking deck. The issue is that the gate stays open long enough to let 6,7,8 cars through– there is no arm that goes down between each car.
One of the biggest problems I have with this issue is that the people that don’t want to pay valet at the Atlanta Fish Market take up all of the visitor parking on the bottom level and then some even wait for the gate to open and go to the top to walk down. I have mentioned this to people in the front office… What will happen when the shops across the street open?
The bottom gate is consistently open because someone keeps running into it. Not safe. Recently there were apartment break-​ins. The reasons we moved to this building are starting to wear off.

To paint the bright side of the picture first, I’ll explain the positives. The amenities in the building are nice. The poolside, rooftop deck, and internet café are nice to have and certainly nice to show off to visitors. The courtyards and grilling areas as also very beautifully landscaped and convenient. These amenities, however, are not the defining characteristics of the Elle for me. It’s difficult to acknowledge the positives about living with here when the most basic standards of living are ignored.
My biggest complaint is the construction for ‘Buckhead Atlanta’ that is directly across the street on Pharr Road. If your unit faces the street, there is no escaping the incessant noise. There are city noise ordinances in place to prohibit construction between certain hours. Trust me — I’ve looked them up and sent complaints to Elle management, had several conversations with the construction supervisors across the street, and even called the police multiple times. Nothing has improved in the last year.
My unit faces Pharr Road, and my bed is about 50 ft from the construction. I’m usually woken up between 5:30 — 6:30am during the week to a wide range of very loud sounds:
— Large diesel trucks unloading materials (beeping loudly as they reverse into position)
— Jackhammers hammering away
— Electric drills cutting tile and façade work
— Cement trucks mixing concerte and laying sidewalk
— Construction workers yelling at each other on top of all this noise
A combination of all these sounds is normal on a given day, and I’ve never been so sleep deprived in my life. Every weekday of this month, I have been woken up before 6:30am. I’m a relatively heavy sleeper and even started wearing ear plugs to bed, but it’s impossible to block out noise that’s this loud. I remember one time, I was also woken up at 3:45am on a Saturday morning to jackhammering and was also kept awake until 2:30am on a Sunday night (Monday morning).
The leasing office may try to spin the truth and say that construction noise is limited to daytime work hours, so you won’t be affected by the noise while you’re at work. However, this is false. The construction workers usually stop their main shift around 5pm during the week, but they certainly start way earlier than most people like to wake up (5:30am-6:30am) and randomly work into the night (even on weekends). If you want an accurate assessment of when the noise actually starts, try visiting the Elle during the morning instead of just relying on a conventional tour. Trust me, it’s worth knowing before you sign a lease.
I understand that Elle management are not the ones causing the noise. However, they add fire to the fuel because they’ve done nothing to convince the construction company to stick to reasonable hours. They’ve completely ignored our complaints. I’ve had family and friends stay overnight in our guest bedroom, but I’m now embarrassed to invite anyone over because they can’t sleep. For the amount of money that’s required to live here, you would think that such a basic issue could be improved. This has persisted for almost a year.
Even when the construction noise has stopped for the day, we can still hear cars and trucks drive by. It’s hard to watch a movie in the living room without straining to hear. On Thursday night every week around 11pm-​12am there is a motorcycle ‘gang’ whose route involves driving past the Elle, MULTIPLE TIMES a night. If there is a police or ambulance siren driving by Peachtree Road (a block away), you will be woken up instantly. If a particularly heavy SUV or truck drives by on Pharr, the walls ACTUALLY shake. I’ve confirmed with several of my neighbors in the building that this happens to them too. It’s almost like living next to the railroad tracks or like in the Jurassic Park movies when the water glass shakes as the dinosaurs roam by. We feel our apartment rattle and shake about 10 different times a day on average, depending on the amount of traffic and the amount of time we are actually at home to witness it, which is getting less and less. I try not to spend as much time at home anymore. I’m working longer hours at work just to avoid the chaos at home. How sad is that?
Even if your unit doesn’t face Pharr Road, you will still be affected by construction. Pharr Road frequently shuts down to a one-​way street meaning you need to wait an additional 20 minutes to be allowed in or out, multiple times a month.
**Construction isn’t supposed to be finished until well into next year, 2015.
It’s sad to be so frustrated over a place as beautiful as the Elle. Before I moved in, I was completely sold on the sleek interiors, high-​end amenities, and the location. If I were on the market today for a high-​end Buckhead apartment, I would check out 92 West Paces, Crescent Terminus, The Residences at Buckhead, or Camden Paces. Elle of Buckhead is definitely not worth losing sleep over and definitely not worth the money.

I have been at the Elle of Buckhead now for over 6 months. So far I can say I like it fairly well and it has positive and negative aspects to it like most any place would.
To start of with I will give the positives. The staff is wonderful and I have never received anything but great service from them from our tour of the building until now. No complaints there. The amenities are wonderful and are well maintained for the most part. Also, it is conveniently located with plenty of places within walking distance. Considering its an apartment I don’t find it to be that terribly loud. It has great wow appeal when you have people over for the first time. The view from the rooftop facilities is increadible.
Now to the bad. It is expensive, even for this area. If you are remotely capable of buying a condo I would look into that first, you will save a lot of money per month. If you are unable to buy, I would consider looking in the Lenox area as it is much more fairly priced. The gate to the bottom floor garage seems to be consistently broken. Now, often they will have a security guard there overnight but that isn’t all of the time. I have also had my car gone through at night before. Granted my locks did malfunction and did not lock when I thought they had but none the less the gate didn’t seem to matter and someone was clearly trying to get into vehicles. Also, the trash chute at the dog park side is consistently full to the point that there are bags of garbage filling the room that the chute is in.
Generally speaking things are good at the Elle. I just feel like for the amount of money people pay to live here certain safety features like gates should be better maintained than they are. If you are on the upper floors of the deck (2 and up) this isn’t an issue.

I also want to add a positive review, because it seems that all negative reviews are from people who don’t live here.
The apartment is really nice and very well equipped. Nice bathrooms, nice lamps, washer, dryer, granit counter tops …
And endless possibilities to stow your stuff.
Also the staff is really nice and always helpful.
The rooftop patio is top. The swimming pool as well although I wouldn’t mind a heated pool. And if you want a steak… just use one of the community gas grills.
So just to summarize, I really love it to live here. I wouldn’t call it super luxury, but definitley an awsome place to call home.

I have lived here about 3 weeks and this is by far the worst apartment experience I’ve ever had. RUN!!! You walk in the leasing office and see all the amenities and think this place is high class and that you will be getting what you are paying for. RIP OFF!
First and foremost, the engineering of this building is ridiculous. I can hear every step my neighbors above me are making. I can literally hear them open their bathroom drawers, open and shut doors, conversations, etc. They aren’t being loud; there is just zero noise insulation. At first look, you think the floor and cabinets are great quality. Don’t be fooled. They scratch with the slightest pressure. Our floors were all messed up before we even moved in (we were the first people to live in this apartment).
If you do have issues don’t count on them answering your call at the leasing office.
I hope you don’t have any friends because there are maybe 10 visitor parking spaces for this complex. And it’s always full.
And the kicker, we were told when we signed our lease that we were getting the first 2 parking spaces on our floor. We are paying $ 75 per space for these reserved parking spaces. When we moved in they moved us back 2 spots, then again another spot. I got a call this week that they messed up and now moved us back another spot. I woke up this morning to my car being BOOTED. I’m paying them $ 150 per month for parking and they just booted my car!!! It took them 3 hours to get the boot off.
Worst company, management, and all over experience from any place I have ever lived.

I’ve been to this complex 3 times — once before the building was complete and the leasing office was next door to ProMove; and twice within the last week, once to view by myself and the the third time to view with my cousin because she was interested in moving there as well. Let me first start by saying the property is nice, great views, nice interiors, but that’s where it ends. You can basically find the same thing an most newer apartments in Atlanta.
I called several times to try to make an appointment days prior to my visit with no answer. So I felt that since they closed at 5 p.m. on Sunday that we could stop by for a quick view.
I arrived at 3:45 p.m. on Sunday, July 14 only to be literally stopped by the leasing agent before I could get 2 full steps through the door to say that they have stopped showing apartments. She had two people with her who she looked like she was about to show an apartment to. She asked me if I could come back another day and I explained to her I couldn’t because I work during the week and I don’t get off until after they close. So she just told me that she would tell Alonzo (the leasing agent I had seen previously) that I came by.
I work in marketing now and have worked in leasing before at a luxury mid-​rise apartment community very similar to Elle of Buckhead and I know how it is to work by myself on a Sunday. However, the leasing agent didn’t show good customer service and basically turned down two potential leases because she refused to show us. I know that most communities stop showing 30 minutes prior to closing, which would’ve been 4:30 in the Elle’s case, but I arrived at 3:45 which in my opinion was plenty of time to show us and we didn’t mind waiting to see the property until she was back from showing the other potential residents.
As of right now, I still haven’t received follow-​up from the office and at this point I don’t think I would consider moving to the Elle. My lease ends in Sept., and there are way too many apartments in Atlanta to choose from (who aren’t charging $ 1900 for a 1 bedroom) who have better customer service.

1.5 stars: Yikes!
Overpriced for this market and full of additional fees.
Valet garbage service at Elle is mandatory which is one of the biggest rip-​offs ever to come to the sensible people of Georgia since Coach Donnan. In a nutshell, you set your garbage out in the hallway at a very narrowly specified time. A group comes and transports it to the trash chute down the hall. It leaves a wonderful miasma in the hallways of garbage juice and decomposing vegetables and foods. Yuck. Basically, valet garbage service is marketed to apartment companies as a way to increase revenue from monthly fees and the increased likelihood of assessing fines since the time slot for pickup is very narrow.
The construction is a big factor you should consider in this section of town. This building is a residential grade construction in the middle of a commercial district. What does that mean for you? A lot of noise, noise, noise. Apartment owners frequently build cheaply only to cause quality of life problems down the road. Lost sleep and quiet enjoyment equal more car crashes, less happy people, decreased productivity and so on.
Also, do not give this place your email address when speaking to a leasing agent, they use a service that will spam you almost every single day and it takes three unsubscribe requests to get removed.
Update (07/​16/​2013): I had to send the complex a cease and desist order for them to remove my email address from their daily spam.