COLE Apartments

Cole Apartments is the best apartment complex that I’ve lived in.
1. Location is literally unbeatable. You can walk to Zilker/​Barton (ACL, park-​life, swimming EVERY DAY, etc.) and downtown.
2. Staff is extremely friendly from office to maintenance. These people care and go further than I ever expected.
3. The apartments are beautiful. We were on the fifth floor, talk about a view (and vaulted ceilings.)
4. It’s affordable. For the quality and location, they have the best prices per square foot.
Thank you, Cole!

This apartment complex is great. Lived here for a year and wish I could stay longer but life is taking me to Atlanta. Parking is included in the rent and the staff is very nice. This neighborhood is amazing. I used to live on Soco and was skeptical the atmosphere would be as good but I was pleasantly surprised. I can walk downtown or take a run on the trail since it is right across the street. I have an incredible view of the city and the floor to ceiling windows are a huge part of this. I recommend this place wholeheartedly.

I have lived at Cole Apartments for approximately 2 months now. The location cannot be beat. My husband and I were looking for something near the city and near the park for our two doggies and we stumbled upon these apartments. I really enjoy living here. We have a great view of the city and our dogs like to sit on the patio on watch people walking/​biking/​driving on the street.
On the other hand, the apartments aren’t the greatest. You would think with the price we pay for rent, we would have nice cabinets, soundproofing, etc. but we don’t. I cannot hear my neighbors to either side of me, however I can hear every single footstep/​stomp/​vacuum/​etc. that my neighbor does upstairs. Its loud… really loud. Not like, oh… this is just apartment living and is to be expected when you have someone living so close. Sometimes I feel like running upstairs to make sure my neighbor is ok because she is so freaking LOUD! The other outside noises like the train and cars are to be expected because after all… it is the city. And there aren’t many tall buildings around to dampen the noise.
The girls in the office are really nice and always seem to help solve any issues we have. Oh, and I haven’t formally met a single neighbor since we have lived here. Not really a community vibe. All in all, I would probably spend another year here… only because there are not a lot of other options.

I live on the first floor and am in love with the interior feeling. It’s super modern and the location is wonderful. I moved from San Diego where cost of living was super high for rent. Austin is surprisingly just as high. So considering rates were essentially the same all over the new properties in Austin, I’m glad I chose the COLE.
It’s a perfect dog friendly location with attentive staff, close to the trail, easy access to parking, neighborly, small pool and bbq access for all, close to PURE fitness Austin and Whole foods. All very important things when looking to live close to downtown.
Only downside is apartment living allows for a little noise through walls but if you are used to apartment living then it’s a great place! I came from a house and had to get used to it but one little noise machine or run your air fan permanently and it cancels everything out. I’ve asked each of the downstairs neighbors and we all love this location enough to deal with a little echoing on occasion.
Thank you COLE for a great first year. Excited to sign up for year 2! Sprout says thank you too for all the treats.

After a horrible experience at Soco lofts (dont even think about renting there, it is complete trash) we were crossing our fingers that Cole would be a more positive living experience.
The staff is friendly (even after you move in. I know. Shocking.) especially Kristy. She is our favorite. The maintenance staff is nice and answers requests same day.
We transferred units mid lease and although we had a LOT of issues with the new unit, maintenance took care of everything quickly and it has been smooth sailing since then.
The location is perfect, the building is well taken care of, and it feels very safe and clean.
Overall, we have been impressed with the living situation here, and we are high maintenance and not easy to please. :)

I’ve lived at the Cole for a little over two years now and appreciate a lot about it…
Location: a block to the trail, walk to ACL, bike to Barton Springs and SXSW shows, across the bridge to Whole Foods, around the corner to Alamo, and a short drive/​ride to South Congress and Downtown. There are smattering of restaurants nearby and the ever-​useful Thom’s Market down the street.
My apartment: I’ve got high ceilings, vast space, huge closets, granite counters in the kitchen and bathroom, a double-​door refrigerator, and a lot of cabinets. The windows run from floor to ceiling and bring in a ton of natural light.
Management: a nice group of people who are always helpful and easy to work with. The manager lives on site and has a vested interest in the community running well. They’re also very good about negotiating special pricing for tenants at area businesses and arranging social gatherings to meet and greet your neighbors.
Community: The pool is nice, clean, and never crowded. There’s a jacuzzi and gas grill available as well. Parking is a breeze, with ample spots available to tenants and their guests. I know a number of my neighbors, and appreciate their good-​nature and adult demeanor.
Noise: I live on the first floor and don’t really have the noise issues others have complained about. On the weekends, the block is full of visitors to Flip Happy Crepes, which doesn’t seem to affect the outside-​in noise. I can occasionally hear my neighbor’s dog crying, but that’s about it.

More of a hoax than a home; a deliberately set up shell game.
This place is carefully contrived to get you in and then to raise your rent shockingly after your first lease is up. You’ve suffered the expense and hassle of moving in and it’s expensive and awful to have to move yet again but 12 months later. It is then calculated to make it *very* hard on you to relocate once you find out about the rent hike and how NOISY and poorly cared for it is. (Garbage in the halls, left there for days.Yuck.)
After that first lease is over and they jack up your rent extortionately, if you want to move out, going to month-​to– month in order to find a new place will cost so much you won’t be able to buy groceries. They are hoping to make it so hard to move out that you will throw up your hands and stay. Meanwhile new folks will be moving in at much lower rent than yours is now (why is that fair? It isn’t –it’s a scam.), blissfully unaware of what is in store for them.
So you’re damned if you do stay and damned if you don’t.
The pool in the middle is an echo chamber/​wall of sound. Where do all the frat-​like pool partiers from? Lots of endlessly crying babies coming through the walls at all hours, too, and badly built with crappy materials so that the acoustical privacy– or peace and quiet is non-​existent; you’ll hear your upstairs neighbor’s every move.
Have a look at their reviews for the twin building at the Cole Apartments on 300 S Lamar.

I have to agree with Unilocaler Lara E. (first review). Cole was my first digs when I got back to Austin in ’09. I was the first tenant in that unit, so everything was shiny and new. I was on the south side with a balcony overlooking P. Terry’s and all that surrounds, including House Wine and Barton Springs Saloon. It was noisy, and I liked it that way. Maybe I can understand the frustration of people with courtyard-​side units and/​or no balcony, when you’re naturally going to tune in to the noise coming from around the building, but my balcony was literally aimed directly at the intersection of Lamar and Barton Springs, and the buzz of the location trumped any quibbles over thin walls and such. The place isn’t exactly cheap, and I found my neighbors adequately gentrified: respectful, responsible, and reasonable about noise.
I grew to hate the exterior architecture of the building: So much post modern busy-​ness and vomit of different colored siding… but I also grew to appreciate the design and layout of the place underneath that skin. Parking is hella cool, and I was not 50 feet from my cars on the fourth floor. I love the clean, modern style of the units, but that beauty is only skin deep: the thin veneer on the cabinets will wear quickly and evidence of cheap construction abounds.
Obviously, the location is hard to beat, and Cole wins for that, alone. Management was professional and Brian, the maintenance chief, was as golden and earnest a fellow as they come. The place is very dog-​friendly (save for the few douchey tenants who feel above cleaning up after Fido).
I moved out after my year’s lease, but it was a tough decision, driven by stubbornness and probably a lack of savvy on my part. I received a nice move-​in rent credit and figured my cost for the place based on an adjusted year-​long amount. When my lease was about to expire, I figured I’d default to a month-​to-​month arrangement at the full rate. Oh, but no. Just days before I had to make a decision, I received a letter on my door offering me a small increase in rent (over the full rate, never mind the pro rata rent with the move-​in discount — or to pay a grossly inflated rate to live month-​to-​month. I was put-​off enough to bolt to a privately-​owned downtown loft. I imagine such practices are part of the game for corporate-​managed properties, but I felt insulted after a year of paying my rent on time and being an über-​cooperative tenant. Silly me for thinking the corporate screws wouldn’t be turned when the lease was up, with scant notice as provided in the fine print of the lease.
Assuming such practices are the norm, then any dissatisfaction might be common with similar properties, and adjusted for that suckitude, memories of the Cole have a warm place in my heart.

I wish I could give two separate reviews.
The staff at Cole is polite and responsive, and deserves at least 4 stars. Maintenance requests were handled quickly and completely. The office staff is doing their best to deal with a terrible situation, and I applaud them for that.
This review is for the apartment building itself however; you have to live here after all. As other reviewers pointed out, the construction of this building is absolutely terrible. You will think you are living at the NASA shuttle launch site every time your upstairs neighbor flushes their toilet, you will be able to clearly hear your next-​door neighbor’s every conversation, and trust me, you will hear every footstep taken in the common hallway.
I’m sure some people could tolerate the noise, but the rent prices are just to high to make it worth it.
Cole isn’t alone in their shoddy construction, which seems to be a trend among recently built downtown Austin apartments. I’m willing to bet there has been a chain of deception passed down from the investors, to the builders, to the managers, on down to the poor renter. If you must live in one of these terrible apartments, at least make sure you get a corner unit on the top floor.
A parting tip for apartment hunters: Pay attention to the construction of interior doors; you can expect the overall construction to be systemic, and if the interior doors feel like they are made of cardboard, don’t expect much more for the rest of the building.