Lafayette Towers

This is the worst living experience I’ve ever had in my life. Maintenance won’t come in a timely manner, the management staff won’t answer the phone or return phone calls. If you want to set up Internet or cable service then they can only come on the property when somebody is in the leasing office otherwise security won’t let them on the property. So for anybody who has a 9 – 5 job, you’re screwed. Every time I have a guest security gives them a hard time and the management room away the guest parking lot and now make guests park in the street or in a lot that is not monitored. Apartments don’t retain heat and their solution it to tell residents to «put blankets over the window boxes» instead of fixing the seals. I have a very cold constant breeze through my apartment that they’ve ignored. Stay away from the Towers.

I write this review as a visitor, not a tenant. My friend lives here and it was our base of operations for the weekend. The best part of the place (he is on the 14^th floor) is the view. It’s a great view of downtown. But, the place is a bit on the tattered side. The hallways are dim. The carpet sort of bare. My buddy’s apartment was in need of a fresh coat of paint. But, it’s centrally located to downtown, a walk to Eastern Market, and an easy place to start from to Über around the city.
Also, the hallways ALWAYS smell like whatever someone on the floor is cooking or smoking.

Well, time for another update. This shall be my last as we’ll hopefully be gone by the years end.
My husband and I just received our lease renewal agreement; we had talked about staying at the towers for another year before we bought a house. They raised our rent by $ 225/​month. When I told my friends that we were going to need help moving because of the rent hike they thought I was joking when I told them how much it was. Then a lot of them asked if that was even legal. (It is. It’s douchey as f***, but legal.). This is on top of the $ 90 that they raised rent last year.
This year they didn’t open the pool until mid-​July. I had multiple air conditioning issues that took on average 3 calls to the office for each issue to repair. I had my cat designated as a emotional service animal due to my legitimate crazy, doing this takes away the pet fee. I turned in all of the proper medical paperwork (letter from my licensed mental health professional regarding my almost lifelong struggle with major depression and anxiety disorder) but it wasn’t good enough for them and I had to fill out more. When I didn’t get the paperwork back to them in two weeks (I couldn’t get to my doctor during that time) they sent a letter from their lawyers saying I was in breach of my lease by not paying the pet fee. Really!!! Really? You want to start s*** because my doctors note isn’t to your liking? It was some real petty stuff.
Stay away. Find someplace else with less bull**** and a property manager that isn’t sh****.

Outdated and terrible security. This place gives Detroit a bad name. I have a friend that’s lived in both towers since he works nearby and I’ve seen their largest apartments and I cannot imagine who in the hell would CHOOSE to live here. The buildings are outdated and gloomy.

Management is a joke. The new bike rules now add about 10 – 15 min more time to get up to my apartment. They had the heat on in the pool for only about a week (after a month of delayed promises to have it opened). Service is slow, and sometimes you have to call several times just to get a leak fixed!
The only good thing honestly is the view.
There is no way

Many of the posts on this thread are SPOT ON.
I’m a current resident at Lafayette Towers, and although the views are nice and the price (for now) is reasonable, the staff and service at this place couldn’t be worse. The leasing office has NO IDEA what they’re doing on a day-​to-​day basis. Requests are often lost, unanswered or late to process. Between my girlfriend and I, we’ve probably had 20 issues in the last year. The «upgrades» are cheap and distasteful, and the management is a complete joke. They even GAVE AWAY our apartment the day before our move in. Our neighbors have told us the same thing. Calling the day before and saying their apartment isn’t ready yet. I have complained to them multiple times, but they don’t care. We’ll definitely be leaving when our lease is up. Don’t sign here unless you’re ready to be completely frustrated. Fourmidable is THE WORST property management company in the area. STAY AWAY!!!

Maintenance is worthless.
My toilet leaked. They came to fix it. It started leaking again, so I tried to explain that the wax seal needed replacing, and they just caulked it again.
I had all the same problems as other residents with vents and heat controls, but was lucky enough to have the mechanical aptitude to deal with it myself. I was able to fix or tighten the heat control knobs, and winterized the vents to keep the winter wind out.
The windows leaked the first week I was there during a big storm. They resealed all the windows after that. Then the heat broke. Had to buy an electric heater to keep my place at 60° for a week!
My apartment had three AC units. Never had all three working at once. They «fixed» one by removing it, dumping water all over my carpet, and scraping the walls in the process.
Management is ignorant.
If you’re a fan of mid century minimalism this place will make you cringe. Or vomit. The management has absolutely no concept of architecture, or the Towers’ potential. Tacky purple flags out front and blue signs litter the property. Classic benches were removed from the lobby, as were, I’m told, original pocket doors from the units’ kitchenettes. And those decals. Those hideous stickers. Please stop. You don’t know what you’re doing, let the professionals handle this.
They make it very difficult to move anything using the elevators, or have cable installed or fixed. I used the pool once. Then it was closed for over a year. It was still closed when I moved.
The office people were always pleasant to deal with. And you can’t beat the view.

Just to update as I moved out of Lafayette Towers this weekend — finally! Since my last review they did change security services to a different company. The desk usually has someone now and they’re still friendly as always.
Management is still lacking in customer service skills and overall communication with residents and with internal staff. When it was time to renew my lease they left my renewal packet on my doorstep. It had my social security number and other private information for anyone to steal. Why they didn’t put it in my mailbox or at bare minimum slide it under the door!?! Unacceptable when private information is involved — that’s real estate 101. I was called exactly 4 times to see if I would renew in one week alone. When I said no, and gave my many reasons why I wasn’t given any explanation for my grievances. Example: «The pool was closed all summer and no notification of why was given and when I asked why I was told it was being repaired but no one was ever out there repairing things, ever.» Instead of an explanation of why the pool was closed I just got silence and a weak «Sorry for your experiences» A person trained in customer service would have simply explained and elaborated more why the pool was closed and apologize that no communication was given.
Other items that have happened since my first review is that I’ve stopped getting package notifications for some reason, and apparently I moved out back in August because their electric service company they own stopped sending me bills. Can’t really complain about the latter, that’s nearly 6mo without an electric bill. I did try to call but no one ever answered the phone and my checks kept going uncashed. Not being back charged. :)