Mariner Square

Pros:
— Huge interior space.
— Quiet neighborhood
— near schools, library, grocery and food outlets
— well maintained landscape and clean surroundings
Cons:
— Most expensive compared with other apartments nearby
— Old building & dilapidated wood just covered with paint.
— Squeaking noise you’ll hear it when neighbor walks upstairs.
— Lots of cockroaches & wood insects that crawls during the night and early morning.
— Security concerns, anyone can easily sneak and get inside the community and no visible security on site during evenings and early mornings. (heard about an incident where one car’s window was broken and a gadget was stolen just recently)
— No clear parking rules (no sticker required) thus, anyone can park inside.

My experience withMariner Square has been, without doubt or reservation, the best apartment-​living experience of my life. I can confidently say that the leasing office team is top-​notch and doesn’t let you down when it comes to making the Irvine Company Apartment Communities motto come true («Love Where You Live»).
I’ve never had such personalized, enthusiastic service.
Beyond the team’s fantastic service, the location is ideal! The property is literally located across the street from Mariner’s School
I can’t say enough what a wonderful community this is. It’s truly ideal for everything that I look for in an apartment– it’s quiet, close enough to UCI to be close to all the good restaurants, and yet far enough away to not house noisy students, and, best of all, the staff truly seems to care.
Thanks Dan, Mariner Square Manager
Thanks, Mariner Square team. Seriously.
Reza

I have lived here since June of 2015, and have been so happy. The front office is so helpful. Big thanks to Dan Newcomb, he has been amazing and has gone above and beyond for our family.

The quality of on~site management & maintenance is by far the most diligent & courteous I’ve experienced with being a renter.
The complex is small & cozy, older, but well maintained & in a fantastic location with very competitive lease & pricing options.
Dan, the office staff, & maintenance team, Andrew & Drew, really care & make every effort to make this community a home.
Aside from responding to general housing & maintenance requests or needs, this small team really treat the residents here like individual people, families.
I do not know how to thank these people for taking the time to see to making our space as comfortable as possible, including custom painting walls better than I could. The guys took extra care in making time & painting a room for my brother with autism, their kindness in doing this & the finished project went way above & beyond what I could have expected or asked for from anyone else.
I hope this review is helpful for families looking for quiet, comfortable, safe, & affordable housing in this highly desirable part of Orange County, very grateful for this place & the staff making it even better!!! I would say the treatment I have received having a loved one with special needs is easily better & more accommodating than other places we’ve lived.

My roommates and I loved living here! We wouldn’t be moving if it weren’t for our jobs, or our schools being in different locations. From the moment we arrived at the leasing office, we felt at home. The manager & staff are truly the most kind and helpful individuals! Anytime we had a question/​concern, they were always there to provide a solution. The entire year’s experience was comfortable & oh so pleasant! What I especially loved about Mariner Square also, was that the complex was not too big, so the laundry room/​pool/​leasing office always felt like they were right next door.
Did I mention what an incredible location this complex is placed in?! Everything is in a walking distance from you: Coffee shops, Restaurants, Yogurtland, Pressed Juice, Shopping boutiques, bars, 24 hour CVS, Ralphs, a hiking trail, & so much more!
Parking: NEVER an issue. All my guests were always able to comfortably visit and they never had to worry about parking. Each apartment is given a single carport spot I believe, but then you have all the open (non-​carport) spaces to park in as well.
All in all, Mariner Square was an incredible experience! You should definitely give this place a look! Our time with Mariner Square will never be forgotten, we are all so sad to leave. Thank you Mariner Square for all the wonderful memories!!!

Great location! Next to West Cliff center — –can walk to Grocery store, CVS and great places to eat such as PANDOR, Chronic Tacos, the Counter and more. There are nice places to walk your dog, Harbor High tennis courts, a park/​school and the beach nearby. The managers, staff and the maintenance people are great and extremely responsive. I enjoyed the landscaping and was impressed by the continuous maintenance grass, trees and flowers. Not many apartment complexes have grass.
The downside is the interiors. Old and no updates whatsoever. Still has the popcorn ceilings and terrible carpets that stay clean about 1 week after having them professionally cleaned. The unit exterior’s are in desperate need a paint job.
I did enjoy my stay due to the location and mostly nice people that live there. Okay price for the location but much too expensive for the inside of the units.

Problem after problem after problem.
Noise. So at first this community seems to be a great place to live. Then the issues start… First night, our master bedroom window was next to the common window of another unit. Didn’t seem like a big deal until we realized that said neighbor had placed his TV in the patio doorway and was watching TV… outside…at 1:30am. We complained the next day and it was addressed. However it would happen 3 – 4 nights out of the week until our lease was up (13 months from day one). We addressed this with the staff many times and they said they attempted to address it with the tenant but they never really did a thing about it. We even took in video and audio of it happening. Nothing ever happened.
On multiple occasions, we would have guests over that were blown away with how loud our neighbors were. Keeping windows open at night is not possible at all if you want to sleep the entire night.
Next up, parking. On multiple occasions we found people parked in our only assigned spot. What are you to do you ask? You are supposed to have the car towed out yourself. They didn’t have someone to call. It was only until we complained 2x that finally a letter was sent out saying that cars would be towed if parked in reserved spots that didn’t belong to the car.
Cockroaches. Yes cockroaches everywhere. They say they are constantly spraying but on many many occasions I would see them scurrying across the floor. And we kept the place immaculate, including having a maid come 2x a month.
Price for amenities. Maybe we were an outlier but we paid so much money for no AC and community washer dryers. Just be aware you will get sweet talked to thinking that these two things are not a big deal. They will be when the summer hits.
Paint on the walls. I would barely call it paint. It’s like a like powder dusting. Look at it wrong and it’ll mark. It’s the flattest, cheapest paint I’ve ever seen.
There are better options near by. This is the Irvine companies first property and it shows.
Irvine Company. Love where you live? We sure as hell didn’t.
Reply to IC:
Ok, so looks like I have to be more precise.
I notified my leasing consultant the next day of this problem. Moved in on 2÷14÷2014 emailed Dan N on 2÷15÷2014 of the noise problem. Its was «dealt with» then. A few days later it happened again. This was a cycle that was never ending noise wise with my last complaint emailed to the Community Manager on the 1÷26÷2015. This again was my first documented and last documented time. There were MANY more in between which were confirmed by the «security patrol».
It was only on the 29^th that an offer of relocation was received. See the following email quote:
” I am not sure if we have talked about relocating you within the community, but that is also an option. If you do not want to transfer and haven’t found a place to move yet, I would love to try to help you find a community that will fit your needs. «
Now remember this was the last communication about noise that we had on 1÷29÷2015… yes one year later. This is besides the fact that we were following the rules of noise and others weren’t… but we should move? I think not.
Looks like you need some dates:
On 4÷29÷2014 we reached out to Dan about Cockroaches. Trying to downplay the word, he called them waterbugs. He indeed had sprayers out that next week to spray. But we had to gut all of our cabinets and put all or stuff back ourselves. But that was not the end of it. On 7÷24÷2014 we contacted him again because a huge cockroach was found running across the floor. We never got a reply. Don’t worry… ill post the pic I sent him and you can check your email servers to prove confirmation of said image. Regardless we ended up getting our own cockroach killer and the problem ended up going away after we had to take care of it ourselves.
True, you have a policy for towing cars. The problem was that you didnt have one for after hours. The security company said I had to tow it on my own. Thats right my own tow yard and I then would have to provide proof that the spot was mine. Community letters you say!!! Here is the doozy, no letters were ever sent out until I asked Nicole to do something since I had no recourse after hours. Only then was a letter sent out and this was after multiple after hours occurrences of people parking in our spot had already happened. Once the letter was sent then we were provided an after hours town company that would was related to the Irvine Company.
Ill wrap up with this: I am not saying the staff didn’t try. I am saying that the problems were never correctly addressed, especially the noise situation. If you wish to deny the claim of such I have no problem posting dates, times, and conversations that can all be backed up as I recorded/​documented my issues. I’m being very fair. My review stands and is valid. Fellow Unilocalers… take my review how you will. This was my experience.

If you have the patience to read my (long!) and thorough, up-​to-​date review on Mariner Square, sit down and dig in.
Office Staff and Maintenance: Based on other reviews I’ve read, plus word of mouth reports from other Irvine Company properties, I’d give this staff an A +. They continue to care about you after you sign the lease. I have dealt with Dan, Nicole, Danielle in the office, and Keith and Kevin for maintenance, and everyone has been extremely prompt and courteous and easy to deal with. They really go the extra mile. This is not true at every IC community, I know from friends and reading other reviews.
Amenities: If you want the Vegas-​like spa and pool, gym and gym classes, and a lot of action, you will not be a good fit for this community. Mariner Square is very very calm (I mentioned the long-​term elderly residents) and having 5 people at the pool is considered a very busy day). It has a small pool, a lending book library, and a large laundry room with brand new machines. That’s it. MS is the smallest Irvine Co rental community and I appreciate it for that very reason.
Location. This is a doozy, and depends on what kind of person you are. If you are:
— A parent of a child that goes to Mariners Elementary
— A person who appreciates everything 17^th street has to offer and wants to eat out a lot and be out-​and-​about in town
— A person who doesn’t mind more traffic and foot traffic around the Westcliff Plaza and Mariners Elementary, including the tweens that take over the Plaza every day from 11 – 3 PM and hang out in the parking lot and skateboard non stop on Rutland Road
— A dog person and don’t mind having lots of dogs around and a lot of people who do not pick up dog poop (but WHERE can you live where everyone actually does pick up poop, I ask you?)
Then this location will work wonderfully for you. You may never want to leave.
I also think it very much depends WHERE in MS you have your unit. We live on the Rutland Road side, and that has impacted our satisfaction here. We don’t have kids, we have a dog that hates skateboarders.
Also, I think due to our proximity to the commercial spaces and restaurants, as well as the other apartment communities on the other side of Rutland, we had a roach issue for a couple of months. I’d say 2−3x a week, for about 3 months, we were killing 1 – 2 enormous roaches. They were very responsive to getting the place sprayed, but the spraying didn’t help.
As for the dog poop, I’ve not yet found an area where all the dog owners are as considerate as you’d like them to be and everyone walks around happily picking up their precious dogs’ gifts to the world! :)
Unit Interiors: This is the first community built by the Irvine Co in the 70’s so… what do you think you’re going to get? It’s old! The plus side of the being old is that in those days they seem to have made enormous closets. We live in one of the Town Houses, and the master is huge, with insanely high ceilings and a huge huge closet. So that’s a plus. It is very roomy when you compare it to other IC communities. We don’t like the wall-​to-​wall carpet, but that seems to be a very standard in all of the Irvine Co rental communities. For us, we appreciate that we live in an end-​unit Town Home, and we have one shared wall by the staircase. Our neighbor has a very yappy small dog and I can count on one hand the number of times we heard it. I think it’s insulated very well. You will not be able to control your neighbors no matter WHERE you live. That’s just life!
Other Residents: I think it’s a mixed bag, but definitely skews to older (35−75+) people rather than college kids or people fresh out of college. I don’t think MS appeals to that demographic and I prefer that. There are plenty of other communities (Irvine Co and not) that DO appeal to them. People are friendly but keep to themselves. There is always going to be the resident pot smoker (s) and people that are a little creepy and those that are irresponsible dog owners, no matter where you live.
I would recommend this community to almost everyone. I think it’s the best IC community.

Just moved in about a week ago, but so far I am really happy here. The pool and spa are kept clean. Love the fire pit. The community is very quiet and feels safe. The tenants are friendly. Dan and Nicole in the leasing office are super accommodating and on top of things.

I’ve been living in Mariner Square for six months now and it is by far the best apartment complex I have lived at. All of the tenants and employees are extremely welcoming and will lend a helping hand whenever you are in need. If you ever have any issues in the apartment Dan will do whatever it takes to have it fixed that same day. Overall it is just a great environment that accommodates everyone from young professionals, to families, to the retirees as well, couldn’t ask for a better living arrangement at the moment.

Just moved into Mariner’s Square with my husband who has lived here for 7 years. LOVE it! Beautiful grounds, nice neighbors and very quiet for a large apartment complex. Upon moving into my new husband’s apartment, I asked management for several maintenance items to be done, and the Assistant Manager Dan Newcomb and Service Manager Kevin Knutson couldn’t have been more accommodating!!! They were so wonderful, friendly, and fast to respond, making my transition to Mariner’s Square very easy! I am going to love living here!

Love this place! I have lived here for nearly a year and a half. I guess the only downfall is the fact that they plan to raise my rent another $ 250 in June. If they kept it where its at I would definitely stay. Apartments are big with a lot of square footage compared to the other properties in the area. I think I am definitely one of the youngest people who live here and I am in my late 30’s — which i love because the place stays super quiet and no one throws parties. People are respectful, the grounds are kept nice and clean and the pool is nice. Most of all, there are only about 100 tenants that live here. Expensive to live here but I highly recommend it.