The Empress Condominiums

I’ve lived hear for the past eight months. Nice place, generally nice tenants. The walls are pretty sound proof from the sides, not so much for the unit above us. Overall, it’s a nice place to live, but parking is a nightmare.

Love this location! Parking never an issue (zone k), I have seen the complaints — but seriously nothing I’ve had true issues with. A block or two is more than fine with me! Water pressure a gem, quiet neighbors, windows keep it quiet, too. Trash can be a homeless mess… Bike recently stolen from storage — but truly outta the norm.
The super, Cliff, is really quite nice and gets it done. Halls clean, trash emptied, good elevator lift. Safe and bright inside.
Never had an issue with car vandalism, tho have heard of it happening in this neighborhood. Also, convenient public transport close by.
Not a close knit community — but quiet and respectable home to many. I have lived urban in Boston and Minneapolis, this is quiet… Then again, Pdx is way smaller! Great location, easy on and off the 405!!!

I bought a condo and lived here for three weeks now. The building was thoughtfully and carefully restored to it’s art deco ambiance in 2006, and oozes charm.
The other reviewer pretty much nailed everything. The road noise outside quickly becomes low level background noise, but then, this is winter when the windows are always closed. I’m apprehensive when it’s a hot summer day and I want to open the windows to let in fresh air. I imagine the noise will be a little more intrusive then. My top floor unit is kind of difficult to heat on cold winter’s days.
I’ve heard barely a noise from other units here. Most residents seem in the their 30’s, and are pretty quiet and keep to themselves. As an old fart myself, that’s OK with me! I think there’s a pretty even mixture of owner/​occupiers and renters (about 80 units?) Your hot water costs are included in the HOA. Most units are studios as one big room, but some are «grand» studios, with a separate kitchen and separate dinette room (which could take a bed if you wanted to leave the main room open.) There is a bicycle storage/​lock-​up room, and a separate 4×8 storage locker in the basement.
The location is just about central to all central Portland districts: downtown, the Pearl, NW Trendy-​third, etc. Just about anything and everything you could ever want is within 8 or 10 blocks. I counted 5 major grocery stores within 8 blocks of here. If you like urban living, this is about as urban as it gets.

Built in 1927, the Empress Condominium building is situated in an awesome location; walking distance to downtown, the Pearl District, NW 23^rd Avenue and down the street from Jeld-​Wen Field. All units are studios by the way.
If you don’t need a car in your life, then you have really got it made as parking in this area is first come, first serve and truly a bitch especially when there is an event at Jeld-​Wen. Residents pay $ 60.00 a year for a parking permit and hope for the best.
Previously, back in 2005, this building was known as The Marquette and was a ghetto-​ass dump of an apartment building. They did a pretty nice job of converting the apartment building to condos. Now, all 70 of the units in this building, with the largest being approximately 444 square feet, come equipped with mini dishwashers, stack-​able washer and dryers in the walk-​in closets and refinished hardwood floors.
They took great pains to restore the building to its original glory and I think they did a pretty good job. It has a very Euro-​walk-​up vibe to it, complete with the old-​school elevator with the accordion style interior metal door. The kind of door that sometimes gets stuck if some ass-​hat doesn’t close it completely the elevator does not work.
If you can deal with living in a small space, city noise, neighbor noise, nonexistent insulation, shitty parking, elevator issues (just when you have groceries to carry 4 flights of stairs), random car break-​ins, you will love it here.
I seriously am a huge fan because… the building is charming and beautiful, all irritating things aside. I can walk, and I love to walk, to great shopping, great restaurants, food carts, transit, movies, grocery stores, and all the vibrancy that is our beautiful city of Portland.