Avalon Santa Monica on Main

I Have amended my original review because Avalon listened to my complainant and tried to resolve it.
Originally we were upset by the 26% rent increase and I gave avalon 2* However since then Gardenia tried her very best to re negotiate our rate and contract so that we could stay here. We are sad to leave but at least we are not leaving on bad terms knowing that Avalon did all they could to make it affordable for us.
I would like to thank Valerie and Jamar for being so lovely and helpful and Joe for fixing anything that needed to be fixed in our apartment, and to Traci for sorting out the construction issues. I’ll miss our chats and seeing you all.
You are all very lovely to live with and make any minor snacks a lot easier to deal with.

I cannot say enough good things about Avalon. Valerie, Jamarr, Traci, Todd, and the rest of the wonderful staff here are amazingly helpful from the moment I walked in to look at an apartment in March through move-​in, in May and ongoing. They are just kind, fun people and I really enjoy seeing them in the halls or dropping by the office to pick up packages. For example I had an issue with my garage clicker and Jamarr immediately figured out the issue, helped me get my car out of the garage, got me a new clicker and had maintenance looking at the situation to ensure all was well at the gate so other residents did not run into an issue. The apartments are newly renovated or in the process of being renovated and are really nice. Great size, great storage and for those like me on the 3^rd floor, the rooftop terrace is such a nice area to have. The courtyard is clean, the neighbors are nice and the entire community is dog-​friendly. The guys on the construction crew are very kind — holding elevators when I come through and giving me and other residents space when we are walking our dogs and/​or walking with our kids in the halls. For example, I recently rescued a one year old dog who suffered terrible abuse before I got her. These guys give her plenty of space and a few have removed their hard hats when they saw she was fearful or sat down on the floor so she can pass to get outside or back to the apartment. They are in the middle of their busy work day trying to finish construction here and still take a moment of kindness. That, to me, speaks of great community values that translate from the office staff through to everyone who works here at Avalon. On top of that, we are but steps from the beach, near great restaurants, shopping and all that Santa Monica has to offer. And, as a single mom, my daughter and I feel very safe here. I’m so glad we decided on Avalon.

I cannot say enough about Valerie and Jamar in leasing. I recently moved here from the East Coast, and the two of them continue to go above and beyond to make my transition as seamless and welcoming as possible. As you can imagine, it was very nerve racking to coordinate a move across the country. Valerie and Jamar answered every question, and addressed every concern I had promptly. I’ve also had a similar experience with the on-​site maintenance. I submitted a work request and my issue was resolved within a few hours.
As far as the building itself: the location cannot be beat. You are a few minutes’ walk away from the beach, and 5 min. away by bike to the Pier and 3^rd street promenade. It’s also nice to have secured garage parking as well as a few guest parking passes each month. A/​C in California is also a bonus :)
Huge pitfalls: The building amenities WILL be nice, as soon as I am able to use them… The building is currently in the midst of renovations, so the business center, gym and rooftop pool are sporadically inaccessible. Additionally, with some of the units undergoing upgrades, you cannot expect peace and quiet throughout the day. Starting at 8/​9am, the community is overtaken by construction workers and the sounds of jack hammers. Avalon management will not provide a discounted monthly rent, despite these major inconveniences and lack of building amenities. To Avalon’s credit, I was forewarned about the renovations prior to my move-​in. However, I do not think it is fair to pay $$$ in rent for luxurious apartment amenities, when residents cannot use them :(Lastly, depending on your wireless provider, you may not have the best reception in the building. I have a courtyard unit and Verizon… and I frequently have calls dropped.

This review is WAY overdue. I have lived here for 3 ½ years and I may never leave.
Here is what I love about living here:
Safety: I live alone and travel quite a bit. The secured parking, security guard and amazing management team make sure to look after my place while I am away. You will not find this type of service anywhere else.
Management team: Definitely the best around. Jamarr, Valerie, Gardenia, Traci, Todd and Joe are amazing. They understand that this is your home and do everything possible to make it feel that way. The best part is some of them even live in the building so they are truly part of the community.
Maintenance: This is one of my favorite things about the building. All maintenance requests are completed very quickly (within 24 hours). Obviously things break and go wrong in apartment buildings, but the quick, friendly service you get here is unbelievable and worth the money to live here.
Location: Amazing location on Main Street and 2 blocks from the beach. You can walk to Venice or Downtown Santa Monica easily.
Apartments: The apartments have all been recently renovated and are beautiful. All of the apartments have been remodeled with new stainless steel appliances, new paint, carpet, lighting, cabinets, etc. In-​unit washer/​dryer is uncommon for Santa Monica and the new upgraded ones in these apartments are amazing.
Thank you for making this a great place to live!

We love it here so so much. The location is enough in itself to give this apartment building 5 stars however the office team they have hired just puts them way over the top! Jamarr and Valerie are AMAZING, always so sweet and helpful. They clearly excel at making people feel welcome and at home the second you walk in the office door. From day one when we came to see the property 2 years ago Jamarr was on top of his game knowing every answer to every question we threw at him, making us NEED to make this place home.
Another individual who simply goes ABOVE AND BEYOND to make sure you’re happy is Traci, she came on as the Service Coordinator during the building and unit renovations and she is incredible! She made the transition to our hospitality suite and then back into our newly renovated unit FLAWLESS. I would hit her up everyday with e-​mail bombs in preparation for our temporary move and she would offer solutions, help and guidance through every aspect of it. This team deserves every ounce of these 5 stars, they make me happy to call Avalon Bay home. Thank you!

While Jamar and Valerie are great, Avalon as a company leaves a lot to be desired. Without rent control, they have a tendency to raise rent anywhere from 500 – 800 a month from year to year. This is easily 20%. It feels as though they do not care to continue working with established residents and instead ratchet up rates in hope that people will be too lazy to move. After dealing with noise, traffic, and many broken elevators due to construction this past year, to have them raise my rent by over $ 700 is absurd. I recommend looking elsewhere if you plan to stay longer than a year. The apartments and location are nice, but not worth the insane rates and how variable they are with the change from year to year.
There is also no cell service in the parking garage, which concerned me from a safety standpoint. There were a string of thefts in the garages last year and i was scared to run into someone dangerous where i wouldn’t even be able to call for help. I asked for them to either install network extenders or blue light emergency transponders well over a year ago and neither has been done. I was once stuck in the garage when the gate wouldn’t open and I couldn’t even call for help b/​c my phone wouldn’t work. Luckily someone came up on the other side and they were able to go get maintenance.

Let me start by saying that Jamaar and Valerie are amazing. They are quick to respond to request by residents and are always going out of their way to help me. Jamaar even offered to help me move my stuff into the storage unit when I had nobody around to help me. Truly five start effort. If not for avalon management this rating would be 5 stars because of Jamaar and Valerie.
Now to avalon management. When I moved to Avalon only 3 months ago, we had one gate clicker. now we have a card and a clicker because they put a hourly pay to park gate on the first parking level. There was not one there when we moved or when we agreed to pay for parking on the second level (where the resident park). In addition the second level is 86 degrees exactly with a ton of humidity AT ALL TIMES. this is clearly an engineering mistake as no other structure have this issue in santa monica… now continue with the hourly pay to park gate. Avalon has hired a 3^rd party host to field calls from the hourly pay to park gate which they expect their residents to use even though 1 in every 3 calls gets dropped, the individuals hang up on you, AND the kicker is that avalon has told them as a matter of policy to «not let residents out without their cards.» I find this insulting but Avalon thinks its fine to put this all on me. To continue with this, there is nobody in the office on Sunday or Monday no if an issue with the call center arrises on a MONDAY (work day) then nothing can be done but the resident front the money for a lost full price ticket and then pray that Avalon pays you back out of the goodness of their heart. Why would I do that? They have not stepped up to take care of us on anything regarding parking or any other housing issues. I have honestly had more responsive management at apartment complexes I was paying ¹⁄₃ the price for. This apartment is advertised as «luxury living» but at this point in time all you are paying for is the location and a headache from management who is completely tone deaf to resident needs.
Let me again restate that this has NOTHING to do with Jamaar and Valerie, in fact they are the only thing that makes this situation better.
As far as other issues I’ve had
1) Air condition unit did not work when we moved in after discussing with management how important this was. Their solution… give us 1 portable unit for 1 room. This was May 2015 and it was HOT. I work from home. again luxury apartment treatment. I had to go take care of the issue myself
2) Shoddy apartment appliances, poor wiring, many excuses
a) The metal beam that covers the blind in the living room was never screwed into the wall. Just placed on top of the blinds in a rickety fashion. Yesterday AM this unattached ticking time bomb fell on me and slice open my finger. Thank god it did not hit me in the head. My dog was head was 3 inches from the beam. What else in this apartment has not been put together correctly?
b) Every appliances in this apartment was advertised as brand new. However we have had many issues with them. For instance a fan in our refrigerator stopped working for no fault of our own (again these are suppose to be brand new appliances). I lost over $ 300 dollars in meat alone (I was planning on throwing a small BBQ) but that got ruined. Not to mention all the other items totally at least $ 200 – 300. Their response… a $ 50 gift card to M street kitchen and zero money for groceries. I think this exemplifies Avalon Managments treatment of its residents. Tone deaf
c) Things that bother my wife more are parts of the floor being scuffed before move in, carpet coming up in various places etc
d) An electrical issue upstairs that make it so printers CANNOT be used in the office area upstairs. This is a wiring mistake by their electricians (maybe also hired on the cheapo?) I know this because my father, a trained electrical engineer, assessed the situation and told me what was up. They wired the office is series to the bathroom circuit break when they should run in parallel. The reason for this is that California code required much stricter guidelines for bathroom because of water-​electrocution risk. However since they put the office on the same sensitive fuse, it trips whenever the printer fires up. The excuse I was given was that California code required it to be sensitive. This is false. California code requires the BATHROOM to be sensitive. It does not require that a stupid electrician wired the home office power (probably power requiring place in the whole house) to the bathroom fuse. This is just work done on the cheapo and resident suffering the consequences AGAIN.
This is the normal mess I have endured in LA… paying $ 1200 for rent. Now that were pay over triple that to live at Avalon Santa Monica as advertised as a luxury apartment why am I getting treated the same or worse? With a luxury gated apartment better service is expected and in my experience (except avalon) you pay for what you get…

HUGE FAN! LOVE IT. I enjoy living here, and I truly hope to continue for a long time to come!

One of the best apartment buildings in the Santa Monica area. An ideal location with walking distance to great restaurants, bars, tourist attractions, and of course 2 blocks from the beach. Great new renovated rooms and kitchens. The Roof top pool, gym, and reserved parking are major pluses. The whole staff has been great as well with all of my questions from moving to settling in to my new apartment. Definitely recommended.

My husband and I have moved here from the east coast and did not have the time to visit the apartments before signing the lease! We were recommended Avalon apartments in Santa Monica by a friend who also lives here, so we gave the management team a call and asked them if they could give us a virtual tour.
Jamarr showed us around an apartment and the other amenities via facetime which was great and we made up our mind immediately. My husband and I are very grateful to Jamarr and Valerie, for their helpfulness, professionalism and patience. For answering the hundred and one questions that I had. They made our move so much easier. It was hassle free.
We also felt very welcome when we finally arrived after our road trip across the states. We were greeted with breakfast and a bottle of wine :-)
So here are a few thing that I love about living here:
The location is super; it’s a four minute walk beach, there are lovely cafes and restaurants on main street, the locals are friendly and overall it has a great vibe. I love this part of Santa Monica. It’s also close to downtown, so very convenient if you like shopping.
The apartment is newly renovated with nice units in the kitchen, a big gas cooker, good size fridge freezer and overall it looks pleasant. Someone else commented on the dryer taking ages. We have a new washer/​dryer which seems to be really quick! The main bedroom is a great size and the wardrobe is pretty big.
Secure underground parking.
The management team are polite, professional, and efficient. They sent me a birthday card which was sweet!
Things that I wish were different:
I wish the apartment had better lighting. It always feels slightly dim inside, both in the living area and in the bathroom. Is it mood lighting? I don’t know, it sometimes makes me feel a little claustrophobic. I will be purchasing some more lamps!
The light switches are the wrong way round, it’s not been intuitively designed. So the closest switch to the light for that area is actually for a different light. It gets a bit annoying as I am always forgetting and turning the wrong light on.
Neither of the above two points are a huge deal, hence the five stars. Overall we are really happy living here.

I recently moved to Avalon and I love it. I am in one of the newly renovated apartments where everything is new and nicely done. The staff has been 100% helpful and immediately responsive whenever there is an issue. Very happy with the decision to rent from Avalon.

Moved out from MN in March right in the middle of the massive renovation project here at Avalon on Main. While there were definitely some hiccups with timing and our move-​in the staff at Avalon has been very helpful every step of the way.
The renovations are gorgeous and Val, Jamarr, Traci, Todd, Joe and the whole gang have gone above and beyond to accommodate everything we needed to make the transition.
If you’re moving to SaMo check this place out… it is the best neighborhood in LA and the new fit and finish of the apartments makes them worth the extra $$!!

Avalon Bay in Santa Monica has been great! Jamarr and Valerie made my move in extremely easy and timely because I had nothing planned. Todd was so helpful when I accidentally destroyed my wall hanging the plasma. Traci has made the remodel of my unit feel seamless and Gardenia helped me get an important package when the offices were closed. I think the relaxing energy and positive vibes coming from the Santa Monica beach only a block away carries itself into that office! Also, paying rent online without even having to re-​enter all my info is so easy — login and push a button — everyone should be so efficient!

My husband, infant son, and I all moved in here in March, from Texas. The entire staff, especially Jamarr and Valerie, bent over backwards to get us settled in and happy. This meant so much to us, as we were overwhelmed from the move, starting new jobs, etc. Since then, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time here. Absolutely ANY time we’ve had a problem, such as a maintenance request or special request for our infant son, one of the staff, again usually Jamarr or Valerie, (but the whole team is great) fixes it immediately. The whole office also greets you by name and are so happy to see you when you go there to pick up a package or whatever. The community isn’t perfect, the location is really touristy, and once we had a neighbor throw a really loud party, but even then, the courtesy officer shut that down quickly. Overall, we’re really happy here!

The staff at Avalon on Main Street in Santa Monica are amazing! Always friendly, always wanting to help tenants in any way possible! The location in Santa Monica is ideal, close to the beach, shops, restaurants!

We were drawn to the Avalon on Main for the convenient and beachy location. Yes. that is still true. The rents are costly, but we decided location was worth it. The apartments are dark, noisy and cheaply built (the apartment complex outside of NYC that caught fire a few months back was an Avalon & was determined to have cheaply built framing)
The units & the building are in the progress of being gutted (they call it upgraded) for the remainder of 2015… while you live in it. You will be supplied with boxes to pack all of your own belongings… so that the construction crew can move all of your belongings to one room, and then switch to another room as they renovate.
The staff on site are professional, friendly, helpful and quick to respond. However… there is no wiggle room for anything with these large companies that own many apartment complexes. There are no accommodations or negotiations in regards to your lease.
For example, there was an ongoing domestic issues & child abuse situation in the apartment below ours for 4 – 5 months with Police arriving daily. The solution was for us to move down the hall. The only available apartment was a larger unit with better amenities. Our rent increased $ 700+ dollars after our lease term finished, and they would not consider what we had gone through re: inconvenience in moving our family, loss of sleep, etc. for that period to maintain our rent at the same price as the original unit.
We have not moved out because we have two teenagers and do not want to disrupt their lives yet again. We will definitely leave after this lease term.
Look at other options before getting locked into a lease term at this apartment complex. The extra effort up front will be well worth it in the end. You will have a much more peaceful existence elsewhere.

Watch out for motel accommodation at Ritz Carlton prices. Also, be prepared for getting ripped off on your security deposit on your way out. Even with your move-​out cleaning fee, they will still charge you for «painting» which, if it’s done at all, is routinely taken care of by the landlords anywhere else during tenant change-​overs. The management seems to focus more on squeezing every penny out of you than providing a decent living environment with good service. This property is a letdown among the Avalon locations we’ve seen else where. We signed the lease before moving to California, sight unseen because of the Avalon brand. Shortly after we moved in and saw the apartment and the building, we decided to pay a 2-​month penalty to break our one-​year lease. We were happy to get out of there even with the hassle of another move.

Renter Beware. The location is the only great thing about this apartment complex. The units are not worth the high rents. Our unit is always 80 degrees regardless of the outside temperature. The appliances are not high end. The carpet is cheap and the installation is bad. The units come with washer and dryers, but the dryer take at least 70 minutes to dry clothing.
The units on either side of ours are being operated as short term rentals by the lessees. I have seen these units on AirBNB. There is a steady of stream of strangers in those unit – building management does not care.
The renters are responsible for all utilities. The building has hired a third-​party to doing the billing and has passed the cost of using this third-​party vendor to the tenants. It’s listed on the bill as a «utility service fee.» Last time I checked, you had to provide utilities in order to rent out an apartment.
I would not recommend this apartment complex.

I just moved here from New York and I absolutely love it here. The property is gorgeous. It’s at a great location and a block from the beach. The greatest thing about Avalon is the fabulous staff. My move has been ridiculously complicated and stressful. Delayed movers and a gazillion packages. Jamarr has been super super helpful. He is absolutely heaven sent. Kevin is great too. Highly recommend.

Avalon leasing office service and staff are unprofessional and unresponsive. They are frequently confused about requests and often do not respond to calls or emails. Considering the rent that is charged, I would expect the service to be top notch.
The service went down considerably after Avalon took over.