Cornelius Apartments

I’ve lived in The Cornelius for a little over a year and I truly can’t say anything bad. The friendly office staff are outstanding, and the maintenance staff is prompt, thorough, and detailed. The secure building is always clean, smells fresh, and is welcoming to all visitors who enter. In the times that I’ve had any sort of issues with neighbors (noise, etc.) the staff mitigates the situations as prompt and effectively as possible. I plan to continue renewing my lease until I’ve outgrown this apartment… Which I don’t anticipate happening for quite some time. :)

I’ve lived at The Cornelius for 2 years now and am about to renew. Great customer service with Alicia and Melissa! The staff and maintenance are always willing to help with whatever you need and requests are answered promptly. Even though downtown apartments can be tiny, the layouts here are designed well and feel bigger with the separate kitchen. Every unit has a huge walk-​in closet too. They are reasonably priced, especially for the location. The laundry facilities are good and the gym is decent. Very dog friendly.

I lived in Cornelius for almost 2 years, I could have stayed for a few more years if not for a significantly huge life changing event. The rates fit just right to my budget, it is in the heart of downtown Seattle, good walk and transit score.
The place is fairly well maintained, it has a gym that I’d use especially during winter, good laundry area. The studio that I lived in was fairly big for a single person. The tenants are generally nice and the management has a couple of events to get the community together like pub crawl and free breakfast!
Management and staff is friendly, approachable and easy to work with. They have online payments, office is open from Monday to Saturday, maintenance is always there to help. If you need help, you can always talk with and they can help you as much as they could. I never had any problems while staying there and I really did enjoyed my stay there. Keep up the good work — Rocky, Alicia and the rest of the Cornelius team!!!

I’ve lived at the Cornelius for close to 4 years before ultimately deciding to leave. It was a hard decision and honestly I would have stayed if the price fit my budget. Downtown living anywhere will come at a price and unfortunately for me, that’s what it boiled down to.
Hardly anyone uses the fitness room which is favorable when compared to all of the overloaded gyms you pay for elsewhere. It might get a touch crowded around January given all of the New Year’s resolutions we tell ourselves we will keep… but that tends to die out around February.
All of that being said, there is one particular situation that made me really appreciate the staff at the Cornelius. Last year when my lease was up, I tried to move to another property and it didn’t end up working out. I had already given my 20 day notice that I’d be moving out and boy was I stressed. With only a couple of days to get out of this pickle, I talked to the Alicia and Rocky about my situation and they gladly said that they would offer me the almost same rate I had been paying for another year. Problem solved. The Cornelius will always feel like my first home in Seattle (even though I’ve stayed at other properties).

Great customer-​centric Management! Bot Alicia and Rocky work hard to help in most ‘resident-​friendly’ way possible!

The staff and maintenance are very responsive to any issue that comes up and happily make arrangements to help resolve your issue. Alicia & Rocky are very helpful and friendly and the maintenance team is professional and does a very good job!

The management team here is top notch! Rocky, Erin, and Alicia take great pride in what they do and it shows. They truly care about the tenants and always go above and beyond for any request, large or small. We were new to Seattle when we first arrived and Rocky took the time to go over the neighborhood in detail and made us feel right at home. Maintenance is also super responsive, friendly and professional. Location is great with dozens of shops and restaurants within walking distance and the apartments are all tastefully remodeled. Overall excellent value and great place to live!

This has to be the friendliest and most efficient building staff in Belltown. Rocky and Alicia (who took over for Erin) are fabulous – Rocky has even watched and walked my dog for me in a pinch. Maintenance calls get completed quickly by Aaron. Saying the building is well-​maintained is an understatement. I love living in the heart of Belltown. If you are carless, it’s absolutely perfect – dozens of bus stops to take you anywhere you need to go in Seattle in 30 minutes or less. So many great restaurants within walking distance. There is always a happy hour somewhere to meet up with friends. I may stay in the Cornelius forever.

LOVE this place! We moved here from Brooklyn two years ago and have no plans of living anywhere else :)
Rocky and Alicia are super-​friendly and extremely accommodating. The maintenance staff keep the place spotless.
It’s an older building, but it has been updated beautifully.
Neighbors are quite friendly.
The location is WONDERFUL, being close to just about everything!

I’ve lived in the Cornelius for 3 years now, and I’m sad to say that I’m moving. Rocky & his crew are the best managers a tenant could ask for, and they’re always so helpful with everything.
The apartments are small, but that’s why I chose it. The laundry facilities are top notch, there’s a really nice gym facility, and I always feel like home there.
Location is everything, and the building is in the heart of Belltown, just steps away from all of my favorite bars & restaurants.

I love this building and neighborhood!!! I have lived here for 3 years and it has been one of my favorite places I have ever lived. The first year was a little bumpy due to the old management team. But once they brought in our current team of Rocky and Erin, the place improved DRAMATICALLY. They are incredibly friendly, helpful and genuinely care about you. They are a wonderful asset to all of us living in the C.
I know everyone in the building truly loves Erin and Rocky and all that they do for us.
The building is clean and SAFE. The gym and laundry facilities are great. People (and their dogs) are friendly and the surrounding neighborhood is wonderful.
I plan on moving to Phoenix at the end of my lease here to be closer to family. But if I wasn’t moving I would certainly have renewed my lease for a 4^th year… it is THAT great living here.
I honestly think it’s one of the better buildings to live in the Belltown neighborhood.

I came to Seattle in October 2013 to look for work for a few weeks. I ended up deciding to just move permanently on the fly since things were looking pretty solid on the job front, so I looked for a sublease somewhere until I knew more about where I’d end up permanently.
I was fortunate enough to end up at The Cornelius. While I only stayed here for about 3 ½ months, I would have locked in a year lease and stayed there if it had made better sense. I ended up working about 20 miles away and chose to move closer when the lease ended, but this was by far the best experience I’ve had renting an apartment ever in my life.
Rocky and Emma befriended me from day 1. They gave me the 411 on places to check out, things to do, what to watch out for. By far the most personable management team I have ever encountered. I hope their bosses read this and give them both raises, because if anyone I’ve ever met deserves a big bonus for how hard they work, it’s these two.
If your unit is close to the street, you should realistically expect there to be some street noise after dark. This is right in downtown Seattle. If you were in Chicago, New York, or LA, you should expect the same. I knew that going in, so I’m not complaining by any means — just be prepared to accept this fact if you’re new to living inside of city limits.
One thing I really liked about this location was the convenience to grab groceries. There is a city Target that’s a 7 minute walk away. Pike’s Place Market is also about a 7 minute walk. There are over a dozen bars and probably three dozen coffee shops and restaurants within a couple blocks, so there is tons to do. It’s a few blocks from the Space Needle and tons of other fun stuff to do. For the price, you’re really getting a bargain to have access to what there is to do. The astounding quality of service from the management team is a thick layer of icing on the cake, though. I can’t think of a single frustrating moment I’ve had with them. Nothing but positive things to say about this place from me.
If I ever find myself relocating downtown in that area again, they’ll be my first stop.

I love this building and the great, super friendly management team. When I moved here about a year and half ago the reviews for the prior management weren’t very stellar, but I’ve had absolutely no complaints.
The building is clean, the staff has community building events (and sometimes even free breakfast in the lobby!), it’s pet friendly, maintenance is very responsive, and it’s very well priced for the area.
You won’t love the building’s location if you hate Belltown, but if you love the neighborhood like I do The Cornelius is perfect.

This place is awesome! The management team is very friendly, and they are very reasonable when it comes to personal situations (if there are any.) While it is an older building, it has been kept in great condition. And the location is perfect. Close to everything. I’m not sure what apartment prices are like now, but when I moved in 1 year ago this place was the best quality and size for the prices available. I highly recommend them. Talk to Rocky or Erin, and they will take good care of you!
Plus, they offer a nice breakfast every Thursday morning as a sign of appreciation to the tenants. I don’t know any where else that does that!

After 3 years at the Cornelius, it will be sad to leave. I’ve seen lots come and go, but everyone feels like family.
The staff is friendly and flexible and the type of people you’d want to get a drink with.
The units are spacious and the building is always clean despite the dog friendly environment.
I will miss this place!

It’s been a while now that the new management has been in charge. There have been some WONDERFUL changes!!! There are no maintenance issues, either. The manager has also been holding tenant breakfast-​to-​go mornings where they set up a table with Starbucks coffee, bottled juices, bagels, etc… for tenants to grab and take with them. Management has also created a guest suite that is fully furnished and rentable by the night. The people who work here are awesome! They are friendly, but professional.
The only reason there are not 5 stars is because of the now-​and-​then smoke smell from other tenants. Although we are not to smoke in the building because of the city ordinance, some people still do. I can smell it coming through the vents in my bathroom.
In all, I would definitely recommend this building for anyone who wants a an apartment with character and charm (gray/​light beige painted walls, white baseboards and crown molding, window sills, milk-​man doors, etc…) and that is downtown.

If you’re single, want the Belltown-​living experience/​convenience, don’t have a car, and don’t mind noise, smoke, walking up stairs, stank-​faced hipster douchebags THIS IS THE PLACE FOR YOU!
8^th floor views are beautiful, we had the Space Needle, Mount Baker, and Lake Union greeting us each morning. I never had the condensation problems other people had or problems with heat, I can’t speak to that. Its a nice sized studio, easy to decorate in a way that creates a «bedroom», and the semi-​separate kitchen was a nice perk. We had maintinence take the door off the closet and created a curtain for it, which kept it warm, and gave more room for the bed.
If I was 10 years younger, single, partied all the time, and wanted to live downtown this would be a great place to live for the price. It was VERY pet friendly… to the point that people treated the back hallway to the trashroom as an indoor dog run. There is NO PARKING nearby. We rented a space for 150 a month at the Seattle Heights condos 2 blocks over and 5 blocks up on 2^nd and Cedar. The lot next door is over 200 a month to park (probably more now).
The key card entry failed to let us into our apartment one night after a Sounders game. You get to wait over an hour for maintenance to come down from Everett, and then management had the cajones to try and charge us for the locksmith. Both of our key cards malfunctioned, and the key card of the maintenance guy. Obviously… not our fault.
The one star is for the management company, in the 10 months (we left early) we lived there there were 3 different property managers, each one more impossible to work with than the previous. No information was ever transferred, so we found ourselves having the same conversation with each one. SAVE ALL YOUR PAPERWORK. They’ll try to screw you out of money, but stand your ground, save your paperwork and conversations, and duke it out with them. Don’t let them give you the runaround.
Oh, and how effing hard is it to alert people that they have a package? Stick a note on the mailbox instead of looking at jewelry on etsy all freaking day.
The cute oldetimey elevators were almost perpetually broken. And they take forever to get fixed, possibly because in order to repair them you have to get into a time machine?
If I was 22, single, partied all the time, and worked within walking distance this would be an ideal (if pricey) place to live.

Condensation in the rooms. So bad that it drips from the ceilings, and pools on the surfaces. Damp clothes, damaged material items, and worst of all — extreme cases of mold. People have been moved out of their places for this issue.
Low temperatures (in the 50’s) in rooms during the winter due to poor (no) insulation, and poor heating conditions.
Very high energy bills during the winter due to poor heating conditions.
Shoddy Renovations. Walls not cleaned before being painted over (hair under the paint). Poor choices in appliances (extra small water heater, imagine 10 mintues of shower time). No garbage disposal in sink. Poor installation of wall sockets. Poor availability of wall sockets.
Hotel Keys vs standard metal keys. A novelty until it stops working at 2 am and the nearest help is an hour out.
Ventilation is interconnected through the building. Meaning, you smell the other apartments’ stinks. I smelled someone smoking pills, crack, or meth the other day. I’ve seen smoke pour out of the vent from someone burning toast. I’m pretty sure smokers blow the smoke into them unaware of the affects. It’s as though they are smoking in your apartment. I can even smell people’s kitchen trash through the vent.
**Extremely Poor Management Staff**
I’ve had to cancel two checks because they lost them. Also not accountable for checks cashed (had to show bank receipts to settle the issue).
**FRAUD** Fraudulently recreated my Contract of Lease and managed to throw in higher rates (however I cannot say if that was on purpose or not, I believe it was just poor organization). And by Fraud I mean not my signatures (roughly 20+ signatures)!
Lied about building issues. For the issues above I was told that I was the only person experiencing such issues. As expected many other people have told me they have similar issues too. I’ve had people knock on my door asking if I’ve had similar problems.
I cannot stress how frustrating this building has been for myself, and for others that I have talked too.

I’ve lived in several apartment complexes in Seattle, but this is the most unpleasant place I have ever lived. It’s cute and quirky because it was an old hotel from the 1920’s, then became student housing for AI and now renovated (last December) as studio apartment homes. I was originally turned off by the fact that it’s so old and has no garage for my car, but the location, price and «adorable» quirks (at the time) drew me in. Little did I know I would have SO MANY PROBLEMS living here!
I have had so many issues living here I could go on and on, however I will just list everything that I’ve experienced and you can evaluate yourself:
— No apartment key: You get a key card (like at a hotel) to enter your unit. This system has locked me out several times, resulting in calling the maintenance guy who lives up in Everett to let me back into my apartment.
— Free wifi in the lobby: This is a nice amenity for people who don’t have internet and want to use it real quick. It is not cool to have a pajama party at 12am for freeloaders who don’t even live in the building.
— Ping pong room: AKA frat party and beer bong. I didn’t realize when I moved into this building that I was going back to college and living with bros. Unfortunately, you have to go through this room to throw out your garbage and recycling.
— Old elevator: One old elevator (which I thought was cute) and one new elevator and they both take FOREVER to use. The old elevator has a metal gate and has broken down a few times. I had friends visit me and get stuck (with their kids) in the old elevator. Not to mention the gate jams often, I fear for my life in that one.
— No ventilation: My bathroom ceiling gets constant condensation from the lack of ventilation. Often the water that dews up on the ceiling would drip onto the floor, so NASTY! Not to mention the vent in there blows out dust constantly.
— No ventilation/​insulation in closet: My closet gets so cold, I had a space heater in there that I brought out to use (because my place lacks insulation) and it measured 49 Degrees in the closet! The same issues as the bathroom, but not as severe, condensation on my ceiling and dripping down the walls. My cloths constantly feel cold and damp.
— No insulation: I just found out from another neighbor that they poked a hole in his ceiling and found that there was no insulation. If you look out the window along the sides, you can see that the brick is set right next to the window, which means there is little or no insulation. No wonder it’s always 50 degrees in my place! I have to crank the temperature up high, resulting in high electricity bills ($ 100+) in order to stay warm!
— No ventilation in kitchens: When I cook bacon or onions, the smell lingers for days, even when I crack a window during the day. You can always smell when someone is cooking on your floor because it lingers into the hall. There is no vent or fan in the kitchen, resulting in opening the window at 43 degrees at night. There’s a living room fan if you want to disperse the smell.
— Interior looks like a rush job: Don’t get me wrong, the interior is cute and has an old, yet modern charm. However if you look at the craftsmanship that went into the work, it’s awful. The paint job looks slopping, my kitchen counter has a crack in it, there is a ½ inch gap between the carpet and the molding (around the ENTIRE apartment), I can see concrete/​dust/​gross things between this space.
— Location and noise: Wow, I’ve lived in the city for years, this is the LOUDEST place I have ever lived. I can hear crackheads across the street at odd hours of the night. Drunk people walk down the street yelling all the time. The garbage trucks collect garbage at 5−6am…oh and sometimes 7am on the weekends when I’m sleeping in. The hallway echos as well, so you can hear complete conversations, elevators, dogs, people and EVERYTHING!
I have to be nice and give them some Pros:
— Pet friendly.
— Maintenance guy is super nice! (Especially putting up with all the problems in this building)
— Good location, walking distance to all the best restaurants.
— Nice view of the city.

*DO NOT MOVE HERE*
Seriously. HORRIBLE building and staff.
The doors have hotel key cards, not real keys. I’ve lost hundreds and hundreds of dollars missing deadlines and gigs because my card has gone tits up, locked me out, and their maintenance guy lives all the way in Everett. I’ve done everything possible to try and keep the cards in working order, still they fail.
Nine months of living here, and they slap a 3 day pay or evict notice on my door for my FIRST MONTH’S RENT, plus late fees. No phone call, no conversation, no nothing. Obviously I paid it, in full, because since when does a building let you move in without first month’s rent??? I had to fight with them and waste a ton of time and stress trying to prove I paid with a cashier’s check they claimed never to have cashed, which they decided was my problem. I threatened to lawyer up, and they «graciously» waived the amount due.
BTW, they claimed that this had never happened with anyone else here. Obviously not, I’ve talked to several other residents who had the same thing happened (many of them got scared and had to just scramble to pay it) and the other review here tells a very similar tale.
Multiple complaints about the people smoking pot in their apartments and hallways go unaddressed. On more than one occasion a staff member has laughed at me when I’ve complained about the smoke and smell getting into my apartment. People also do drugs in the fitness center bathroom. Awesome…
When I first was shown the apartment and signed my lease I was PROMISED the building did not contract with Broadstripe, and I could get Comcast. I often work from home and need highspeed, dependable internet, which definitely isn’t Broadstripe. I made it clear this was a deal breaker for me. This was a flat out lie, and the building has always had a contract with Broadstripe. When I brought this up I hardly got an apology, and was told I was out of luck and could not back out since I’d already signed and paid my deposit and first (which they later said I didn’t pay, funny that…)
I was also promised that the walls were concrete and noise wouldn’t be an issue. I hear noise from every apartment around me, from the elevator down the hall and around the corner, from EVERYWHERE, whenever I don’t have the tv on to help cover it up.
The elevators are TERRIFYING and malfunction in various ways on a regular basis. I have a permanently disabled left hand, and it’s incredibly difficult to get in and out of the older elevator with the non-​automated doors. I’ve documented before when one of the bars of the door actually snapped and was not repaired for over two weeks…
When they put letters offering to renew my lease at the current rate on my door with ribbon, I laugh. Don’t let the price fool you. Nor the view. This place is horrible, and they will treat you like crap. Stay away! Can’t wait until my lease is up.