Harrison Square Apartments

Last spring, we reserved a 2bdrm unit in this building from out of state, based on pictures, square footage, location, and the comfort of knowing they have a 30 day 100% satisfaction «out» on the lease.
We took advantage of that guarantee and ended up backing out before moving our furniture in.
Reasons: Signs of trouble… Dirty hallways, both grime and construction scraps were everywhere. Got into the unit and the first shelf I set something on literally fell down. Sat down to take a breath, and heard the person upstairs flush the toilet. Spoke to a neighbor in the hallway, who said nothing reassuring.
Plus for the units would be better square footage than many locations, fireplaces, and balconies. Location is on a quiet street, less bus noise. Less expensive than many buildings. The deli on Harrison is really great.
We ended up at the new building 2 blocks up. Very glad we made the change. Especially after reading the recent reviews.

Are you thinking about renting an apartment at Harrison Square? Consider this…
Harrison Square is located in amazing Lower Queen Anne and the people who live in this building are wonderful.
However, the pros of living there no longer outweigh the cons. As soon as Archstone sold this building to Equity Residential, the quality of our experience went downhill fast. Equity Residential seems to care solely on making money, at the cost of those people they depend on (both workers and residents).
For example, there are small perks that the company eliminated right away, such as the free lobby coffee bar and small social events. More importantly, the «Wooftop» is no longer a beautiful place to socialize and give our pups exercise… it is basically a patch of dirt and dog poop. The elevator is broken more often than it functions. And finally, the company hired a crew to paint the building that is inexperienced and unprofessional. It has taken so long to complete the project, and meanwhile, we’re living in the chaos and hideousness of having paper lining the floors of our hallways, paint tubs strewn about, and paint dust lining the walls and railings.
It’s not worth it.

If you decide to rent here, expect nothing but your pocket to be picked every month. There are so many spot on reviews here, but this is mine.
This construction is not a «labor of love»; it is for profit. The overall construction that Equity has imposed upon us was to convert retail space into more apartments (the only decent renovation was the gym). This wouldn’t bother me if Equity took good care of us current residents during construction, but they haven’t. During this extremely long, loud, dusty and unsafe time, Equity has offered no compensation to those of us living in this hell, and nothing they have done is turning the building into something «better». They have only replaced the old with new and cheap, which is more aggravating considering how inconvenient it has been. Just two examples: the letters are already falling out of the new Harrison Square sign outside, and the hall carpets (who uses a light color in a high traffic area?) are already beat up and stained.
The construction workers were bad, and most recently, the painters are inconceivably worse. They are awful at painting (go figure), but they are really good at being unorganized, loud, vulgar, dirty, disrespectful and unsafe. They work in a way that ensures we residents are inconvenienced to the max; instead of completing a section at a time, they have descended plague-​like on the entire building at once. Also, the interior renovations Equity forced on us and made us pay for (glorified updates that swapped already crappy fixtures and finishes for even worse ones) were performed by inexperienced «bull in china shop» type workers who took ten times longer than promised, and left us with a «renovation» that was worse than before. There’s a story and a half there, but I don’t even want to dredge up those details from the corner of my mind where I’ve tried to repress them.
CLEANLINESS: The building halls, stairwells and exterior grounds are dirty. It is completely true that you can see the same garbage in the same spot for months.
SECURITY: We used to have a security guard every night, and Equity cut that service.
RENT FAIRNESS: Equity doesn’t care how long you’ve lived here. There’s no negotiating your rent. Your rent will never stay the same or go down. It will always go up, even with many new, better buildings in the neighborhood. Also, they will always try to push your renewal date closer towards the summer, when the rates are more expensive. Look at the website right now (late September). They are showing the best rates for 8-​month leases, because they want you to renew during the summer at exorbitant prices.
WOOFTOP: The off-​leash dog area used to be a huge selling point of the building. Now, it is a wasteland. Equity takes little care of it. They only maintain it once a year, so it’s a crater filled dust bowl half the year. Equity can’t find it in their budget to take care of this space even though we all pay $ 50 per pet/​month. Unilocal response says «staff at Harrison Square considers the dogs in our building to be equally cherished residents», but they don’t show it.
MAINTENANCE: The elevators were out constantly last year. I’d say the large elevator was out for a third of last year. Also, our fireplaces were out of service for a long time last winter, specifically during Christmas. There was no compensation.
PACKAGE DELIVERY: With reduced hours and less staff (there’s usually only one person in the office) it’s very hard to get your packages. If they are showing an apartment, you cannot get your package. Also, emails letting you know you have a package tend not to come until 5 minutes until they close. To read that they want to stop leaving packages in the mail room upon request because it’s «too much work» is another low blow. Maybe if Equity could loosen their purse strings a little bit and actually properly staff the office with another body EVERY DAY this wouldn’t be an issue.
PARKING GARAGE: Paying $ 150 a month for a spot here is a joke. The garage is poorly designed – super small spaces, tons of concrete poles with no padding, and very narrow throughways that are blocked in some places with overfilled bike racks.
AMENITIES: We used to have daily coffee/​tea (all day), treat bowl for the dogs (they loved it!) and a monthly «thank you for living here» pop-​ups like a barista in the lobby, but no more. They also got rid of our party room and boardroom.
Equity needs to put their money where their mouth is and SHOW us they want people to rent here, instead of just offering us constant lip service.
**By the way, no one solicited me to write a review. I was surprised to see other new reviews here too. I think a lot of us are just tired of being treated so poorly at such exorbitant prices.

***I would give zero stars except I really like Ben and Phillip.
If moving weren’t such a bitch, I’d have been out of here long ago. First, let me say that Ben and Phillip in the office are very nice, and I in no way fault them, but I echo the sentiments on Mischa and the pre-​Equity days. The cozy days of free coffee and comfy lounges are over. Sure the walls are thin and you can hear toilets flushing and alarm clocks, but that’s a lot of places. It used to be that the cozy lounge, reasonable rents and happy residents made up for it. There used to be community happy hours, and other little perks that made this feel like home. No more.
Since Equity took over, this place has sucked. Things break all the time — our fireplaces were off for over 5 weeks *during Xmas*. It has also been a non-​stop construction site with the least competent and professional people I’ve ever seen. I found a painter urinating on the wall *immediately next to* the port-​a-​potty — which is under my balcony and has been for months. I was told he was fired but reading earlier reviews, now I’m not so sure. Worse, I’ve asked many times for the toilet to be locked after hours, but it’s not and vagrants, partiers, etc are in and out creating noise (the door slams incredibly loudly) and safety issues. As mentioned, the painters have left trash and peeled off paint (due to not taping doors properly) everywhere, and due to no wet paint signs, a lot of us have (and have had their dogs) get covered in paint. The floors have not been swept all week.
Anyway, having lived through demolition, constantly failing elevators, having my water shut off 9 times in 4 months, and rude and incompetent contractors (all of which are a delight when you work from home) my only reward was to have a less appealing building, my rent jacked up, my parking costs double, and to still have a view of a portable toilet. Looking online I can see that my apartment rents for almost 900 dollars less than equity says I have to pay because I’m month to month while I have been waiting to see if this place sorts itself out because moving sucks so much. Long review short, if you aren’t stuck here, don’t come here. And if this is how they run properties, I’m boycotting Equity altogether and you should too.

Two weeks ago, we moved into a different unit within same apartment for our expected baby. The new unit had series of severe defects but nothing has been done so far.
First, we can hear our neighbor as if he’s in our bedroom with us. We even hear him talking to himself, moving cups or whispering to his friend over the phone. Not to mention that we wake up at his Samsung Galaxy alarm in the mornings.
Second, we hear our neighbors’ flushing or washing through the exposed pipe in our kitchen&living room. We’ve been to lots of restaurants with exposed pipelines and never thought you have to hear your neighbors bathroom noise through it. This freaked our friends out when they came to visit, and they were surprised to hear the rent we were paying for this defective place.
Third, this place does not have internet\landline network. I had to spend 6+hours on the phone with CenturyLink trying to figure out how to fix it. They said they sent out their technician several times since I contacted them 2 weeks ago, but could not fix it because they were put on hold by an apartment manager. We were not notified at all, and had to keep on calling CenturyLink every other day. All we heard from the apartment was that they ‘emphasize’ with ‘our’ trouble and they have been doing everything to support us.
We still do not have internet and landline in our unit.
I was requested to share my bad experience on Unilocal by other resident. I totally agree to other residents who posted reviews in the recent 6 months. I lived here for 18 months and it was not as bad during my 1^st year here. Whenever we request to fix something, we started to hear belated updates/​excuses or blames. We’ve been too lazy to deal with this issue in a serious manner so far, but this has gone too far.

PROS:
— Great location
— Large balconies
— Large gym
— Maintenance has been quick to respond
— Nice views if you’re on a top floor facing the bay
CONS:
— To begin, I’d like to point out that most of the good reviews that have inflated this building’s rating are older and from the time when Archstone, not Equity owned the building, and Mischa was part of the management team. As many other reviews have stated, Mischa was top-​notch, and made a huge difference in quality of life at the building.
— Non-​stop construction. Invasive and inconvenient construction has been going on for, literally, a year and a half with no break. The workers are dirty, loud, and leave their trash and supplies all over the hallway. All improvements have been aimed at keeping up with better, surrounding buildings. As far as I can tell, nothing has been done to improve the actual apartments.
— Hallways and stairways are filthy. There was a beer bottle sitting in the same place in a stairwell for 6 months.
— Noise — I have actually lived in two apartments in this building – my current apartment is on the top floor so it isn’t as bad, but I had to move out of my original apartment because of constant stomping from the unit above me. Not sure if the blame lies with the residents or the building, but the building is made of wood, not concrete, from the 3^rd floor up, so noise is not absorbed particularly well. Building noise aside, there are trash trucks that come almost every night and morning – no joke – between 12 and 1 AM and again between 5 and 7 AM. The sound of the dumpsters slamming around wakes me up almost every time.
— As others have noted, the fire alarm goes off every 1 — 2 months, usually late at night, and everyone has to stand outside while the fire department comes to inspect the building.
— Apartment fixtures and appliances are clearly very cheap. The towel rack and toilet paper holder are always falling off in the bathroom.
— Office is only open from 10 — 6, when everyone is at work, This makes it difficult to retrieve the packages they collect for you. Although, to their credit, they will leave your packages in the mail room if requested, although I was informed that they plan on no longer doing that because it’s ‘too much work.’
— Random faces frequently showing up at the gym. It’s usually pretty obvious when someone lives in the building and when they somehow just gained access to use the gym.
Considering I’m paying $ 2,300 a month in rent/​parking, the cons are simply unacceptable. I certainly won’t be renewing my lease, and I encourage anyone looking for a new apartment to look at properties not managed by Equity Residential.
**UPDATE**
The generic response from the property was written by someone I’ve never met. I’m sure they have somebody in the corporate office whose job it is to do damage control in situations like this. This is the kind of response you can expect from Equity.

Things were not so great a few years ago and they have progressively gotten worse over the last 4 months.
Health reasons to avoid Harrison:
1) Toxic paint — it is real and many people and animals are sick.
2) Mold — been going on for at least 5 years. Equity has not fixed the problems or underlying leaks — just patch work.
3) Smoke — when new manager was told that a resident was smoking in their apt and the smell was traveling through the vents he said there is nothing he can do about it. It is claimed to be a smoke free property but it does not seem to be enforced. There are even cigarette butts in the elevators sometimes.
4) Dog poo — It is not just out on the street but in the building (common hallways and garage). When reported it does not get cleaned up.
5) Last week I saw one of the painters urinate on a neighbors balcony. She reported it to the manager who told her the painter was fired. He is still here painting a week later. I guess it is easier to lie than to do your job.
Other reasons to avoid:
1) Elevator always breaks and takes a minimum of a week to fix only to break within 48 days.
2) Poor construction (including the recent renovations which were really just new countertops, light fixtures any vinyl kitchen flooring). Expect anything and everything to break often and not be fixed right.
3) Expect bugs — lots and lots of pests. Don’t bother with making an extermination request… After a few requests I gave up on anything actually improving.
4) Expect plumbing issues — pretty sure the bad plumbing that never gets fixed is the cause of all the mold.
5) Constant fire alarms, usually after 11pm. Drunk people keep setting them off.
If you are still reading, look at any of the many other apartments that are in just a two block radius (except Metro on First — my friends hate it as much as we all hate Harrison Square). All the other apartments seem to have nicer finishes and construction, more amenities and often lower rent, too. There really is no benefit to living here unless you want to pay too much, have no amenities, health issues and lots of trouble.

I loved this apartment. New management came in, removed Mischa, and this place is just unacceptable. The «renovations crew» leaves paper, paint, and other materials just lying around on the walkways, creating tripping hazards. There was paint splattered all over the grass DIRECTLY in front of the doggie waste bin.
This apartment complex is renovating for Amazon money, and doesn’t care about the health and safety of it’s tenants. The unprofessional behavior of the leasing staff is almost legendary.
I cannot wait to move out of this complex, which is a shame, because I love the location

They cut a hole in the ceiling of my apartment so they could assess whether they could use the roof as a social gathering place. It took a week for them to fix and finish it. My dogs both got sick from the materials they used and my living room and kitchen were unusable during this time. I received nothing for the inconvenience… Not even an apology.
The property decided to update the kitchen and bathroom as a requirement to renew my lease and promised that it would only take 3 days. Took two weeks. I was without a kitchen for over a week. Without a working bathroom for 3 days and I have 2 bathrooms in my unit. Again my dogs fell ill from exposure to the materials used and I am still cleaning dust and debris out of my possessions. My reward… Higher rent for the improvements that weren’t. New flooring consisted of thin vinyl glued on top of the old flooring and chemical headaches from the fumes. Again… Nothing for the inconvenience except a rent increase and no apology for any of it.
Most recently we’ve been dealing with the building being repainted. Started at the beginning of summer. They aren’t even half way done yet and we’re almost through September and no warning about the very toxic paint being used until one of my two dogs died from being poisoned by the paint. We have small children in this building. Building management didn’t do much and haven’t taken any steps or measures to protect the pets, children and residents of this building and now more pets are sick in the building. Today, I woke up to painters on my balcony. No warning. No notice. They got paint on my stuff. Peed on a planter and then destroyed it. But to top it all off, my second dog is now sick. Still no serious response from the property.
At a minimum they are guilty of not abiding by the 48 hour notification rules when allowing the painters onto my balconies without any notice. Second they are guilty of failing to provide a safe and healthy environment to live. I won’t go on about the excessive mold issues in the building. Hopefully another resident who has been directly affected by that will speak up.
Under Archstone, this wasn’t a perfect place to live, but I at least got the sense that I was valued as a tenant and received excellent service. Not under Equity. All they care about is getting your money. If you’re young, have no pets or children, don’t care about amenities and services this is the building for you, but really for the same money you can get a really nice apartment, with amenities and services, in a new building. Why would you ever live here? I know I won’t be come December after 5 years.
*** Clarification ***
My assertion about the toxin that killed my dog coming from the property is not just an assumption on my part. I took samples from the debris, paint splatter and area where my dog was exposed on the property and then had those analyzed by a lab. A necropsy was performed on my dog and the toxins from the samples matched what killed my dog. May have been the paint or something they added to the paint — regardless, when brought up to the property no reasonable actions were taken to protect the residents. Debris and paint were left in public hallways for weeks on end with zero attempt to make these heavily traveled pathways safe and clean. When they finally committed to removing the debris from the hallways, it proved to be an empty promise and nothing has been done.
I never once demanded anything. I didn’t ask for them to pay for my expenses incurred because of all of this. I didn’t threaten. I shared information I had and recommended they take actions to remediate the issues and make the situation safe for the residents. I get that mistakes happen. I get that unintended consequences occur. All I have ever asked is that the problem be recognized and remediated so no one else has to experience the same pain. Especially important considering we have small children in the building. Instead all I have seen is a scramble to cover themselves and do just enough so they can say they did something — even if it was not anywhere near being reasonable.
I STRONGLY encourage you to take your money and business elsewhere.

I’ve interacted with a Leasing Consultant, named Mischa, on multiple occasions at this property. She was prompt, professional, helpful, and very friendly each and every time. Her assistance with apartment selection and monthly parking options was invaluable, and she even remembered me 5 months later!
At the end of my apartment search, due to the lack of available units (poor timing), I chose not to move from my current apartment. However, I was thoroughly impressed with my experience here, and based on my interactions with the staff, as well as the property walkthrough, I think I would have been very happy.

Misha is so helpful and organized! She left my sister a handwritten note on her door on her birthday and she is easily available all the time and always willing to help. She rocks. The leasing process was so easy because of her.

I’ve loved living at Archstone. I wish I could stay forever. However transportation issues and raising rent costs have sent me away. I work night shift, which means I sleep during the day. So quiet is very important. My unit backs up the dog patio and I hear very little city or residential noise during the day. I also love having my private patio– it’s beautiful. I must note that I have friends who also live in the building. Their bedroom window opens to the inner atrium and they do experience daytime noises. The location is wonderful. Safeway is only a block away, so are several bus stops, zipcar lots, bars, yummy queen anne dining & the myrtle edwards trail. They hold any packages or deliveries at the front desk. They have industrial size elevators for moving. There is a fitness room, but alas I don’t use it like I ought to. Every unit has it’s own washer and dryer. Yes, the appliances are not up to date, but they work well and if you have any issues maintenance is VERY fast about fixing. Equity properties actually owns Archstone now. While the new management is friendly they are not as personal as the previous. I do not however require my manager to be my bff so that’s just an mild observation. I do however blame Equity for the very huge jump in rent costs. I still however would love to stay and have loved living here.

Great place to live

My wife and I are scheduled to move-​in to Archstone Elliott Bay this June; so at first I thought it’s a bit early for me to be posting a Unilocal review on them at this point. That said, last week, a Class A customer service opportunity (or challenge) presented itself to the staff at Archstone and they passed it with flying colors.
Here’s the story. We signed the lease for an apartment about a month ago. Apparently, we were supposed to replace a tenant who was leaving the building. A few weeks later, the tenant decides not to leave. Archstone calls and tells us about the situation. They tell us not to worry as they have another apartment available for us. It’s the same unit type but several floors up. They’ll lease it out to us at the same price we originally agreed to (which is lower because it’s lower in the building).
Why is this so awesome? Three reasons: (1) I read the fine print when I signed the contract and it did say they couldn’t be held liable for keeping the exact lease date we agreed on. This meant they could have played hard ball, followed the letter of the contract, and just told us to wait. (2) They could have offered up the better apartment and asked us to pay the higher rental price. As we are just moving into the city and are feeling a little stress about our upcoming move date, we could have been pressured into shelling out a few extra dollars per month just to get the worry of being stuck homeless out of the way. They didn’t.
People have raved about Archstone’s top class customer service on Unilocal but most of the reviews so far have focused on the small but important things. I hope this review illustrates the type of character the people at Archstone possess in more trying times.

I have rented for 6 months and really only have positives to say. For the price and location, I think you get a good value. I love the rooftop dog park. It must be 100×50 feet, with trees, walkways and benches. (see my picture) The staff is very helpful and has a positive attitude. Any maiintance issues ar addressed promptly. Also the front desk collects your packages. Some people leave their dry cleaning there for pick up/​delivery. I have a spacious 2 bedroom with a large deck and FIVE closets… You know how much that means. Also underground parking is nice and Safeway is a block away.

I lived at Archstone Elliott Bay for almost a year and a half and experienced nothing but outstanding service from the office staff! Whatever my needs were they did everything they could to make it happen. And even after my lease was up and I moved across the country James and Stephanie still continued to go above and beyond to help me when a situation arose that I wasn’t able to take care of being out of the state. I would recommend this apartment community to everyone! Thank you Aaron (even though you’re now at another Archstone community), James, and Stephanie!

After calling Archstone Elliott Bay home for the past year, we just decided to renew our lease with little hesitation! From day one, the staff made sure we were pleased and comfortable in our home and went above and beyond in every way. My fiancé had surgery on his knee and even received a get well card-how’s that for A+service! In addition to receiving smiles and friendly chat every time we enter the lobby, we have had great experiences with the maintenance team. They never fail to show up promptly and do a great job with repairs/​and/​or suggestions.
We are happy to enjoy a washer and dryer in the unit, a deck off our bedroom and living room, and a cozy fireplace! We have also thoroughly enjoyed the newly done fitness room, ample parking in the garage, a business center, and a resident club room. They are even building a rooftop dog park!
We enjoy the neighborhood restaurants (especially Buckley’s) and couldn’t be happier with our home. Thanks Archstone team, you rock!

Quick and dirty, I am very happy living here and would recommend to anybody to live here!
Pros:
–Customer service is awesome (thank you Aaron!)!
–Clean
–Quiet in the building and little outside noise
–Maintenance requests quickly responded to and they leave chocolate candy (A+ in my book!)
–Great location
–Underground parking
–Washer/​Dryer in unit
–Pet friendly
–Coffee and tea everyday, donuts occasionally
–Accepts packages
–30 days satisfaction guarantee
–Can pay rent online
–Recycles
–Convenient trash locations
–Easy move in
–Really nice cable deal with Comcast
–If I look over some buildings, I can see the Space Needle from my unit
–Can manage account, maintenance requests, etc online
–Welcoming foyer
–Free business center (was helpful when I was studying for my boards!)
–I have tons more that I can’t think of now… just ask!
Cons: (I don’t have many, but just to be informative as no place is perfect.)
–Appliances and unit features are dated
–Little storage space in unit, but you can rent storage in the building
–Depending on the unit, not a lovely view (mine is of a parking lot)
–Not the building’s fault, but the dog owners don’t clean up their «mess» outside on the grass/​sidewalk
–High initial pet fee, and you have to pay month rent for your pet

So, I was mad when i wrote my last review. After going out in the rain today and seeing James running out in the rain in his suit just to help someone out, I feel totally obligated to update this. I feel bad, because the management is not nearly as bad as I made it sound. If you come here, I definitely recommend dealing with James and/​or Aaron, because those two are professional and show the best customer service and provide tons of clarity. They have helped us so much and worked with us so that everyone is happy. It’s still a bit pricey here, but I finally realize that it’s worth it. So, I guess now, I do recommend Archstone; Just make sure that communication is clear and wants/​needs are defined and there is no way you should have problems.

We have lived in Archstone communities for 5 years now. From New York, to California and now Seattle. As long as we are renters, we will continue to call Archstone communities home! Although every community has been different in the finishings and features, the staff have always been more than acomodating, helpful and just good people. We moved into Archstone Elliott Bay this past April. In October, the community started a major construction project. This has been very frustrating at times as we work from home many days of the week, but the staff in the office has been more than accomodating, helpful and responsive to anything we have needed or asked. We have a great view of the water and mountains, garage parking, a very walkable neighborhood, and most importanat, a nice apartmenmt that we love to come home to. We are happy we are able to call Archstone Elliott Bay Home!