Noba

This is a clean, safe and friendly apartment complex to live in. I have only been here for a few months and since day one the management team has always been very helpful and on top of things for me. I would recommend living here. Crown Hill is growing and this location is great for getting anywhere.

Don’t listen to the negative reviews, NOBA is a great apartment complex in an amazing location.
When I moved in I was offered a great move in deal on a studio that was at least 200 dollars less than smaller studios in Ballard.
What I really like about this place is:
–The Management, Lynne is an amazing property manager. She ensures that the apartment is kept in top shape and she’s also very personable! My dogs also really like her too! She always has treats for the dogs and sometimes she even brings them steak! Also both the maintenance team is really great, they are very active with keeping the building in good shape.
–The building itself, very well laid out and energy efficient. I live on the east side of the building so in my apartment I have an amazing view of the mountains on the eastside. Speaking of views, the rooftop deck has some really great views as well. You have views of downtown, the sound, the Olympics and Mount Rainier.
–The location, the building is very centrally located, a couple blocks away there’s a Safeway, Walgreens, Grocery Outlet, multiple great restaurants and the D line is right outside the door so commenting without a car is pretty simple. There’s also a ton of really great parks wishing a few miles, Golden Gardens and Carkeek are some of my favorites.
–There’s tons of parking on street and around the block, also when I moved in I was able to get a spot inside the garage
–Price, for the price especially in Seattle, NOBA is very reasonable for a newer apartment building.

Noba worked with me a found an excellent solution to that ridiculous rent increase. Thank you Noba.

I live in the DUO, which is attached to NOBA, and was managed by Pinnacle.
I just finished writing a review for DUO (now poorly managed by Trimark Housing) and Pinnacle. And looking through NOBA’s reviews, it sounds just as awful. I can relate to many of their frustration about switching over to third party utility billing, and bills quadrupling for no good reason (and now I am scared that when I do finally get to move out, I’ll be sent to collections for a no good reason!)
The common theme here is DO NOT RENT FROM PINNACLE. There are plenty of other apartments managed by companies that actually care about their residents and operate efficiently. We are busy and stressed enough from school, work, etc. and it’s not worth it to come home to a place that stresses you out even more.
DO NOT RENT FROM PINNACLE.

I wasn’t going to say anything but this week, months after moving out, I was burned by NOBA apartments again.
I lived in NOBA from Sept 2013 to November 2014.
During that time, there was a «NOBA Apartments» banner hanging from the wall of the building right outside of my apartment, which was located at the top floor on the north-​west corner of the building. You can actually see this banner in the promotional pictures. It would bang very loudly on the wall, all night, every night, all the time. It was very annoying and it didn’t let me sleep at night.
I asked the management multiple times if it could be removed or secured tightly so it wouldn’t bang during the night. Three different managers told me that they were on it, but none of them did anything. I couldn’t move out because breaking the lease would have been very expensive. Eight months later, the construction next door got to the third floor of their building and the banging suddenly stopped.
At first I thought they had to remove the banner to keep on building but now my theory is that it was never removed and, if you look closely, you can see the banner still there, sandwiched in between the buildings.
I finally moved out and had the unit cleaned. Upon inspection I was told that it was in pristine condition and they even thanked me for it. So I considered the NOBA chapter of my life closed.
Last week, IQ Data, a collections agency, contacted me to tell me that I owed $ 111.12 to NOBA apts. No reason for the charges was stated. I never got any sort of communication about this from NOBA. They have my phone, address and email. I’ve called them but they never pick up.
That’s the kind of bad management you get in NOBA apts.
That, plus the rampant insecurity of the neighborhood (guy who parked next to me had his 4 tires stolen overnight, somebody broke into my car, neighbors had their bikes stolen, etc.), the illegal lack of composting, the confusing, duplicated and illegally bumped utility bills (which actually ended with some neighbors taking legal actions against NOBA) made me open a Unilocal account just to tell you guys DON’T LIVE HERE!
What would it take to improve this place?
A live-​in competent manager that won’t leave to work on the other NOBA building down the street, serious security upgrades like cameras that actually work and fences that can’t be so easily jumped, and a clear move out process where both parts agree on what’s owed and why. I’m sure I gave them a security deposit, I haven’t heard of them on that either.
Update:
The manager at NOBA read this review and called me to my phone. She apologized for everything, denied knowing anything about the banner, and sent me the move out statement bill for the $ 111.12. I didn’t give them a security deposit, what I gave them was a non-​refundable application fee.

The facts of living here:
it took me three months to get internet installed for an «internet ready apartment». Managers had come and gone a total of 5 times in my 12 month stay. The first issue with this, is that they extended my lease an extra two months, when I signed up for a ten month term, and noticing this in the 2^nd month living here, they said I could get out by paying an extra 2 months.
They illegally did not compost. The garbage room was always over flowing so you had to walk on garbage. Compost was never removed, and I mean ever so you were unable to properly dispose your food and garbage.
Utility bills were 140 bucks a month on top of the insane rent, and everyone paid basically th same amount so you weren’t paying for your personal usage of energy. They lost 3 utility bills from me so I had to pay extra 3 bills (over 400 bucks). I worked 7 days a week to pay for the place so didnt use much at all. Not only that but I got an eviction notice one day with no warning because of an «unpaid utility bill» which was not true, this one was proven by a check. As you can imagine this causes even more loss of hours at work to straiten these issues out, losing those paid hours.
I have extremely good credit, and always pay my bills on time, but they are a company who will destroy your credit rating because of their backwards tactics.
You can clean the place back to the original condition, and they still will take fees out of the deposit. I had to fight getting a deposit back 4 months after moving, and my first question was «did I hand my keys back?»…clearly the day I left, and then that they didn’t have my address, they sked if they should send it to my 15^th AVE NW ADDRESS (NOBAS Address). I had a cosigner with a permanent residence, and they had all the personal information they could ever want and just figured they wouldn’t bother sending a security deposit back.
There was a full two months of constant shaking from construction.
One of the monthly fees was an administrator fee, but management was always at a different property.
I could go on for multiple issues, but these I find important. You will pay hundreds of dollars more then you expect and have no legal help. I went to a lawyer and even though I was in the right, the lawyer said the company was too big to pursue.

Would give this negative stars if possible.
First off NOBA is insanely overpriced. Units are TINY at best. Some of the «1 bedrooms» are really studios but they put in a ¾ wall so they can call it a 1 bedroom. I was an a «traditional» 1 bedroom and it was less 600sq ft of which much of that sq footage was wasted & went for about $ 1500/​month.
The Space:
The bedroom: laughably small, had a queen bed & a nightstand & that was literally all that would fit while still being able to walk, no chest of draws or dress would ever fit, not a tv stand or anything like that. The window (which was out to someone’s slider and a stone wall) opened 2 inches which was pretty much useless. Forget using the front window which was a slider with a «juliet balcony» (it shouldn’t even be considered a balcony) since it overlooking 15^th ave. If you could deal with the noise that’s all well and good, but you’d also have to be willing to deal with the smell from trucks and cars as well as soot and dirty that blows in.
Heat:
The bedroom had floorboard, which wasn’t too bad actually, but then again the room was more like a closet so it could’ve been heated with a toaster oven. The heat for the rest of the apt however: a joke. It was a little in wall fan unit that’s about the size of a coffee table book. This was ALL the heat for the WHOLE apartment (minus the bed room). Not only that but it was very loud. Basically you just keep that puppy churning all winter and turn the volume all the way up on the tv so you can still hear it.
Appliances/​Kitchen Area:
Minus the appliances everything is from Ikea, cabinets counter tops. The appliances were new and nice enough but certainly not 1500/​month nice enough. Washer and dryer were okay but the dryer was way overkill, shrunk all my clothes day 1. Forget having an eating area unless you don’t want to have people over to sit and watch TV. You can just about fit a square table that’ll fit 4 people around it but if you do this you’re giving up precious living room space.
Living Room:
Very awkward space that gives you one option on how to set up your furniture (of which you can fit a couch and a chair, maybe another chair if you really don’t care how your apartment looks or care to walk around), not to mention you have that wonderful glass sliding door so you need to turn the tv up to outdo the street noise (even with the door closed) and the heater if you like to watch movies or tv in the winter.
The Rooftop:
PLEASE DO NOT BE FOOLED! This is definitely the «crown jewel» that they try to lure people with. The roof is nice, nothing to actually complain about EXCEPT. The grill they have was filthy all the time, trash wasn’t emptied, you were lucky if any of the tanks had propane. Besides that the roof is only useful in the summer they have zero cover up there the rain prohibits any level of enjoyment. Besides the rain the wind is typically prohibitive and in the summer, there’s no cover so you just get cooked by the sun. Long and short, there’s at least a million better rooftops in seattle.
Costs:
Rent is insanely high (yes you might say I knew this moving in but I expected a slightly higher level of service from the staff and amenities from the building). The parking (not included) around 100/​month and is in a tiny garage with tiny spot and isn’t secure at all assuming the people trying to get in have 2 legs and 2 arms and can climb a short fence. Fear not, if you’re foolish enough to live here after reading all these reviews there’s plenty of street parking. The trash and sewer costs (which are separate from actual utilities) were around 125/​month and were increased (doubled to that rate) without any tenets consent by the management (the management also did not let anyone know these changes were taking place).
Management:
The management, and the company overall. The actual management company sucks. They just blow. They sent eviction notices to a few apartments for not paying the utility bills (which were in dispute because, like I said they just increase them without notice or explanation) which they were told they could hold off on paying. The people that work in the actual building, when someone was actually employed and wasn’t quitting (I think the building manager changed 3 times when were lived there) and working, (when I lived there probably 3 days a week they’d let us know that no one would be in the office and we could go to Belay the other building they own if anyone needed help which isnt acceptable) were quite nice and made at least believable effort to help. The front door didn’t work with our key fob for literally months from the day we moved it. They hung a sign on the side of the building that kept people up at night, took them weeks to fix that.
I moved here because I was coming from out of town. Trust me when I tell you this place isn’t worth it. Its NOT close to ballard, at all, and it’s a cut rate construction and furnishing. Find something else and pay a little more

I, too, was one of the first tenants in this brand-​new building. I lived there for a full year, and I could not wait to get out. Here’s my break-​down of the awful:
The units — Brand-​new, but shoddily made. The quality wasn’t there for the units, and while noise from other tenants wasn’t an issue, the noise from 15^th Ave was. They were tiny but even then, the units were probably the best thing about this place.
Amenities — The only real amenity was the rooftop, which of course is basically un-​usable 9 months out of the year. I’d inquired multiple times in the Spring asking the management to clean the cushions (moldy) and put back the gas tanks to work the fire pit and the barbecue, all took weeks to replace. The one time I asked if it was possible if I could have a few friends over to watch fireworks on 4^th of July, they informed me it would be $ 250 to rent the space. WHAT? This is the only amenity in the building, and they didn’t understand that I didn’t need to «rent» it — I just wanted to make sure the space was available. (Pro-​tip to current residents: Don’t ask. Just do.)
Management — Office staff seem to be 100% at the mercy of the higher-​ups at Pinnacle. I was told numerous times they KNEW that the residents were being taken advantage of, etc. but that nothing could be done. All were generally very nice, reasonable, people. The two folks who actually listened to complaints and answered my phone calls during my time there have since left.
Cost — Clearly, not worth the rental money. I KNOW that their current «special» is tempting, but don’t do it. You will be stuck there. They also changed 3 months into my lease to a 3^rd party energy billing company, which QUADRUPLED the rates for utilities. It was incredibly sketchy, something I hadn’t budgeted for, and for a «green» building, completely unnecessary. They should switch to a cheaper utility company. Some residents actually consulted lawyers on this, who suggested that we do nothing because Pinnacle is too big.
As another reviewer noted, many of the residents banded together and filed a complaint about the ASTRONOMICAL increase in utilities and it was never even addressed or acknowledged by management EXCEPT when they completely dismantled the internal building Internet forum (basically taking away residents’ ability to discuss with one another what was going on.) Doesn’t that put a terrible taste in your mouth?
Finally, I waited to write this until I received my security deposit back. My favorite part about moving out was when I scrubbed my apartment top-​to-​bottom, and was told it was in pristine condition, but then they charged me $ 60 (note: this charge was never mentioned in my 40-​page lease) for «sanitization».
Bottom-​line: Do not rent from NOBA or Belay or any other Pinnacle company. Trust these reviews and save yourself money and strife.

NOBA did not get any better. The lease is up. They put in the screen door on in July. 10 months after moving in. If the power goes out you can’t get in the building. They offer reduced rent to new residents but won’t cut the same deal for existing residents when their lease is up. My experience with pinnacle will keep me away from any building they manage.

Don’t live here. It’s unfortunate that the management here is so incredibly inept, because the units themselves are actually quite cute and charming, but it’s definitely not at all worth it for the price and the poor management.
I lived here for 10 months and pretty much right from the start there were problems. Despite office hours being posted on the door, staff were hardly ever there and we frequently received emails with a couple rotating excuses (most often «medical emergencies» or «covering at Belay») as to why they would not be in.
The security was also questionable. Often, the garage doors would break and instead of being fixed, would just be propped open. Additionally, the power went out once and, instead of taking responsibility and being present in the office, the superintendent propped every single door open (front, garage and garage gate) and left a note saying to call them if there was a problem… shortly after the power outage, the emergency lights went off as well, making the hallways pitch black. It was not well-​managed at all.
They also switched to 3^rd party energy billing, which literally quintupled the rates (I went from paying less than 20 dollars a month for utilities to almost 100). Many of the residents banded together and filed a complaint and it was never even addressed or acknowledged by management, let alone solved.
Finally, a couple weeks after moving out I received my move-​out statement and what I assumed was going to be my deposit refund. However, instead of receiving a refund, I got a bill, along with a letter saying my balance was due by the 12^th of the month or they would be forced to send it to collections. I got the bill on the 11^th of the month. I called immediately to question the money I owed, and sent a follow up email. For literally two months I was given the run around, often being told that someone had «just walked into the office» the moment I called and that they would call me back (they never did). When I finally DID get someone to stay on the phone with me, they told me I didn’t actually owe any money… but I also wasn’t getting any back. My balance had magically been restored to zero. At this point I was so frustrated I just gave up on retrieving my $ 200 deposit.
It’s a shame that such a cute building with lots of potential is in the hands of such incompetent management.

I’ve had it with this place. We’ve lived here a year (and have tried every possible way to get out of our lease) and now that we have been stolen from TWICE with no action from the landlords I would ask that no one ever commit to a lease with this company (they own the Belay apartments as well.) the building is cheaply made, it takes weeks to get anything fixed, we have literally been asked for the same paperwork six times and each time have to tell them where they filed it and that it was taken care of months ago. The staff is inept and seemingly scared to ask their employers to make changes to help the tenants. I really can’t believe how badly managed this place is especially with how much the rent and utilities cost!
If I could give zero stars I would. If I could take them to court for being negligent I would. And if it didn’t cost upwards of 3,000 to break our lease I would have been out of here months ago.

I would put negative stars if possible!
This has been the worst living experience for me. While it’s inevitable that things go wrong with the building or the units at times, there needs to be a concern and action to resolve any conflict. The administration staff are incompetent and they are incapable of handling a presented problem. I am extremely dissatisfied with the customer service at NOBA. There is a complete lack of pro-​activity and productivity in response to concerns or complaints.
Many of us residents rallied together and filed a formal complaint to the building — and it was NEVER responded to!
Do not move here! It was a horrible experience and it ruined much of my peace-​of-​mind of coming home, since I always had an unresolved conflict and was therefore avoided or treated very disrespectfully by the staff.

Simply: don’t do it. (And don’t go to Belay either because it’s managed by the owners of this building!)
I am counting down the days until my lease is up, and then I’m out and I am not looking back.
Despite this building being so new, it’s absolute garbage. The front door is constantly broken, so at times it takes two or three tries to open it. The garbage chute jams and locks itself, and the garbage receptacle room is always a mess. Not to mention when it rains, there’s a lake in the parking lot. The parking spaces can barely fit a sedan comfortably, by the way.
You can hear your neighbors walking above you, and don’t be surprised when your kitchen lights start to flicker as they walk over them… And when you get woken up at 9AM on a Saturday because it sounds like the construction workers in the lot next door are standing next to you and shouting, don’t be surprised either. At least you can’t hear your next door neighbor though?
Management is awful. The office hours are inconsistent and they tend to leave when they feel like it. Any and all packages are left to stack up in the lobby despite an attempted break-​in at our sister building (Belay). Or, if they receive your package by chance, notifications are sporadic and it’s up to you to keep track of where it went. They’re also incredibly disorganized and are great at losing any documents given to them. And if you have ANY questions in regards to your bills or anything that may have happened in the building it’s, «I don’t know.»
This place is definitely not worth the money that I have to shell out every month, and I strongly urge anyone looking to rent to go somewhere else.