Tower 801

I lived here for a year in one of the upgraded unit. I loved it! The onsite management staff and the maintenance staff (Alyssa, Debra and Scott) are super nice and friendly. It was great to get to know them. On thing I really appreciate is that the sound isolation between units is great (probably because the building has concrete structure) so I never heard my neighbors. The one bedroom unit I had was very lovely and spacious. The location of the building is the best: it’s close to everything, including shopping, restaurants, public transit, zipcars, etc. The building is also meticulously maintained everyday. Depending on the unit and the floor, the view from the balconies could be impressive.
I felt really sad to move out because I needed more space.

I’m updating my review as I prepare to move out in March 2016. I’m still very happy with the property. The office staff of Scott, Alissa, and Deb are amazing. While I don’t always like a company policy, the way they give you «no» is appreciated. I wanted to upgrade from a «classic» unit that wasn’t upgraded, to a newer unit, but it didn’t work out so I’m moving out.
Tower 801 wasn’t able to work with me on keeping me in the building. They said I’d have to pay the full $ 750 in fees and deposits for a new apartment just like any new tenant. I’d been hoping not to have to pay everything a second time since they are just going to demolish my apartment and upgrade it when I move out. I was hoping for some of it to transfer over to the new apartment.
Since I had to pay the same as a new tenant in my own building, it made sense to look around since I’d also have to pay that somewhere else. After lots of looking online and a few tours, I instead I placed a $ 750 deposit in a newer building for a corner unit on the 33^rd floor with over 1000 square feet. I would’ve stayed in Tower 801 in a 644 square foot apartment if they would’ve cut their existing tenant a break on the transfer costs from apartment to apartment.
This is a great example of me not liking a policy, but the office staff handling it elegantly and professionally. I’ll leave with no hard feelings and fond memories. I hope I run into the managers again in the future in some other building. They are really top notch!

Extremely dishonest management. Charged me $ 1000 on move out for items that were noted on the move-​in report and/​or constituted normal wear and tear. Avoid this apartment at all costs. If for some reason you are forced to be a tenant here take thorough photos upon move in as they will make false claims upon move out and send bill to collections before giving you an opportunity to debate the charges. Manager also claimed that she had done a walk through with previous tenant so she knew the damage was my own. I happen to know previous tenant and he was willing to provide signed statement saying the walk through never occurred. Absolutely disgusting, immoral staff. I suspect to get a job here you have to sign an agreement stating you do not mind telling bold-​faced lies regarding the costs and charging residents for items that the building owners should replace. A friend of mine that moved out was charged $ 4000 in damages. I feel terrible for the residents here that have not yet moved out. There is a 0% chance of receiving any of their deposit. Beware.

I moved into my SW-​facing, 1BR last Fall. Save a few move-​in bumps during my first two weeks, I have no complaints about living here. In fact, in my 12 years of living in apartments in Seattle, Tower 801 is a very close #2 on my list.
Coming in after Pinnacle assumed building management, I have no perspective on how Essex managed the property. But under Pinnacle, my experience here has been phenomenal.
My Apt (1BR): hardwood floor in the living room and kitchen, great use of 644 sq ft (it’s 644 sq ft that feels more like 700+), two balconies (living room and bedroom), in-​unit W/​D, great light and airflow, and A/​C.
The Staff: Scott, Alissa, and Deb are fantastic in the front office. While gregarious and helpful, I appreciate their honesty and directness. I don’t always love the property management company’s policies, but I can respect the policies and the manner in which Scott, Alissa, and Deb enforce those policies. Michael, Pavel and the rest of the maintenance team are friendly, professional, and responsive.
If you are looking for a well-​priced downtown apartment (bear in mind this is Downtown Seattle, walking distance from ACT, HardRock, Pacific Place, The Showbox, SAM, Benaroya, Amazon, etc.), I would definitely suggest Tower 801.
Unless circumstances change, I will be renewing this Fall.

It amazes me that people are reviewing this place that have not even lived here!
Pros: the place has been updated a great amount recently. Gutted in some instances. Hardwood floors, in unit W/​D, a great lounge that is usually open to residents but can be reserved for parties. Pool, saunas. It’s great!
The price for downtown is very reasonable. Especially compared with other places nearby.
Close to everything.
The staff has always been very accommodating to me throughout the 6 years I have lived there.
Con: the elevators can be slow

The building is historic and unique. Where else can you get views of Lake Union, Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier and TWO full balconies in a one-​bedroom apartment?
The location is one of the best in the city and the management is great. The entire building has been renovated over the course of the last two years. The front desk staff as well as the maintenance crew are helpful and professional.
Cap Hill, Downtown, SLU. .. this big cylindrical gem is in the middle of it all!

Extremely unprofessional company. I am embroiled in a bad situation with them at the moment related to a rent they quoted one way and are trying to change to something else – so that they can make more money and even though I already paid $ 280-​some in supposedly non-​refundable administrative fees. They have also told me 3 different things in the past week alone about whether I need to submit earnings statements versus outside scrutinizing company Onsite (sp?) just calling my employer. My current advice (?): avoid this property and its management company, period. If they do rectify the situation properly and apologize profusely, I will consider changing this review – but am not holding my breath. I have already threatened legal action and will likely be reporting them to numerous authorities also like the BBB.

I moved here a month back and really love the location. I think the management company really makes an effort to make you feel welcomed. I didn’t get an internet connection coz’ I like the lounge and when im working from home, i like to just hang out in the lounge area (has internet in the day). The fitness center is not huge but it’s got everything you need to stay in shape. Location is sweet if you need to be just close enough from cap-​hill and pike place market. Alissa made moving in seamless and then the management team is fun bunch. Myra and Scott leave no stone unturned to take care of any service requests. My dryer had some issues and it got taken care of in a few hours.

I lived here before/​after renovations and the building updates are fantastic! The units come with the features most important to us, balconies/​a lot of natural light, and new appliances.
I only had good experiences with the management, they were really accommodating for the requests we had. The building location is also key, close to lots of shopping but walking distance for bars/​restaurants in capitol hill and belltown!

A year after moving out, and making it crystal clear with management that we wanted to make sure everything was paid, that they knew how to contact us with any issues, and keeping our records because the rental office had screwed up so many things while we lived there, they’ve put us in collections for not paying our final bill. See you in court, jerks.
Renters BEWARE!!!

Worst leasing office. Misleading ads and when I confronted them about they first argued then agreed and said they deleted last night. The manager did this why her employee kindly tried to make it better. Then why was the ad in my hand in my phone on craigslist! Oh and a few minutes later deleted. based on this experience I would never rent here. This was the honeymoon phase! I’m really spalled by the experience. Don’t waste your time.

I’ve lived here for almost 3 years in 2 different units. Its definitely not the newest building in Seattle but hands down best bang for buck. They are currently remodeling the building and updating the units. I have been shopping around just to compare pricing of a non updated unit to what is in the area and no one can come close with price per sqft. The new management team has been nothing but great to us and are very professional and accommodating. Myra and Alyssa are great and have loved the work they have put in.

I’d suggest stay away from this place for a lot of reasons:
1) Expensive rent for an old place
2) I had sewer water flood my sink twice because the neighbor dropped garbage into it and did not run the grinder thingy. Apparently the pipes are connected and it ended up flooding my sink. The repair took three days on both times and I had to bear with the stench till then
3) Elevators always take a long time
4) The rooms are awkwardly shaped with a lot of dead space.
Pros:
1) Frontdesk is super nice, and good people to chat with.
2) Location
For the price, there are fa better options out there.

Ok, the poor review is strictly because the building management could use a course in customer service. Overall, they are rude and don’t care about you after they’ve lured you in for a lease. It’s too bad because the location is very good and the actual apartments are ok. The downfall to the apartments would be the soundproofing or lack thereof. For space you get in downtown Seattle, the value is decent. Again, if building management (under new management since November 2012 but still the same crabby, bitchy, miserable people) would improve how they treat residents, I may rank this property a 3 – 4. It’s not worth renting here to deal with the poor service. Look elsewhere — there’s plenty to choose from in the city of Seattle and specifically in the downtown area.

There’s definitely better living options in the area, but this place has a vintage appeal to it, and is conveniently located in the heart of city and on the perimeter of Capital Hill (5 min walk).
The rent is pricey for how out-​dated the building and it’s facilities are. The décor and appliances are very cheap. The owners, Essex, really compromised on a lot of the decision making when they tried to revamp this landmark building.
Better bang for your buck on Craigslist.

Don’t Ignore this Review!!!
I used to live at the Tower 801 back in the early 80s. Coming back and visiting this grand old structure has to be one of my saddest experiences when I was in Seattle. First of all. the building looks totally out of scale with neighboring views blocked by neighboring buildings. Next. I am surprised that the current owners has the balls to even rent units that face a blank wall, which to me, reads greed in the worst degree. I would love to walk over to one of the partners home and build and brick wall in front of their living room windows, and see how they like it.
I don’t entirely blame the new neighboring owners. New construction has to be approved by a local City Zoning department. It seems to me that the person behind this desk was simply asleep or totally «bamboozled» when reviewing the developer drawings. Never the less, the planner that approved the new structure did a disservice (lets just call it ‘getting away with murder’) to both the owners of the new building and the Tower 801. The City Zoning department should have forced the new development to maintain terraces, setbacks, building height limitations, all in the spirit to give both buildings a sense of value, not take it away.
The Tower 801 needs to change the first 10 levels of pie shaped units into much larger three bedrooms accessing true daylight on both the East and West sides of the cylinder. Then, that a roof garden be forced to be constructed on the top of the new adjacent structure so that units from floors 8 to the top won’t have such an eyesore to stare at every morning. I believe without this fix, the Tower 801 will always be a one or two star lady when she deserves 5.
An added note:
Reina, the previous owner, of the Tower 801 was like «Maude». She was a vibrant exciting Madam from the early 70s and certainly knew the building as a hotel, not like it is now. a sad post in the ground with one of the poorest solutions of zoning I’ve ever witnessed.
Sorry Essex. you dropped the ball on this one.

This might be the saddest place I’ve ever been.
Built as a hotel in the 1970’s there is much left to be desired.
The apartment we were shown had two entrances because they combined a studio and a two bed apartment.
Who does that?
The studio side has been blocked off to make the third bedroom, the rest is an awkward shaped hall way/​who knows what, the old kitchen is now laundry room that is larger than the main kitchen. The main kitchen fits one person, but please do not try to open more than one of anything.
All 4 rooms look out directly to the back wall of the convention center.
While on our tour I considered my options and thought the best one was to canon ball off the silly small balcony in to the outdoor «pool» Jason Borne style and make a run for it.
I use the quotation marks around the «pool» because I don’t feel anything that fits less than 12 people should be called a pool.
The hallways are narrow and smell sickly sweet and dark stank at the same time.
Given all this the building is trying — but I fear they are fighting a losing battle.
Location is great — next to everything.
Price is retarded — you could live some where much better for the same.

I lived here for a year and a half. This place isn’t bad but it’s extremely overpriced. I was paying 1200 for my 400 sq ft studio. The location is great but really not worth the price. I am now paying 900 for a 950 sq ft 1 bedroom. I really didn’t have much to complain about tower mostly because I was used to city living. If you don’t like dogs, you really shouldn’t live here. There are a LOT of dogs. The elevator absolutely sucks and parking is either impossible or expensive. There is a lot of noise but you need to expect that when you are living in the city.
However, I am disgusted with the way that Essex (tower’s mgmt company) is handling my deposit. I paid 900 for security deposit. 500 was refundable and 400 was non refundable. Legally the non refundable portion is not supposed to be called a deposit but rather a fee because there is nothing I can do in order to get it back. My understanding was that the non refundable portion would cover the normal wear and tear. such as carpet cleaning and painting. However, the lady I talked to today told me that the non refundable portion was just a cost for living at Tower and having my pet there. It was for general administrative costs. I’m a little confused because I thought that’s what the rent was for. I knew before moving into tower that getting my deposit back was going to be difficult (I read all the reviews about how it’s a pain in the ass.) However, I did not expect to have to pay an additional 200! The problem is the non refundable portion of the deposit. Because they are calling it a deposit rather than a fee, I assumed that it was going to go towards the normal wear and tear for my apartment. I didn’t realize that it was a sunk cost. I’m going to go home and read my lease. For those planning on moving in or moving out, please be aware of this. It totally sucks to have to pay $ 1070 in order to move out.