Gables Takoma Park

I’ve lived at the Gables for 10 months and really love living here. It’s close to the metro and the Takoma Park Farmers’ Market. Any issues I have with my apartment are resolved quickly. The management staff is super friendly and still remember my name after 10 months.
I’ve read other reviews and just don’t have the same issues that people bring up. I sometimes here my neighbors but not at odd hours and not often. I’ve also read complaints about the residents’ attitudes that have nothing to do with the apartments themselves and therefore should not be held against the building and Gables’ employees. I think people in DC just like to complain and aren’t super appreciative in general (blame chronic social climbing?).
I live in a studio that has bamboo floors and a washer and drier unit in the apartment. There’s a gym, free coffee, and 2 rooftop terraces (OK, not the greatest view but still it’s really pretty at night with the Christmas lights). It’s near the metro and several bus lines. The apartments are very clean and a cleaning service vacuums and mops the common spaces Monday through Friday. The landscaping is meticulous maintained. The neighborhood is relatively safe and community-​oriented.
I think it’s great.

DON’T MOVE HERE. The management only cares about extracting money from you. Be prepared for a nasty, litigious, and deceptive management team if you sign a lease.

I’ve lived at Gables for 2 and a half years and have to say that I really feel at home. I love how close it is to the metro and how relatively quiet the surrounding area is. The rent is a little on the pricey side but depending on when you look, you may get a good deal. The new community manager and assistant community manager have been the best of the 3 that I’ve lived under so far. They are both very responsive and accommodating to requests and are just warm and welcoming in general. I actually renewed my lease mostly in part to how helpful they have been and hope they will be around for a while.

I would give them –5 if I could. I have NEVER had to issue a Unilocal review. I am mortified at the service GABLES TAKOMA PARK provided while we leased there. We exited a month early due to extensive smoke coming into our apartment through the air ducts/​vents. It was so bad we had to get hotels on weekends at 11PM at night. THIS PROPERTY CLAIMS TO BE A NON SMOKING BUILDING. In policy — they break their own policy. Manager neglect, lack of respect for the tenants, negligent in communication. Upon repeated requests to transfer to another apartment they attempted to charge us $ 400 more than we were paying due to the smoking/​all night & AM sexcapades. There was no courteous management style in matching what we were paying EVEN when we offered to move from a 1 bedroom to a studio for same cost. We complained, we issued emails — Gables states «we gave pieces of paper to surrounding tenants asking them to stop.» There was nothing they could do, nor they were willing to be more aggressive in enforcing. The apartments are like boxes, with no ventilation. When our air conditioner broke there was no on site fix. A drawer in our first month was never addressed in the 11 months we stayed. When we did get responses we turned over keys/​parking cards/​stickers, etc and, all of a sudden, we were called by new management (old management had disappeared with no notice).
We gave a written notice into their automatically generated email that we would not be renewing AND moved out mid Sept (paid in full) and was willing to pay pro rated 10 days due to our 30 day notice (as well) Sept 10^th. On October 3^rd I was told that Apartment #303 was ready for move in. Suddenly I receive a demand from an assistant stating we owe $ 1800+ for month of October. After repeated requests, 2 weeks later, on October 24^th after repeated calls, emails asking corporate office/​management to call me I got a call denying me any «give» for all our issues daily/​weekly.
I’m an executive for Television and do my life «above ground» and will never support a corporation that goes against their own policy and then harasses and denies the tenant any rights or forego a policy for a tenant based on over 6 months of complaints on policies THEY INSISTED they implemented.

I lived in the Gables for 4 years and 7 months, and left because I purchased a home.
In my time at the Gables, there were about four different managers who all had different management styles. While some offered programs like free breakfasts on occasion, others offered events for pets. All of which were nice, especially since rent is pretty high.
Pros:
–Energy efficient building
–Ninety second walk to the metro
Cons:
–If you live on the back side of the building, cigarette smoke from the «smokers alley» will definitely travel to your apartment.
–If you live on this side of the building the trains can be very noisy, but after living here for so long, I’m sure I tuned the trains out.
–Rent is too damn high.
Overall I enjoyed my time there, no major complaints.

My husband and I toured the apartment community in spite of the bad reviews, and we are glad we did so. The apartment is very close to the metro, parking on the street is not difficult to find, the lobby and gym are super nice and well kept. As for price, we moved from Adams Morgan in DC where we paid more than $ 2000 monthly for a smaller junior 1 bedroom, plus parking in Adams Morgan was a nightmare. We loved our old neighborhood, but Takoma Park has its own charm and an amazing farmer’s market and community.
As for the electric bill (which a lot of people complained about), we called Pepco and they gave us estimates of what people are actually paying in the apartment building, and really the average is $ 80-​$ 120, which is really not bad at all considering that its an electric stove. I think people need to do some research on their own before moving in here, call Pepco if you are afraid that your electric bill will be as expensive as they mention on the postings. Also, paying $ 5 bucks for trash is not a big deal, I don’t get why people complain about that, seems pretty reasonable to me.
Also, about the noise level, I find it to be normal apartment building noise level. I mean we lived in several buildings and most new buildings have the same level of noise, it has nothing to do with insulation and more to do with how the walls used to be built back in the day. My husband is an architect and we had this concern before moving in, but he checked the walls and they are fine.
Also, about the street noise level, its crazy that people consider this city living. We actually lived in Adams Morgan and Rosslyn, and this is more like living outside of the city.
We will post another update when we have to renew our lease, we can’t really comment on that aspect since we haven’t been through it yet.
As for friendliness of the staff, so far we haven’t had any issues. Everyone seemed pretty friendly and professional. Also, the people we have encounter that live in our floor are also nice and friendly. So far, so good for us.

We liked Gables Takoma but moved out due to the high rent increases proposed when our first year lease expired. We were told that these options change daily, and vary unit to unit. So existing tenants may get increases higher or lower than ours — I have heard of higher ones. But the figures below should give some idea of the general scope of the increases.
Renewal Options
4 months — 31.2% increase
5 months — 27.8% increase
6 months — 24.3% increase
7 months — 22.1% increase
8 months — 20.5% increase
9 months — 28.7% increase
10 months — 20.7% increase
11 months — 20.5% increase
12 months — 14.4% increase
Month to month — 37.9% increase
Our first year lease did not give us any discount so these increases are based on actual rent. Actually, we had looked extensively in the area and knew that our first year lease was already a little above market for that size unit in a new building in the Takoma/​Silver Spring area. We had one of the largest units in the building and were paying a high figure — so a 15% to 20% increase represented a significant sum of money. To propose these high increases on a renewal seemed excessive.
On the plus side, all of the personnel at Gables were wonderful to us and behaved very professionally when we strenuously objected to these increases. The maintenance guys were wonderful!