I’m a current leaseholder at 800 Penn and will be moving out soon. I’m leaving this here because they don’t seem to have an 800 Penn Google listing yet. Things were reasonably fine until the manager contacted us about renewing. We saw the proposed rent increase and started a normal, civil negotiation. The response quickly turned condescending and passive aggressive, then the manager stopped engaging. She even claimed month-to-month wasn’t allowed by my lease, though the lease clearly says it is. Talking with her has been very difficult: she gets hostile quickly and seems unwilling to work with tenants. The calls come from a general property number, so you can’t tell who you’re speaking with unless you ask by text. We requested 24 hours’ notice for showings while moving out because we have a dog. They scheduled showings without discussing it or giving notice, then said they could enter whenever they wanted because we’d given notice to vacate. There’s a steady turnover of Airbnb guests and tenants who don’t stay beyond one lease. More than 15 Airbnb units are run by another company, not the property managers. Guests often leave things messy, make noise, and hang around the lobby or outside the building. Management may say they’ve cut back on Airbnbs or plan to eliminate them, but I don’t believe that. Strangers can get to the mail and package area, and package theft is a major problem. They tell residents to have carriers bring packages to the door, but that can’t work because people can’t be buzzed through the second key-fob door. There are also security concerns around the retail space downstairs. Residents weren’t told it had been rented out, and there’s no separate entrance. I learned about it during a phone call when management was trying to persuade me to stay by presenting it as an added amenity. Starting in spring 2024, the main entrance was supposed to stay unlocked Thursday through Sunday until around midnight for a charcuterie lounge. That would let restaurant customers into the building and the mail and package area. When I asked what they’d do to improve security, they said nothing. The building has always looked half finished. The stairwells and hallways have patchy areas that need repair or paint. There’s mold on ceiling tiles, and last year an AC unit in an Airbnb flooded a lower floor, maybe the fifth, before anyone noticed. Door locks are often faulty. The vending machine downstairs, their one added amenity, has never been restocked. The gym has rusty dumbbells and a TV that doesn’t work. In the basement, there are always unpleasant maggot flies, and sometimes they get upstairs. Management put an ugly bug zapper by the elevator. The trash room is there too, and it smells awful one or two days most weeks. We were told not to set our thermostat below 68. When the AC wasn’t cooling properly, they said we had to buy and replace the HVAC filter ourselves. That seems ridiculous in an apartment building. Be careful renting here. They can seem nice at first, but to me they’re like any other money-hungry, toxic property management company. They might have a chance if they change the management team. A quick Google search about one person in particular turns up some very concerning information.
