Tenant Reviews for 182 W LAKE ST

Dealing with the property manager is a nightmare!!! She is completely unprofessional and condescending. I'm sooo happy to be moving out.

This place is terrible. To start, to agree with the last post, the building manager is a terrible and unprofessional person. She is disgusting to say the least. Every encounter I have had with her has been terrible and I have seen her treat other people in ways that would never be acceptable in any kind of professional atmosphere I've been in. I would expect better service at McDonalds. Everytime I ask for her boss's number I am directed back to her management office number. I honestly would never have moved in if I knew what a disgrace their staff is. (And I am talking about Janice). Second, this building does not accommodate for any resident and does not care. I have never lived in a building that I have hated so much. The laundry sucks, the building gets SO HOT and they refuse to turn on the air conditioning even when my apartment is literally so humid that the floor is moist and I cannot even stay there, the CTA is constantly doing 24 hour construction shifts right outside the windows so I am not allowed to sleep and there seems to be more noise and hammering and yelling between the hours of 12 and 6 am than any others. Every move in / move out is hell, when my relative bought the condo they would not let us do any of the work we wished, and refused to let us put in a washer/dryer so they could rape us of more unnecessary money. 700 dollars a month in assessments???!! FOR WHAT?!?!? no pool, ------ rooftop that's never even open, ------ doormen who are rude, a ------ building manager who doesn't have the social skills to even be in society, and a weight room the size of my closet. They charge you if the carpet outside in the hallway is dirty, who does that? Isn't it their job? they charge you an arm and a leg for lockouts and for the littlest things like a 2 minute fix of a toilet. Honestly, the building is so gross I can't wait to move. It's infuriating, actually.

------ from the management office is completely awful and unprofessional. That would be my main and mainly only complaint with the staff. This women is completely rude and has kicked tenants out of her office. I recall being in ------ office around 4.30pm when a young women showed up and ------ refused to help her stating "the management office closes at 5pm" and refusing to see her and asked the young lady to leave. At the same time, this one male tenant had a bike locked up and was requesting a key, she also told him she couldn't help him because it was getting close to 5pm and asked him to leave her office. The guy refused to leave and ------ said that unless he leave she would call the police!! All I have to say is this ------ women is insane! And i've heard several other stories before from other tenants. Not sure sure how she still has a job there. Stories says she sleeps with someone at the Board of Directors of the the century Towers.

I've lived here for about 6 months, and I love it. Perfect location, and the building is insanely quiet. Can't hear through the walls at all, the maintenance usually comes the day I call about something, and the lobby and common areas are always clean. The door staff is incredibly friendly- I would definitely recommend living here.

On Wednesday, the air conditioning went out. Apparently, management decided it wasn't a big deal because we didn't find out until today, Monday, that they had diagnosed the problem and ordered the necessary part. They anticipate that once the part arrives, it will still take 1-3 days to install which puts us at NEXT WEEK! It's 80 degrees. It feels worse as there is no cross breeze even with the windows open. This is all in addition to the comments made to by the previous reviewer. I've had it.

This place is too hot during the winter. I would say about 80 degrees. I never once turned my heat on in my studio and slept with the window wide open above my bed each night. It's right next to the train, so it's either open the window and listen to that or close it and be uncomfortably hot. I told the management and they did nothing, just explained that it's a city ordinance. It seems like many people complain about the heat. They even have signs posted in the elevator apologizing. I don't mind apologies, but if no action's taken, then what's the point... Thankfully, I'm moving out soon, which brings me to my second point. I just found out that there is a "new policy", which will be in place in two weeks, stating that I have to pay a $300 elevator deposit for moving out. This was not stated in my lease. (*UPDATED 5/6/11: The gave me back the $300 without any problems, really wasn't a big deal, just didn't expect it. However, I would still give this place 1 star because of the heating issue. I, too, left my window open 24-7, but my place was still always incredibly hot.)

Been living here for nearly 2 years. Have not had any problems as such. Building is clean and good with an excellent location. Walkable distance to most places. The management is okay and usually resolve problems quickly. The maintainence guys are really friendly and helpful. Price did not really shootup during time of lease renewal. Great place for the price! However price is considerably high on the higher floors. Only negative in the apartment is the lack of storage space and doors in the rooms and the large amount of pet fees charged every month.

...is the day I move out. Two weeks from now I will finally be free from this horrid, horrid building. All the negative reviews are true. All amenities were taken away the day it went condo. No cable, no internet, no storage. Since we rent, we asked if we could rent storage like in other buildings. The answer was NO. The management office could not be more unpleasant to deal with. The fitness area is about 200 square feet. Laundry is expensive and you need a special "smart" card that only accepts 5, 10, and 20 dollar bills. Pray that nothing breaks in your apartment. The management took away the doorman's remote control and instructed them to harass anyone who did not have their F.O.B. Problem is, if you lose yours or never got one in the first place, good luck getting one--it isn't easy. I finally gave up trying--just like I gave up on this place, long, long ago. No closet space. Cheap fixtures and appliances. Living here will make you appreciate the little things in life--because you will miss them all so much. On one final note, I can't help but believe the few 5.0 ratings I have seen on this page were planted--read them, it looks like a robot wrote them.

When I first moved into Century Tower, I asked if they had any possibility of converting into a Condo. They said no. For the nest two months I had a sleazy salesman pounding on my door once a week threatening me to buy or get out. I am not from Chicago, so this was a scary thought. So I invested into a contract lawyer to solve this issue. My sink regurgitated! Yes, it threw up all over my apartment. I got home from work and there was black grime everywhere!!! I called the maintenance crew, and they informed me that it was probably a gust of wind going through the piping system, and came out in my sink. They did not even ask if they could help clean the mess. It ruined the carpet and my walls are still black grime in some areas. The piping is horrible in the building and sounds like the pipes are going to burst everytime I take a shower. It is honestly pretty scary. Ask to turn on the shower for a couple of minutes before you sign any lease. The doormen don't do their jobs. They sit in their chairs and watch you try to carry all of your grocery bags through the doors. And watching the doormen sleep on the job for the past two days in a row is what made me decide to write this review. The washing machines in the basement continuously break down. If you ask he leasing office for help, they say it's not their problem. If you ask the doormen for help, they say it's not their problem. I don't care whose problem it is, but someone better help me get my wet clothes out of the tub of water in the washing machine and dry them! Horrible, horrible, horrible. Don't trust any employee at this apartment complex/condominium.

Summary of complaints -Dishonest and uncaring management staff -Unreliable elevators -Inefficient heating/cooling system during season changes -Cheap materials used in kitchens starting to sag and crack -The smell from the trash collection area often makes its way into the elevator lobby -Internet service that is inadequate for anyone that must have a connection in the evenings to do work or school assignments -Two dryers in the laundry room stopped working this year and it was two months before they were repaired -The one soda machine in the building has been down for over a month now -Although the elevator policy allows for a particular elevator to be used as a service elevator for move-ins and move-outs, it is common to see two or even three of the four being used as service elevators at the same time -Some of the younger residents have a tendency to pull advertisements from the street and stick them to the walls of the hallways - I got tired of pulling them down so I thought I would see how long it took the building to remove them - after two weeks I gave up and took them down myself -Management often puts notices under doorways (even of empty units) and instead of pushing the notice completely under the door an empty unit looks as though it is an overflowing filing cabinet after six months I originally rented my apartment based on location, cost, pet policy, and parking. I was moving to Chicago from out of state and unfortunately had very little time to secure a living space. During my initial visit I was lied to about things such as the cost of doing laundry, the inclusion of internet & cable in rent, and the agent failed to mention anything about the building's transition to condo. After reviewing several properties I returned to Century Tower on my way to the airport and signed a lease. I learned at the lease signing that the building would soon be condo and although this was the first red flag I signed the lease anyway because I just didn't have time to look at other properties. It wasn't until I returned a couple of weeks later that I learned the apartment listed on the lease was not the apartment that I had originally been shown on my first visit. The apartment I was given was closer to the train and smelled of cat urine. Living in the Loop is a wonderful experience; however, I would not advise jumping into a building without first discussing the pros and cons with current residents or reading several posting sites such as this one. The company that developed this property is notorious for its poor treatment of tenants. I learned a big lesson and wish I would have learned from research and not by experience. Do your research people. Once in a lease in Chicago it is practically impossible to get out of it. I chose Century Tower over the other places I had a chance to visit. My Last day in town during that visit I returned to the building to sign my lease. I signed the lease and thought I would stop by the apartment for a quick walk-through before heading to the airport. The keys didn't work the door that led to the apartment that I had toured previously and as I took a closer look at the lease I noticed they had given me a different apartment which was closer to the train and smelled like cat urine.