Tenant Reviews for 800 S WELLS ST

I lived here for 6 months on 12th floor. Here is my feedback: - flats are owned by individuls so its purely your luck how good or bad landlord you got. In my case I was lucky. - apartment was 1BHK facing towards sears tower - just 2 blocks aways from sears tower - .5 mile from target - 1 mile from dominics store - costly parking - nice gym at affordable cost - next to lake so get good view around - my apartment had old applicances but manageable - got dirty unit, i had to cleanned it myself. but when I vacate i left it well cleanned and shined so others should not face what I did. - nice neighbours - no sound problem - AC unit is old - you have to wait for management to decide when cooling is on for summers. i was half fried in initial days - walk around downtown - reasonable cost - i use to pay 1200 USD since I signed 6 months lease only. - nice management - make sure you book service elivator before you movein. that takes hell lot of time.

We came to Chicago with no expecatations, other than to have fun for the weekend. The 5 of us (middle aged women)rented the unit over the internet. Lesson 1 - read the reviews. Lesson 2 - know what you are getting into. We met the owner in the lobby of the building (spoke very little english), she told us that there was no electricity in the unit we were going to rent for the weekend. Strange that every other unit had electric. She wanted to put us in a small appartment with one tiny bathroom for 5 women. Also very strange, immediatly I figured bait and switch. Long story short. We stayed in the apartment with no electric the first evening. Also we had use of the second apartment with the electric on for the evening. The next day by 5:00 pm we had power. Strange we still had hot water in unit when the electric was out. Still had ice in the fridge when the power was supposed to be out. (I think it conveniently went out) Carpets were filthy, but accomodations were ok as we were very close to downtown. It was an ok weekend, but will never come back to River City.

River city is great for what it is. Don't expect luxury, but if you're just out of undergrad or very frugal, it's perfect. You get all of the things you need (located right next to loop, all the trains and buses, decent gym with pool/spa, grocery stores, neighborhood bars, BYOB restaurants) with none of the things you don't (nice interior/exterior, new appliances, fancy fixtures, huge floor space, prestige). I can't add much more to the previous post, just another thumbs up for the twenty something who is looking to have the Chicago city experience without having to go into debt.

I have lived in the building for one year. I moved in during July of 2008. The building is close to the financial district, where I work, and it has been wonderful to walk to work. A bike is also useful to allow you to get around to shopping and the parks. I have noticed several things that should be considered if you are thinking of making a purchase in the building. Points of Interest 1) convenient location to work, groceries, and Igo car sharing vehichles 1.a) parking is $225/ month in parking garage - convenient lot for guests $2 between 2 p.m. and midnight 2) cabs come easily with the cab light that security turns on for you 3) free access to the Bally's Total Fitness Gym 4) the building is relatively quiet, i.e. you will not hear people talking or TVs from other units from inside your unit. 5) there is a very nice common park area on the river road level 6) dry cleaner in building, the lady who runs it is very nice 7) convenience store in basement, although it is pricey (as convenience stores usually are) and stock is limited 8) Chase cash only ATM in basement 9) pet friendly Constructive Criticism Temperature Control: a) my unit faces East and my bedroom is hotter than the fires of hell in the morning all summer. b) the bathroom is the hottest place in the unit due to the placement of heating ducts, which is rite outside the bedroom b.1) the unit is very dry in the fall and winter, a humidifier is needed c) all summer, even with the AC set to 65, the AC runs all night, the desired sleeping temp is never achieved. d) The building's structure is such that you get AC or heat, not both. When it is warm outside, like in the 50s or 60s and you turn your heat off, it does not cool down in your unit due to the heat rising from the rest of the blg. The windows roll out as opposed to opening up, so a breeze is not something that you can expect. I run the fan every day of the year. The Common Areas: a) no washer/dryer in unit, shared laundry for $1.75 per use of machine b) the ceiling in the open common area of the building is a glass sun-roof thing, which is lovely, especially in the afternoon, but it leaks. UPDATE: the ceiling has been fixed and many facade improvements are currently underway (July 2009) Foreclosures & Occupancy As of June 2008, there were 58 foreclosure suites in the building (13.5% of the building's total 448 units) - Reference "Trouble in the Towers" by Alby Gallun and Thomas A. Corfman, Crain's Business, June 16, 2008. http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/printStory.pl?article_id=30117 Much of the building is occupied by renters, like myself. I am unaware of how many units are currently in foreclosure but it something to consider before making a purchase. Entertainment The TV is DirectTV, which is fine but I do miss the HD. The HD has hit the meeting agenda also, they need to run extra cables for HD at a cost I am unaware of, so HD is not available in the building at this time. Also, because of the dish, it can be difficult to get news in emergency weather situations. I was in my unit in July when a bad thunderstorm was rolling through town and I heard a siren outside. However, I had no signal so I had no idea what was going on. The city was sounding the siren to communicate a tornado warning, which I found out by tuning in to NPR. Overall however, the signal is rarely interupted. Bonus: There is a movie theater going into the building to the south of River City on Wells. Construction is ahead of schedule and the theater will hopefully be open late 2009 :) I enjoy living in the building for now, it has been a good experience as a renter. I would think more than twice about making a purchase in the building though. Hope this helps.

I have lived here for a year and a half on the 14th floor and the experience has been okay. This place is good to rent but terrible to buy. There are some major flaws with this building. The first is it does not have HDTV capabilities. I kid you not. Directv has purchased the rights to this building so no other cable provided can come in. There is a large satellite on top of the building that feeds the signal to all of the units. This satellite does not have the capability to receive an HD signal. So if you have a large 55inch HDTV (like i do) render it useless. Granted it's still nice to have a big tv however I didn't buy it too see fuzzy running backs while watching football. The board has proposed updating the satellite however it was denied due to lack of funding. Most people in this building rent because mostly college or grad students live here and don't want to pay the enormous assessments they charge. My one buddy in the building pays $800 a month in assessments. Second complaint is the air conditioning, it BLOWS!!!!! Literally, twice a week during the summer the engineer has to come and fix my AC. TEchnically the AC unit works fine however it's the lines that feed the air up to the units. I live on the 14th floor which is the hardest to get the air too, during the process air bubbles form in the lines and eventually cuts air off to my AC unit but before that actually occurs the air turns warm and does the complete opposite off cooling me off. Every time the engineer comes to my room he says "i have to bleed the air bubbles out of the line" Once he does the air works fine for a couple of days and then he has to come back again. The coldest i've ever gotten the apartment during the summer is 72 degrees and that's when the AC unit is working properly. On average it's around 80 degrees however when the unit goes completly out then it's the samer temperature as outside. Picture this apartment during a 90 degree day...no AC...and all of the hot air rising to the top of the building...i'm on the top floor!!!!! Keep in mind there are no engineers on staff during the weekends...so if the AC goes out friday night your screwed until monday. It's happened to me numerous times!!! I have to have 3 fans blowing on me just to get through the weekend. During the winter this feature is nice..my apartment is a good temperature. Even if the heat goes out (which it has) the temp will be decent from all of the hot air rising to the apartment. But keep in mind the temperature is about 68 degrees when that happens. Also the electical wiring to this building is terrible. When AT&T came to install/connect my internet the man told me that the wiring was done terribly when building the place and he predicted within the next 10 years it would have to be gutted and replaced. He literally said and quote "I would never buy a unit here because once they have to do that the assessments will sky rocket" I live here because it was convenient for my life style. I currently work a full time job in the loop and attend grad school on the weekends at depaul...which is also located in the loop. So i could walk to work and school very quickly. I was also able to score a nice rent payment. And just an FYI, the reason why I was able to get that price is because the previous owner defaulted on the loan AND they weren't able to find someone to buy or rent for almost a year. I plan on being here for about a year because by then i will have saved enough money to buy a condo. I won't even consider buying this unit. As you can see i've titled this review perfectly. Good to rent but terrible to buy. P.S. The laundry units stink...i've ruined numerous shirts.