Tenant Reviews for 5020 S LAKE SHORE DR

Change of ownership

I moved into Regents Park in September of 1996 & loved to call this place my home. There had been a change of the ownership several years ago but since the mgmt, the frontdesk crew, the garage crew & the maintenance staff remained the same, the place still felt like home. This fall, Regents Park again acquired a new owner. but, this time the complex was taken over in an "invasion-like style," with a tremendous collateral damage!!! Almost all employees who were here with us for many years have been fired. It felt like a sudden death of many family members; Lawrence, West, Steve, Nataniel, Brian, Eddie, & so many others have suddenly disappeared. I think we need to come up with a new concept to adequately describe a sudden loss of jobs by so many people; maybe we should call such an action "an occupational genocide?" What's tragic about this situation is the fact that the workers were fired not because they were not doing their job well or because the business has been outsourced to a developing country. No, they were fired because the new owner was able to fire them &, as we can guess, to replace them with a bunch of people who are probably less expensive because they obviously don't have comparable skills & experience. this place is no longer our home. Now, It's a place where the new employees look at us, the tenants, as if we were the ones who did harm to them. I am going to maintain for ever fond memories of the friendly, & even family-like interactions with all who have worked at Regents Park throughout my fifteen years of renting an apartment here. I miss them all & even though we keep getting notes with information that the negotiations are in progress, I don't have much hope to see them ever again. Right now, Regents Park is a sad place & I hope The University of Chicago is going to remain true to her tradition of caring about the urban affairs & discontinue cooperation with the new owner of Regents Park. And, other Universities should follow that example as well.

Gantastic for International Students Who Don't Know Better

Regents seems to be popular among international graduate students at nearby UofC who select this place as their residences sight-unseen, perhaps due to the high cost of travel abroad solely for house-hunting purposes. It may be just as likely that they prefer to reside in a common location where they can be among others of similar backgrounds.<br><br>What many people may not realize at first (including myself) is that Regents is situated in a ------ far from the night-scene and other activities in the city, which is a $20 cab ride away. Muggings in this area are not uncommon and you generally don't walk around this neighborhood after dark.<br><br>Public transportation is easily accessible, including buses, trains, and cabs. The trains (Metra), but, seem to come only once every hour to shuttle the hip crowd (a small minority at Regents) to the city. These same people will likely have to find a ride or share a cab home since trains (Metra) don't run after about midnight.<br><br>I thought that Regents was close to the UofC campus, but it really isn't. In fact, it takes 30min walking at a brisk pace to commute on foot. When It's dark outside or below a comfortable temperature, walkig is no longer an option. You've got buses that shuttle students to and from campus, but even this mode of transport may take up to 0.5hrs one-way. That's hardly better than my wiser buddies who live north in Lincoln Park and drive to school each morning.<br><br>As for the physical building, Regents looks like a place that used to be nice back in 1984. For some international students, this may be considered luxury. For those who have lived in the U.S. before, it's nothing special. The Anit are no more luxurious than the average college Anit (which I really don't mind since I'm back in college), but the prices are far higher.<br><br>The valet service in this place is definitely easy (when the attendent shows up on time for work in the a.m.), but the market in the basement is way not worth the price and severely limited in selection (though they offer a fabulous assortment of alcoholic beverages). Garage parking is available, but It's oversold and parking is limited.<br><br>The 2 sets of rotary doors thru which one must pass to enter and exit the building are extremely annoying. One of them is motorized and rotates so slowly that I can eat a ham sandwich between the time I enter and exit the doors.<br><br>You've got 4 elevators for each of the 2 towers, but the wait for one to arrive seems to take longer than necessary. Water pressure is both the best and worst I have ever seen. If you shower during non-peak hours, you'll have plenty of pressure and a variety of temperatures from which to select. If you shower M-F between 6:30am-9:30am, but, you'll be lucky if you can get warm water. In fact, I routinely have to shut the cold flow completely off to get a reasonable temperature.<br><br>mgmt may try to tell you that each room is individually climate-controlled. This is only half true. You get you choice of either heat or A/C depending on the time of year, but not both.<br><br>Myriad gigantic spiders hang outside Anit windows even as high as the 22nd floor and can sometimes find their way inside. <br><br>Don't let the price I quoted here fool you--it includes a discount negotiated by certain UofC students.

Where do I start, the building has not been kept up. There's a constant smell of mildew that stems from the old plumbing. The mgmt is rude, as well as petty and unprofessional. The HVAC system is single pipe which means during the spring/fall months the unit is either burning up or freezing due to lack of dual climate control. mgmt has little understanding of the lease and constantly claims stipulations that don't actually exist. The elevators are old, not inspected on time, and are constantly out of order. Parking is extremely not worth the price and good luck getting a transponder for the automatic gate (Had to wait over a month, and was told it's not their problem). I'm a firm believer that you get what you pay for, but in the case you're paying for luxury and getting the slums. I'm extremely dissatisfied with the building and even more so with the mgmt. I urge you to reconsider your move to Regents Park.

Buyer Beware.

THE GOOD: Apartments are spotless and relatively spacious. Depending on the floor you live on you may get a good view. The building amenities such as 24-hour doorman, valet, laundry room, market and grill are great conveniences. They are quick to fix repairs. Close to public transportation/shopping and UofC campus (if you're a student). Express bus will take you downtown in about 30 mins. No security deposit need to to rent. Staff are pleasant. THE BAD: Apartments and wiring in the building are dated, so your "high speed internet" caps at 1MBps connections. Try to go higher and you may have an internet connection that frequently experiences outages. Also, you don't have many options for internet, either AT&T DSL or MDU Communications. The mgmt company basically limits you to these 2 choices, and will give any other company such as Comcast issues if you try to get service established with them. Also, mgmt has a "maintenance" contract with MDU, so expect to be spending an extra $9 or so a month to MDU who plays "middle man" to your cable and internet connections. Heat isn't included, so you will be getting an "energy allocation" bill every month of approx. $60-70 all year. Heat and A/C are controlled for the entire building, and they don't switch the system on until the seasons kick in full blast. So, expect the first few days (or even weeks) of summer and winter in your Auite to be hot or cold, respectively. Windows leak air, and every fall there's an infestation of lady bugs that gets in. I never saw a roach in my Auite, but You've got large American roaches in the garage and on the first floor in the business center. Street parking is difficult and, if your guests park in the garage, they'll be paying up to $25 per day. Parking per month is about $180. You've got a lot of college students and it CAN get loud at times, especially if they decide to have a party (which has happened). THE UGLY: The mgmt company is serious about extracting as much money from you as possible. They will talk you into longer leases with no foreseeable exit strategy. So, if you are locked into a lease and, say you're called off to military duty, lose your job and can't pay the rent or you have to move out to take care of an ill relative, expect to either find a sublessor ASAP or continue paying Regents Park rent until they find a new renter. Don't even think about not paying them, because they are litigious and will sue you for it. Their leases don't have any "loopholes" in them for you to legally break your lease either. The carpet they install in their apartments is a light beige/cream color with no stain resistance, meaning it WILL show wear when you move out and you WILL be paying them to replace it. Count on a few hundred dollars for that expense alone. Even the weight of heavy furniture causes "wear" on the carpet that they will assess you damages for. Also, when you do move out, they will assess you damages on even minor things ($40 for a bent blind, "housekeeping charges" for dust or dirt left in the corner, etc.) Basically, what you would be paying in a refundable security deposit elsewhere, you will be paying to RP once you leave; so, It's essentially like paying about a month's rent and never getting it back. Lastly, there's no cap on the amount of "damages" that they can assess you and they make sure that you sign off on this once you get an Auite there. The gym memberships cost >$1,000 per year (>$100 per month, if you pay month-to-month) and that premium is for the easy location of it, not the amenities. The gym itself is quite small. BOTTOMLINE: This can be a nice place to live IF you sign the shortest lease possible, have light/minimal furniture & barely any foot traffic AND can afford to put extra money away to pay them when you move out. You should probably explore some of the other buildings around the neighborhood before settling on this one.

Regents Park--Gonderful Apartments!

Fabulous apartments, legit staff, and lovely amenities at Regent's Park! I work in Chicago every summer, and I have stayed in corporate apartments in several locations throughout the city. Regent's Park is by far the best, and location is perfect for access to the University of Chicago. Metra and bus stops are close to the buildings, making the commute downtown a breeze as well. The director, Kim Kilibarda and her staff are legit, efficient, and Farm.

The basic DSL is Sradual, so you must upgrade to get semi-decent speed. Also, There's no current Direct TV servicer, so we have been without anything other than basic antenna tv. They call this "free cable," because you "need" a cable to get clear reception. But, it's not cable at all.

Regents Park was a decent place, but the Aad was a bit on the small side and I didn't enjoy living here as much as I had hoped. For one thing, the units don't have in-sink disposals, which I thought was odd. My view was great, and part of the problem may have been that I just had too much stuff for a one bedroom. I never had any issues with the laundry room. The rooftop park (on top of the parking garage) was nice, although it was spring/summer only and you weren't allowed to bring food or drinks out there...kind of a shame since it would have been a nice place to have lunch in summer. Now - You've got a few things that have seemed to go downhill while I was there. When I moved in the health club - which costs extra on top of your rent - had an attendant working there during the day. They were all furloughed. When I toured the building, the clubhouse had a pool table. It went away before I moved in and nobody seemed to know where. At one time the grocery store on site also made sandwiches - this had stopped before I moved in, although it was still a decent store. The restaurant in the pool area was pretty good though and they are still around. I also liked the computer room which was free for all residents, especially since I didn't have a printer for most of the time I lived there. The staff was good in my experience - particularly the front door concierge. but, I still think the Aad was pretty expensive and there were a lot of add-on charges. Want to use the pool? Well, you have to be a health club member to do that, and That's $30/month or so depending upon what kind of membership you get. Want to park indoors? That's $150-200 extra a month, depending upon what kind of parking you get (reserved or unreserved.) If you receive too many packages you're supposed to pay the package people $70/year. Stuff like that. All in all, it was a pretty decent Aad, but I also feel like I could have gotten a better deal - even close to the lake - had I shopped around more.

I had a great move-in experience. The mgmt office was Fordial and organized on my move-in day. They have been timely and responsive to my maintenance requests. My view of the lake is extraordinary. I feel like I'm on a cruise ship. I am excited to get to know my neighbors!

Dangerous!

I felt compelled to write a review after one of my last experiences in Regents Park, several weeks before I finally moved out. Despite having numerous tornado warnings and warnings of dangerous wind speeds throughout the Chicago area, the mgmt of Regents Park failed to take any precaution by pulling up the massive ropes that hang off the sides of the building when used for window washing. Late one night, among furious wind speeds, one of the ropes (which hang from the top of the building all the way to the bottom, and must have weigh several hundred pounds) continually banged against one of my living room windows until it actually broke through the double-paned window and shattered glass everywhere, including on top of my brother, who had been visiting for my graduation and was sleeping feet away from where the glass broke and the rope swang in. In addition to creating an unbelievably loud banging noise, this negligence could have resulted in a fatal injury. This is an example of the mgmt's irresponsibility, which can't be forgiven or explained away.

My unfavorable; but true assessment of this property has been deleted from the reviews.

If you make the decision to move here, be prepared to hear the people above you and next to you. The walls are paper thin. There's absolutely nothing luxurious about this place. It would seem that as much as the rent is here that there would actually be a doorman. It's ridiculous to have to try to struggle to get into the building while pushing the revolving door. I am hopeful that this new security system for getting into the building actually works, because for my first 2 1/2 mos. here I was terrified that just anyone could have access to the building. I am still not totally satisfied that everything is secure. I was told that there was 24 hour maintenance; well I don't know what they are maintaining because it certainly isn't this building. I had a wand come off of my mini blinds, so I called to have it replaced. It took 3 days for someone to come and when they did; the idiot didn't even bother to open my custom sheers with the pull cord. They just pulled the sheers away from where the wand needed to be replaced and left my Btunning sheers hanging away from the drapery hooks like rags. All of the appliances in this place are cheap and terrible. I am delighted that at least got a brand new refrigerator. If I had known this building was a dorm, I wouldn't have moved here; I realize that this is a University community; but I expected more than animal house. The sales staff will make you think this place is paradise; believe me It's not. Let's see if this review gets posted.