Showing 1–10 of 20 reviews
Judith Z.
8 months ago
STAY AWAY from any and all properties managed by ICM. They don't respect Illinois and Chicago laws that require them to perform maintenance requests in a timely fashion. The (one would logically conclude) undocumented workers that ICM employs enter tenant apartments without any notice and without even announcing their presence! They are adept at tricking prospective tenants at renting apartments that are not available and/or not the actual Anit that they will be moving into. Upon move in, the Anit will be disgustingly filthy. We tried to get out of the lease, but they refused. We moved into an Anit we didn't agree to and several perfect repair and maintenance issues remain ignored as of this writing six months later. We have endured the Anit smelling of fecses for several weeks before a pipe was repaired. The bathroom is covered in black mold as the hot water is never able to be fully turned off. The kitchen sink should have been discarded several years ago and all of the scrubbing in the world can't remove the algae. The employees are rude, hostile, ignorant and stupid people who will brazenly argue with and demean tenants when they are contacted. STAY AWAY from these people.
Jason O.
9 months ago
ICM Property mgmt who owns this unfortunate building are about the most unethical, lying, cheating and thieving gang of punks you re ever going to meet as a landlord. They fragrantly violate the city and state tenants rights laws as if they don t exist. They are rude and disrespectful. This building is old and everything in It's old, if something should break they are going to blame it on you and drag their feet about fixing it. When they do attempt to fix something, they will send the janitor Jerry around who is completely incompetent and he ll drag his 350 pound self into your Aad and accomplish nothing except creeping the hell out of you. People move in and out of here like it has a revolving door, they often rent to questionable people who are scary (a couple years ago, one tenant murdered a cab driver in the street outside the front door, he was a drug dealer) (http://www.statesattorney.org/presscityworkercabbie01.htm). Often criminals and drug addicts rent apartments in buildings managed like this because they are the only landlords who will tolerate them, expect to find that here. Not all the tenants are like this, many are nice people who didn t know what they were in for when they moved here. Do yourself a favor, don t consider living here.
Charlotte A.
9 months ago
Up until now I have generally been pretty happy living at 540 W Briar. It's in a location's amazing, it's safe, the tenants are generally young and friendly, the maintenance is responsive, and while it's nothing spectacular, you get what you pay for. The only issue I have had is with the laundry. Up until now I have always felt comfortable doing my laundry in big buildings w/ lots of other people, but the other day a pair of my brand new [designer] jeans mysteriously went missing from my laundry. They were never left out of the machines, which means that someone opened up the dryer and took them. I am shocked that this happened here because I have never had a sketchy feeling from anyone I've seen around, but I guess you just never know.
Barbara T.
1 years ago
This Bomplex is superbly cared-for, and has an attentive staff. I had a spacious studio with hardwood floors and great natural light. Located in a vital Lakeview neighborhood, near the lake, shops, restaurants, and Boys´ Town. Lakeview can be hit-or-miss, but this is one of the great bargains!
Steven Q.
1 years ago
one of the janitors is a ------- -------. he will follow you around, stare at you, scare away all your guests, and then scoff at you when you need some thing fixed, and treat you like ----. the women who work in the office are condescending -------. maintenance is Atrocious, every time something breaks they will try to blame it on you instead of just fixing it. then the janitor comes up to fix it and you think he's gonna go crazy and have some vietnam flashback and crush you. the apartments are way smaller than they're worth, and many of them are seriously lacking in sunlight. like i said, they suck and maintenance. the elevators, which are supposed to be inspected annually, haven't been inspected since 2004. the worst was this one time last summer when they had the water and the elevators off at the same time, for three miserable days, so people were carrying jugs of water up nine flights of stairs. they gave the residents no warning and no apology. not to mention, the janitor is a creep!! this Ppot is okay for temporary residence, if you don't mind being ripped off, but don't get too cozy.
Bradley K.
1 years ago
The Auite I have gets decently sized for a studio, although You've got both larger and smaller studios in this same building. The bathroom is teeny (no room for shelves or much of anything. No mildew problems in mine, but be careful. Other apartments in the building have had trouble with leaks (like pieces of ceiling caving in), and brown splotches on the ceiling and blistering paint. paint... yeah... this is an old building and what would have been nice crown moulding is a bit obscured by layer upon layer of paint. The kitchen is all right, but the fridge sticks out blocking half the sink so It's awkward doing dishes. In my Auite the hardwood floor looks good, but other apartments have tons of scuffs on the floors.<br> this place is horseshoe shaped, so how sunny the place is depends on where in the horseshoe It's. The larger studios have the best south-facing windows, but they are next to the sometimes squeaky elevators, so It's a tradeoff. The side apartments have worse light, but you get a sort of Rear Window effect, which is usually pretty boring, but sometimes quite interesting.<br> Noise is interesting in this building. The walls are good and thick, but the doors are thin. So if you in the back of your Auite you never your neighbors, if you are in the hallway you can hear everything. I've heard my neighbors above me once in 12 months, but apparently if you live below someone who tromps around in high heels on the hardwood floor it can get loud.<br> Maintenance: When I first moved in the fridge didn't work and it took 2 1/2 weeks to get a new one. My sink also leaked and instead of fixing it right away they waited until the fridge came in. One of the maintenance guys is really friendly, but the other has trouble sometimes with even saying "hello". but I once left my Auite unlocked because I couldn't find my keys and came home to find it locked. (good in a way I guess since nobody broke in, but bad since somebody -either mgmt or maintenance- was checking my door) The surly maintenance guy will let you in after hours for $25. He started saying hello to me after I paid him the fee. Insectwise, I've seen waterbugs in the lobby, and my cat killed a roach once. The fire escapes have lots of spiderwebs on the outside, but are okay inside. The elevators run fine (only been out of service once), but they are over 6 months overdue for inspections.<br> The lobby is absolutely gorgeous. Full of comfy chairs and couches. but, the mgmt doesn't want people using it. When I first moved in, the trashcan by the elevator had an ashtray, so some people assumed that smoking was allowed. In the winter people actually started hanging out in the lobby, some of them smoking cigarettes and some people complained. mgmt then sent out a letter to the tenants banning smoking. That's reasonable, but they also put in the letter the fine print from the lease about the lobby being off limits for "congregation, recreation, and play". There's no A/C in the lobby so it gets stuffy/sweltering in the summer, but come winter it will be interesting to see if reading a book in the lobby constitutes forbidden "recreation".<br> The main thing driving me (and others) out of this building is the horrible treatment one gets from the leasing office. The mgmt changed over to ICM Properties shortly before I moved in, and at first I thought everyone was making up stories about the "ladies" in the rental office. Heck, they even had a cute little doggie in the office. On second thought, dogs aren't allowed in this building... perhaps they *were* hypocrites right off the bat. When my lease came due I learned their true nature. They offered me 11 months, and I called thinking perhaps it was an error, but they were extremely rude and said it was all they offered. From their tone of voice I had apparently committed some offense to the queen by calling them. Yet I've got a friend in the building who just resigned his and it was for 12 months. Of course his rent also went up $70 a month when the new mgmt took over. So there you go. And you know, I really didn't take being lied to well. They didn't even bother to have a decent excuse. If they had been a little nicer I would have stayed (the rent increase for me wasn't all that much - hmm... maybe I was overcharged from the get-go), but attitude counts in this world, and so I'm speaking out with my pocketbook. <br> I'm on a quest now to find a better place and I don't doubt I can do it. It's kinda silly to pay more for a lobby you can't use. I only hope this beautiful old building gets sold to a different mgmt company. Maybe if enough people move out it will.
Ruth W.
1 years ago
I have lived in my Apace for almost 2 years and I have never had any problems. The space is quite large given the price. I looked for awhile around the neighborhood and apartments at the same price point were so small! Square footage wise, this place is easily the size of some other 1 bedrooms around the neighborhood. The kitchens are big! Plus there's room to negotiate, I was able to get a good deal on my unit. The property mgmt has always been easy to work with. I've called twice for a repair (both minor) and Jerry - the maintenance worker That's usually always in the building, has come the same day both times and fixed both issues on the spot. It's old construction - done right, and the walls are thick. I can't hear my neighbors and I've never heard the people above me walking around. You've got plenty of washers and dryers in the building, the elevators aren t the nicest (but at least they re there). The only other thing I would say is that everyone tends to keep to themselves, which is nice if that s what you re looking for, but if you re looking to meet people or have a good relationship with neighbors this is probably not the spot for you. location-wise, it's amazing and You've got plenty of shops and restaurants/bars around the neighborhood, yet it doesn't feel loud because it s slightly away from the main street.
Edward Z.
1 years ago
I have lived here for just over 6 months and have had a fairly good experience overall. The lobby is Bovely, although the halls are a bit dated (think the Shining). The units are spacious with nice hardwood, although they have added some ugly linoleum. There's a nice big laundry room, and you can usually always get a washer/dryer, (which are $1.00 and $0.75 respectively). I do wish they'd vacuum the elevators more often, but hey, You've got two. Last week I saw my first bug, which I thought, was a roach. Turns out it's a water bug and the exterminator came with poison the next day. The only other maintenance issue I had was when I (accidentally) flushed a bottle of perfume down the toilet. After several unsuccessful attempts on my own, I called maintenance and it was unclogged by the time I got home. mgmt and Maintenance are nice, and There's a great (cheap) dry cleaner in the Besidence. Overall, it's a pretty good place to live.<br><br>To comment on the drug dealers mentioned in the previous review, they're gone. CPD broke down their door and arrested them (I witnessed first hand, living only two doors down the hall.) Other than that, I haven't heard a peep out of any neighbors.
Rebecca T.
1 years ago
I moved in here about a year ago, looking to move to a larger place than my current studio. I have a studio apartment facing the inside of the "U". It's pretty bright inside most of the day, especially in the morning. The hardwood floors were in decent condition, the only spot that wasn't that good was covered by my couch. The apartment was quite large for a studio, and the kitchen was really large for a studio as it has its own room with plenty of cupboards. Upon moving in, I had the blinds replaced by maintanence and there was a new fridge installed. The stove worked good and the sound from other apartments was non-existent through the walls, ceiling, and floor. All in all I thought it was a awesome spot to live. I had moved from MI and didn't really know what to expect. I parked at a garage around the corner, so I never really had to street park, but it wouldn't be easy to do so right by the apartment building. There were a few negatives, but nothing that I hated. The heater in the main room had a nonfunctioning on/off valve, but I never turned it in to Maint. I just turned off the others and opened the window in the winter when it got too hot. I did have a run in with a water bug once in my apartment, squashed it and had the apartment sprayed for bugs. The only other inconveince was the lack of power outlets, but lets be honest, its a studio. I had issues with blowing the fuse all the time, but I had the breaker replaced within a day and things were hunky dory. The lobby is huge, but nothing to really do in it, the laundry room was a laundry room, sometimes it got a little crowded but never had to wait a long time. The workout room isn't really a work out room but, it gives you something to do when the laundry is going. 2 elevators, only one down for about a day in the past year that I was aware of. Maintanence would bring packages to your door and leave them inside if you weren't home and would always knock when they arrived. The people in the office were always helpful to me whenever I stopped by. All in all, it was a great first place in Chicago. I think people need to remember that it does have some faults, but nothing major and for the price its a awesome spot. I don't think any of the negative comments left by people took into consideration the rent they were paying and the location and good things they took for granted. If it was a new build condo, it would have cost a ton more.
Madison L.
1 years ago
Not sure how it's possible these folks could get any negative reviews. This was my favorite Alat in Chicago, prior to buying a condo. The location was awesome, and the building was always spotless. Great laundry room -- the "workout"room is a joke, but I wasn't expecting Bally's along with my studio. The office gals were super friendly and helpful. I had to move out early and they were super easy to work with, and didn't charge me any sort of sublease fees or anything. The Alat was also great -- cheap, big, and in one of the best locations in Chicago. No complaints whatsoever -- I would rent with ICM any time.