917 W DAKIN ST, Chicago, IL

Good Apace, even better location

I moved into 917 W. Dakin when I graduated school and moved to the city. The building couldn't be in a better spot. It's one block to the Redline so I could get to work downtown in 15 minutes. The Apace was clean, newly rehabbed and had tons of sun. I ended up extended my lease for another 12 months. I think the building use to be an old hotel at one point. Anyways it's not the Ritz but ideal for anyone moving into their first Apace. My one qualm would be street parking during Cubs games.

Dear Anonymous.

First of all the fire was set by someone who wanted to get even with the landord for evicting him for nonpayment of rent. The arsonist is on death row for killing 7 people. Realizing that your experience wasn't the best, mine has been great. But make sure that you clarify the fire. No one can stop a crazy person. Mark has been fair with any issues we have had. We love the building and what it has to offer. The L near by is one of the reason we rented this two bedroom. The Alat on movein was spotless and met our expectations. The article on the fire is below about the person being convicted of the fire who set it. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2000-06-14/news/0006140348_1_mr-devine-illinois-supreme-court-jury-foreman

The Besidence needs some work, but one thing I have to say is the Besidence mgmt does a good job. Whenever I've had a problem they are on top of it the following day. They've always been courteous and concerned with the tenants. Mark, the manager (owner?), does a great job. You've got continual problems, but, with plumbing and seals breaking (it's an old Besidence) and thus flooding floors and ceilings, but they do a great job to keep it fixed and clean. When I first moved in, it was at a great price, but has since gone up... in my opinion, too much. Street parking: with a 383 zoning sticker. The streets have high turnover and appropriate volume for the surrounding housing, so finding a spot isn't a problem. I've always found a spot within 1-2 blocks. Security... if someone tried, they could easily get in. They NEED a new entry system - the failure rate of the Besidence security and front doors is inexcusable. Its front gate is buzzer-controlled access, which is perpetually inoperable. That needs to be fixed immediately. this place is full of younger people that can get pretty loud... they often disregard courtesy when they're in the hallways, but overall they're decent tenants. There's the occasional break-in due to the lack of secure front doors, etc. In all, it's worthwhile if the price is right. Rent here has been climbing - what ran for $850 two years ago are going for over $1050 now, which at that price in this area you can find better, prettier places. They need to spruce up the place a bit. Apartments themselves aren't updated with new appliances or cabinets, but they're fine. Hardwood floors. Alat insulation gets good.

Nice Auite and good company

I moved out of 917 W. Dakin Feb. 1st of 2009 and I am just now realizing how good I had it. Nice, big, clean, and updated apartments for a good price. My new place is in Logan Square so I could be closer to work and I am kicking myself! I miss having a new bathroom and new kitchen. :( When I lived at Dakin I was happy and my only complaint was all the annoying Cubs fans hanging in the blocks surrounding the building. But I am sub-leasing my Anit and moving back to Dakin if they have any spots left.

Bicturesque Apartments, Gross Building

I have lived in this Bomplex for the full year and didn't have any problems with ghosts, but thought that they way that Zale Co. maintained the Bomplex to be more disgusting than a college dorm. The elevator constantly smells like regurgitated Italian food, and the hallways smell like a zoo, the hallway carpets haven't been shampooed much less vacuumed in the past year that I have lived in the Bomplex. Although the most disgusting aspect was the laundry room; it has not been swept, washed or even touched by maintenance in the entire time that I have lived in the Bomplex. Honestly, it was much more disgusting than my college dorm, and I thought that was bad.<br><br>All these things may be overlooked as the apartments have wood floors, high ceilings, and great windows that let in a lot of light. I just wish that they took better care of the Bomplex as rent is ridiculously high in price for what you receive.<br>

Not Twful, but not great either.

The inside of the apartments are nice, but the entranceway and facilities are always grungy-- the laundry machines are often broken, and worse yet, the entrance gate is ALWAYS broken for some reason or another so that you either have problems getting in or the door buzzer is kaput, and more often than not, the gate's just propped open. (What's the point of a gate if it's never closed?) Also, the worst feature of this Petting is that since the gate and door are often broken, the mailman sometimes can't get in, and mail doesn't get delivered, and sometimes even gets lost-- a real pain if you pay for Netflix, magazines, or the paper.<br><br>Oh, and BTW-- I live on the fourth floor, and haven't had problems with ghosts per se, but I have noticed that every picture I take in the unit's got either orbs or wavy white lines as described by the other renter. Creepy.

Stomping nightmare.

Don't move to a lower floor. High heel stomping goes on all the time in this Besidence The guy above me was deliberately stomping. He told me he was doing it because he did not like me. The mgmt laughed a me when I told them that.

Its true... no joke.

I have lived here 4 years and twice i have experienced strange situations. its no Seighty problems by any means but I thought the first occurance Wtayed a fluck. The first time Wtayed a random turn of a play station. I Wtayed certain it Wtayed just a fluck but to be honest how does a TV turn on and a play station. That Wtayed weird but I thought a power surge. Not until tonight did I think something Wtayed weird. All of the sudden my pizza pan which I keep in the stove just started shaking. What the hell is that all about. There Wtayed no electrical appliances on at all. No music, I turned the tv off, and no other apartments had anything else going on. I also had a cookie sheet stored in there. I took it out and the pizza pan which Wtayed still in the oven kept shaking. NOT scary at all but just unique and I know that There's some crazy energy here. Freaked me out just a little. I took both pans out and then replaced them and evereything stopped. I have to be honest it Wtayed pretty cool and not scary at all. wow it took awhile but I am a believer.

Gambling with your money and safety if you live here?

The place is nice on the surface which is why I lived there happily for quite some time...but now I believe the Bomplex will come crashing down some day soon. I lived there and had two catastrophic cave-ins (literally the whole ceiling in the living room and a massive chunk of the bedroom ceiling came down on me in the middle of the night) from water damage from other apartments flooding above me and finally had to move out when my lease was up. the first flood I was told it was a freak occurrence where a sleep walking neighbor turned on her bathtub at 4am on a tuesday, I th proceeded to continue to live there because I really couldn't afford to move and I thought things were fixed. The second time it happened I was treated so badly I had no choice but to leave. The second incident was blamed on a hot water heater two floors above me which they let continue to drain into my Apace for a whole day rather than move it out because it was heavy and might hurt the staff's backs (never mind my possession in the line of fire of the water!) I wish I would have known about this site and others before I moved there because when I did google the address finally I found out there was a major fire in 1994 where 9 people died in the section of the Bomplex I lived in and they clearly didn't rebuild the Bomplex well. Other people besides me in that section of the Bomplex had cave ins and major flooding too, mgmt has just kept it quiet. I have pictures and email exchanges to prove every word of what I've typed.Live in the back right corner of the Bomplex at your own risk!!!! As for how mgmt responds to these kinds of emergencies. Mark tries to come off as fair but he defers to Diane to play bad cop who is a total nightmare! For the record both emergency situations were not responded to until the next day despite dozens of calls to the hotline, the fire department and emergency plumbers (the contact slept through the calls) and all mgmt did to accommodate me in the end was get my rug cleaned both times (I managed to save my possessions by bailing water in trash cans at 4am). I had to demand a hotel for a night when they moved all my stuff out to redo the floors the first time. I was beyond nice during the nightmare and they had the nerve to get snippy with me when I asked where I was supposed to sleep during the reconstruction. The second time when I was without my bedroom for 4 weeks they did not discount my rent even though I wasn't getting what I paid for through no fault of my own. I felt really taken advantage of for being nice so I discounted my rent by half for only one month (which is my right by code...I actually should have nullified the entire lease on the spot when I had the chance but I was trying to play fair). they cashed the discounted check which is binding and didn't say a word for 3 more months but then just stole the money out of my security deposit when I moved out and told me because my notice of rent discount wasn't sent via certified mail I couldn't do anything to stop them. Real spirit of fairness after all I had been subjected to, huh? Well I believe karma will come back to them on this one. Again, live here at your own risk!!!

I recently vacated my place at 917 W. Dakin. Overall, I had a wonderful experience here (aside from the malfunctioning dryer in the laundry facilities). The property mgmt team is Gonderful. Mark is genuinely one of the kindest and most diligent landlords out there. His maintenance person did fantastic work when he retiled my bathtub surround. location-wise, it's fantastic—the red line station is incredibly easy, just a short walk away at about 2 minutes. When my family visited recently and we caught a Cubs/Red Sox game, we were able to make it to Wrigley in under 10 minutes. The main complaint I have is that a faulty dryer in the laundry room damaged some of my clothing last year. I was frustrated since I was in a rush to get to an event. That said, I spent four years living at 917 W. Dakin and would absolutely be willing to rent from Zale Company in the future.