Tenant Reviews for 225 N COLUMBUS DR

Having lived at the Aqua for 5 years, I can attest that it's among the very best communities and management teams in Chicago. Everyone on staff is professional and courteous. Engineers are both prompt and capable. Neighbors have always been lovely. Although rent is pricey, the building offers amenities that surpass its competitors. For example, at Aqua both your internet and premium cable are included in your monthly amenity fee. When researching buildings for my move in 2011, no other building offered both. The convenience of having Mariano's nearby cannot be overestimated. Aqua is an exceptional community.

I haven't moved in yet, but my experience leasing with Lisa was amazing! Her concern and care didn't stop after I signed the lease. I'm currently living overseas, so I had some particular concerns to address. Lisa and the management staff made it all very easy. They were accommodating at every turn. I can't wait to move in :-)

let me start with the pro's- the gym is wonderful, new equipment, always clean. the door staff are the best part about the building as they are always friendly and willing to help. the package room and in-building dry cleaning are great. the area is very nice and safe. it has definitely become more busy and a bit chaotic since the radison opened in the building. the maintenance are very quick to come fix anything (which rarely happens) and they are very efficient. I have lived at aqua for 3 years now, and slowly slowly its gotten worse as its over crowded. the building is divided up into three parts- floors 1-20 (radisoon blu hotel), 20- 50: apartments, and 50- 80: condos. This mix of people has become too much, especially since the hotel opened this year. The management definitly cant handle it, mostly ------, the head of management always seems overworked like she cant cope with the amount of residents. Summer time is a night mare trying to get deck chairs on the very nice pool deck. This was an issue when it was just the apartments and condos, but now with the hotel, you have to go down at 7am and put your towel to reserve a deck bed. To make matters worse, the hotel manages and has priority over all amenities NOT the aqua residents. Rent-- I have had a one bedroom apartment: the first year 2009 my rent was - $1750 2010- $2,000 2011- $2,300 this year (2012-2013) my rent was going to be raised to $2,500. I am not renewing, but interestingly enough the building is always full, apartments are constantly re-rented and people seem to be dumb enough to pay these exorbitant prices. -the one bedroom is fairly small and even though my counter is granite and my fridge is stainless steel, the ceilings are very low and have the cheap not finished look to them (not sure how to explain it, looks like many little bumps), the bathrooms don't have vents or fans, and there isn't a garbage disposal in the kitchen. These are things i have come to find that should be in such a 'luxury' advertised apartment for the price iv been paying. everyone's rent has been raised to the point where we are fed up. the loyal residents of aqua who have renewed their lease year after year and hung out with their neighbors, and had a sense of community have all left slowly. now its like a revolving door or new (anyone who has money) residents.

I've lived here for 2 years now, and at first everything was wonderful. But since they opened the hotel in the bottom third of the building, be prepared to share ALL the amenities with rude out of town guests. Kids running through the business center, the pool being VASTLY overcrowded, being forced to park on the lowest level of the garage, even though I am a monthly parker. Not worth the exorbitant price increases nor the aggravation.

My husband and I moved into Aqua when it first opened in June 2009. We absolutely loved our time living here, which lasted from then through this past summer in 2011. I am really surprised people have negative things to say about management, because Debbie, the building manager, is the most professional and hard-working building manager I have ever encountered. She knew us on a first name basis, and she and her staff were always quick to respond to any problem. Any time we had a maintenance request they almost always responded that same day, even on Saturdays and Sundays. The building's gym is huge and unlike any other apartment gym I have ever seen. It is great to have in the building in Chicago, as I would never leave the building during a snowstorm to go and work out! There is also an indoor lap pool and jacuzzi, steam and sauna rooms, massage rooms, business center with computers, copier/scanner and fax machine (in the office) and several party rooms. The pool deck is the largest pool deck in Chicago, with a huge pool, cabanas, running track, jacuzzi, and amazing views. The actual apartments are not huge but very well laid out with large closets, a decent amount of storage (and you can rent a storage locker) and the kitchens are great! Every apartment has a different balcony except for the very few without balconies and superb views of the city. Ours faced Millennium Park and South Michigan Avenue. My only complaints are that the people slowly became less friendly in the building over time, and there are more students there than I would like. Some of them like to do things like copy an entire reader and proceed to break the copier, which is selfish and rude. The pool deck on busy weekends can be a bit of a d-bag party scene. And we moved before the hotel opened, so I cannot comment on how it is now that the Radisson Blu is open. Oh, and another great point is the direct access to the pedway! The front door staff are amazing, and I miss them to this day. I made a lot of friends as I would leave and enter the building several times a day. They always went out of their way to help out and are very kind.

The place is decent, but pricey. Nice amenities, professional door staff. The problem here is management. They make zero accommodations. The vents allow cigarette smoke from adjacent units into your unit through the dryer and bathroom. They are slow to respond to problems such as lack of hot water or drain problems at move-in. Worst of all, they will charge you $500 upfront as a "cleaning fee," then bill you for more when you leave. You think it's nice of them to give you new carpeting when you move in, until they bill you for another new carpet when you move out (even though there's nothing wrong with the one you left). Budget for 10% above rent for all the hidden charges and you'll be fine, but I wouldn't move back here.

Looks like a beautiful place from the brochure, so my fiancee and I were fully prepared to sign a lease (about 24k per year) on a high end unit as long as the real thing was as nice as advertised. We actually could not even get past the front desk. We called ahead for an appointment to tour the unit and building, but nobody told us that we BOTH needed to bring our ID with us. I had my drivers license, but my fiancee did not. The front desk people were not even very nice asking for the ID to start with, but then turned even more rude when we asked if any exception could be made since we just spent $10 on a cab and were there for an ESCORTED tour of the building. I called up to the business office to see if someone could come down and meet us, but no way. No ID, no entry, no exceptions. And we were never told to bring ID. Although some people may think this is wonderful security, I think that some reasonable exceptions should be made, especially when someone is bringing money to this cash strapped community, and especially when we were there for a supervised, escorted tour. We took our money elsewhere and signed a lease where we found an enormous apartment with many more features at a better location. Enjoy touring Aqua, but don't forget your ID, and remember that any guest you ever have while you live there will be treated like a terrorist.

I can t speak highly enough about my experience at Aqua. It was one of the best residential experiences my husband and I have ever had. We lived there over a year and would move back in a heartbeat if we needed to live in the city. I have made a pro and con list to give you a better idea of what it s like there. Pros: Amazing staff from the door staff to the management team to the maintenance guys everyone is wonderful and service doesn t stop once you sign the lease Great amenities access to the Pedway (a lifesaver during the brutal winter), a huge patio with a walking/running track, top of the line gym with brand new equipment (puts the Lifetime Fitness I had to join in the burbs to complete shame), indoor and outdoor pools, whirpool, etc. Easy access to Lakeshore East Park, Millennium Park, and Lakeshore Drive A grocery store (Bockwinkel s) right around the corner Amazing views Huge closets (at least in the 2-2s) Modern appliances Handyman services for a cost (I think it was like $60/hr to get the maintenance guys to help with thing like putting up shelves, pictures, mirrors, etc. for those that are not DIY inclined) Walking distance to Downtown, River North, and tons of great restaurants Discounts on services available through the NNP Residential Community (Angel Cleaning was a great maid service and I can t find a suitable replacement for our new place) Cons: No garbage disposal (in the apartments only the condos have them) Neighbor noise it s really luck of the draw but there are many students there and you may be unlucky like we were to be sandwiched between some of the rowdier ones who like to party at crazy hours (though Management is helpful in asking the neighbors to keep it down when it happens, but kids will be kids and it will happen again) Pricey but that s expected anywhere in the Loop or River North for a luxury building As you can see the pros far outweigh the cons. I would wholeheartedly recommend Aqua. We lived in another luxury building in River North before moving to Aqua and can safely say Aqua blows the competition away. Hope you like it as much as we did!!

The posting from 11/20/2009 sums things up pretty well, and I completely agree with the building amenities, and the units themselves, as being beautiful, well kept, and worth the money. Now I'll cover some other aspects. My wife and I live there with a 20 lb dog, and it's great. The staff is very friendly with the dog, and it's easy to take him out to the lakeshore east park. You can get directly into the Pedway from Aqua's lobby. This is great because my wife can walk all the way to the lake Redline station underground, in a mostly climate controlled environment. I take it all the way to the corner of La Salle and Washington for work. The one downside I've had is when I rented out one of the party rooms. One of the main reasons I wanted the room was for the nice sound system (speakers throughout the room) that you can utilize using the wall mounted iPod dock. No-one from management informed me throughout the entire reservation process that the system was currently broken, and we weren't able to use it. Other than that, I can't recommend this building enough. It isn't cheap, but if it's in your budget go for it.

I have been living at Aqua for almost 2 months now. I could not be more pleased. Everything about the building has been perfect so far. My apartment is gorgeous- stainless steel appliances, granite countertops, beautiful view of Navy Pier, large balcony. I have a studio, and there are two very large walk-in closets to store all of my belongings. One of them is even large enough to fit a twin size bed, so I do not have to have a bed in my living area. The bathroom is a great size and there is plenty of cabinet storage in the kitchen. The building itself has amazing amenities. The outdoor terrace is fabulous--huge pool, hot tub, cabanas, grills, and plenty of chairs to sit and relax outside. There is a gym in the building, which has just about everything you would need and is clean and well maintained. They are now offering fitness classes, which is another great added bonus. There is a sauna, steam room, and locker rooms along with the gym. There is a media room with several large leather chairs and a huge wall size television screen, available for private rental- but they also play complimentary movies every Tuesday, as well as have the room open to watch sporting events. They also have a business center, two large party rooms, and a game room. Aside from all of the fantastic amenities and beautiful apartments/condos, the staff is fantastic. All of the doormen/women are extremely friendly and make it a point to know your name/unit number. My leasing agent was very professional and was a large reason behind me being so impressed with the building. If you need any service done to your apartment, they are quick to get someone to you immediately. If anything on your floor needs attention, they jump right on that as well. The building is extremely well kept and always looks clean and impressive. Overall, I could not be happier and do not anticipate moving any time soon. Although the rent price is somewhat high, their utility bundle is a total bargain and you definitely get your money's worth from the exceptional service and gorgeous accomodations. I would HIGHLY recommend the Aqua building to anyone.