Tenant Reviews for 917 MAIN ST

This place is horrible, I highly recommend that anybody not move here. We have gone through 3 different management companies in the short time I have lived here. The two ladies that run the office now are snotty people, that I do not enjoy dealing with. You are not allowed to go to your car if you live here, everything is valet parking and you have to have a key to get into the garage, which the office will NOT give you. So basically, the valets are in charge of doing everything with your car, and they drive extremly fast. Sometimes, it takes up to 30-35 minutes for them to get your car, which sucks if you have a meeting or a plane to catch. Not to mention if you left your walet or something in your car, your screwed. On the back end of the building, that faces Fannin, an elevator from the adjacent building shakes the apartments from 5am to 8pm at night, about every 20-25 seconds. The management also promissed us a bowling ally, a Wolfgang Puck Restaraunt, and a pool when we moved in, all of which have NOT been built. I, as well as many others, moved in because we were promised these ammenities, but we have yet to see any action. The apartments here are beautiful, and well built, but this is the third loft property I have lived in downtown, and it is by FAR, the most miserable

These folks have just plain forgotten that, at the end of the day, the tenants are their clients. Without satisfied clients, no business can survive, much less thrive, for long. You simply cannot treat your tenant/clients like dirt --- lying, reneging on promises, behaving in an arrogant and disdainful manner, etc. --- and expect to keep a property occupied with quality renters. Especially at the over-blown prices this place wants to charge. The current management team has "managed" to alienate just about everyone and has fired two of the most decent, service-oriented people in the joint (Maleek and Mandy) within a week of each other. I hope the owner of this potentially very nice property gets a clue from all of the negative feedback --- otherwise, its likely to continue to be a pretty lonely place.

Unfortunatley for managements sake I must agree with the majority of the already written reviews. The parking is terribly slow and inconvenient, although it must be said that all of the valets do there best and are very nice people. The management is terrible and knows they are terrible. The problem with this is that they aren't trying to make things better. It's as if they have no idea of what customer satisfaction is. I too was an early bird on the move-in and have yet to see anything that was promised - which is a problem because I was under the impression that rent was going to be high due to all of the ameninties that would be arriving shortly. There is one benefit that can be found from living at the Kirby and that is only if you work within walking distance. Even then I have debated whether or not all the troubles are worth it. THIS PLACE SUCKS!!!!

I was one of the first residence to move to Kirby. We had assigned spaces in a garage accross the street or optional valet. We were told that valet will park guests cars for residence, free utilities until the first of the year with individual metered units, and we'll have a Wolfgang Puck Express on the 2nd floor. The original management was fired and the new management took over and many things were changed for the worse. I received all of the communication of these changes from valets not the new management. We were not even told about the management change. They took away our parking rights - valet was now mandatory with no guest parking. (You should have the right to park your own car and provide at least one guest space.) Silverfish and other small maintenance issues continue to be a real problem even after multiple complaints. (I kill 3-5 silverfish daily) Maintenance issues take too much time to fix - having to call management every day for a week at a time to get anyone to fix problems. Management is known for not calling you back. Continue to hear about new management policy changes from valets - they are not going to allow guests to wait in the lobby. Received letter from management about utilities - shared bill to be divided among tenants and not individually metered as originally promised. No communication was provided to us about how they will determine how to bill us the utilities - found out from valets. The valets are great guys with good attitudes, but 2 of them have to park 75 cars a day. They are also independently contracted out - so why are we getting better communication from them than management? The management is not very personable and terrible about followup and returning phone calls. Another tenant had a 6 month lease and told me he wanted to renew but they increase his monthly rent by nearly 60%!!! They claimed to have priced below market rates to get new tenants in and promised not to raise rates to renewing tenants more than a reasonable amount of 5% or less. They broke that promise as well. They are trying to sell the units - never informed the tenants in case we may be interested in buying our own unit. But, rather put out a sign in our front window instead. Needless to say, I will not be buying my unit for the $370,000 asking price after my experience living here.

I must warn any potential leasers to stay far away from Kirby Lofts. They are some of the worst managed and worst kept apartments in all of Houston. The worst managers in houston, holes in the walls, an elevator that barely works, everything in the apts break, horrible parking situations, bums everywhere, the list goes on and on. Overall crackhouses are nicer places to live. I would not wish this place on my worst enemy. For your own sake and interests stay away from this hell-hole.

New management is just as bad as old. Very rude! Once it’s known that you’re in a year lease, forget it! You will not be pleased. They are rude and unable to keep promises. The building has seen its share of bad managers... The investors really should take a good and hard look at this situation. Main. is slow to respond and things are falling apart. When I first reviewed my apartment I thought, this is wonderful... Again, sleek appearance but no substance. Parking... a complete nightmare... no parking for your guest or friends forget it! Valet guys have been rude at times. The rent is high and I'm told we will be paying for water and elec. starting in Jan. 06... Overall poor service and no amenities.

We were very excited about this place when we first looked at it. The floor plans are kind of different and some of them are pretty roomy. There wasn't much in the way of amenities (OK, nothing) but management promised an A-grade restaurant and workout facility plus some clean-up of the pretty bad street people situation. None of that has materialized. The new management (the second or third team in as many months) is downright mean-spirited but just as ineffective as the previous lot. The parking is horrendous. We were promised that we would have both reserved parking plus optional valet parking. The reserve parking never came to pass --- we have been side-stepped (in a pretty ugly way) on that issue every time we raise it to the manager. The valet guys are really nice but the whole set-up makes for slow retrieval and horrible inconvenience. Some people's cars have been wrecked, others torn up in various ways. Plus you can't have anybody come visit you because there is no guest parking and there are hardly any parking garages open at night or on the weekend. A couple of tenants are really, really loud (including the manager's boyfriend) but nothing is done about that. The elevators are truly frightening not to mention unreliable. Your mail is not very likely to reach you anytime in your lifetime. The backside apartments are dark as a cave in the day but because the garage behind the building stays lit up, they are garishly bright at night. And we were promised individual meters for utilities but now have been informed that we will be sharing bills with others --- something we didn't agree to. Moving anything in or out is a nightmare because there are one or two spaces on the street that you have to use and no freight elevator. We had to sell a piece of furniture when we moved here because we couldn't get it to our place and all of the storage around here is full because of Katrina. Beggers on the street are aggressive. We don't feel safe to walk down to the better part of town. New Orleans people that rented here have been shafted in lots of ways. They are all leaving.

A lot of residents are complaining about this place, and it goes far beyond the normal complaints tenants have with landlords (all the normal compaints also apply).<br><br>First, the parking situation is terrible. You can not get your car by yourself. You must have the valet do it. I have already missed an airplane b/c they took 40 minutes to find my car and an important business meeting because of a similar delay. These were major problems, but the parking situation causes minor annoyances on a daily basis which make you hate this place. On average, it takes 15-20 minutes to get your car. This is terribly annoying. You can never just go somewhere to meet a friend and be on time. You have to plan your entire day out in advance around parking issues. Plus, it sucks if you accidently leave your cell phone, dry cleaning, a bag, tennis shoes, etc. in your car. You can't just go get it. You have to call the valet, wait 15 minutes, get the item, and feel guilty for making the valet guy pick up your cell phone for you. Also, your visitors aren't allowed to use the valet service. As a result, you can't have friends over because they have to pay $10 to park in a lot and walk a few blocks to get to your place. Little things like this really pile up.<br><br>Second, Management made tons of promises to get me to sign a lease, and never fulfilled them or backed out on them after I moved in. I wouldn't trust anything they tell you. I really felt taken advantage of. Just dealing with them bugs the hell out of me (and you have to deal with them all the time because there are constant maintenance issues or they are coming up with some new annoying policy to make you unhappy). <br><br>Third, the area of downtown leaves a lot to be desired. It's ugly, smelly, dirty, scary, and full of homeless people. The area over by the Rice Lofts is much nicer. This shouldn't be such a big deal since I knew that when I signed my lease, but they made a bunch of promises about how it wouldn't be a problem for much longer. For instance, they said that they had signed a deal with Wolfgang Pucks to put a restaurant on the 2nd floor, and that them and the restaurant were going to work with the police to help clean up the area (as it would obviously be good for business). Well, apparently that was a big lie (one of many). The restaurant never came, the cops haven't done anything, and the area hasn't improved at all. <br><br>If I were you, I would not rent here. The Rice Lofts are way better. Humble Towers is another downtown place you could look at. There are tons of nice places in midtown, also: Post Midtown, AMLI, Gables, etc.

Living at Kirby Lofts has been nothing but a nuisance. There are NO amenities eventho the brochure they give you upon moving in lists endless amentities, the management is terrible. They make decisions based on what is best for THEM and do NOT take into consideration the needs of their guests. The best part is the Valet Parking when they aren't taking forever to bring your car or changing shifts.For the price we pay at Kirby, there is no reason why we do not have "luxury living". I suggest they step it up or they will be losing alot of tenants. The not parking of guest cars is absurd. You have a guest coming to stay with or visit you and they have to park somewhere in downtown running the risk of being mugged, robbed or begged to death on the way just to see you. Not to mention, we don't have the option of whether or not we want our cars valet parked. We were promised reserved parking, never got it....People's cars get broken into and it makes no sense. This needs to be worked out immediately. The they come up with a sticker in the window concept for parking purposes. I am NOT sticking a sticker in my window that will leave a sticky residue once it is removed. Don't park my car and see what happens. Kirby lofts stinks and I can not wait until my lease is up. I made the mistake of signing a year lease. What was I thinking...oh yea, that they were telling the truth....don't trust or believe anything they say...they will say or do anything to get you to move in. Commerce Towers across the way will be my new home for sure once my lease is up....

NO amenities, though promised. Mangagement is beyond terrible (even the "new" surly management). Parking is the worst - we were promised valet self park, but what we got is a valet circus guaranteed to make you late, crazy (or both) and leave your car a wreck. Halls and lobby smell. Noisy. Bugs. Units look good at first blush but finish-out is lousy --- locks fall apart, water heaters fail, lights perpetually blown out. Outside like running the gauntlet daily with begging street people, urinating and defecating beside building. Lots of Katrina evacuees moved here and were absolutely raped on pricing. Would not recommend this place to my worst enemy.