The Winona

Like others said, good location but crappy (to put it nicely) building and evil management. My apartment constantly smells like sewage because the 80-year-old maintanence guy did all the plumbing with absolutely no training. If I had the energy, I'd escrow my rent till they fixed it, but the problem is so obviously engrained in the whole building's plumbing (it's not just my apartment) and they exclusively do bandaid fixes, so the legal battle would take years. While I continued to live in sewage smell. I'm all for more affordable rent with sacrifices, but do yourself a favor and pass over this literal trash dump. It's not cheap enough for how bad it is. I just hope they give me back my whole deposit fairly, but chances look bleak. Also, to update on previous reviews: it's only got 1 tiny elevator now (I have seen *a single person* barely fit in it), and it breaks down literally every day. No one who has any degree of physical disability can live in this building; the stairwell doesn't even have railings. A final example of their bandaid fixes: the laundry room was down to 2 working washers and 1 half-broken dryer, so they bought 2 old, used dryers and called it a day. Oh and the laundry room has as much insulation as a patio, so we'll see how things freeze this winter!

While the price and location are pretty good, you get what you pay for, and this is no exception. The ceiling in the management office has fallen in and that's their own area. That is an indicator of how much this building cares about maintenance. They have absolutely no technology, all maintenance requests must be submitted on paper. There is no tracking, no follow-up, nothing. I have had an issue with my bathroom that has existed for 10 months and still isn't fully resolved. It is necessary to use rent escrow with this building in order to get things done. Also, there is no trash chute so for those who travel it is problematic because you have to babysit your trash due to being forced to put it out in a specific time window. Same with recycling. They deactivated the intercom so you can't buzz people up anymore, and there is constantly tenant furniture in the lobby. Further, I have personally been trapped in the main elevator in the building, which apparently many residents avoid taking for safety reasons. Other residents have indicated that building management, being cheapskates, simply puts band aid solutions on the elevator rather than doing the right thing for safety and replacing it. How it continues to get an elevator inspection certificate is one of life's great mysteries. On the other hand, they chomp at the bit to file court papers for rent payments that are literally one day late (with late fees of course). The industry standard is to not even charge a fee unless it's more than 5 days late much less getting the court involved. That's just tacky and desperate. The building management here is utterly without competence or class. The location is indeed good and the price is right. In fact the neighbors are also nice for the most part. But the one semi-decent person who worked at this building recently retired, and it has gone from bad to awful. I am only staying here because of the time and expense to fix up my unit, but it is worth it to pay a couple hundred more a month and be treated like person, not a sack of money to siphon. I rated it 2 stars due to the good location, nice neighbors, low price, and that I haven’t seen any bugs or rodents. Absolutely everything else here is awful.

Convenient location as building is only a block from a grocery store, and a few blocks from large drug stores. The lightrail is also only a few blocks away. Apartment is spacious however it's an old building and often requires repairs, which are like pulling teeth to have fixed, and you're lucky if it's fixed properly or for more than a month or two. The second elevator in the building has been out of order for over 6 months and the door to the working elevator has a lock that breaks frequently. This last winter our bathroom window glass fell out due to the wood in the window rotting and falling apart, the management company "miscommunicated" and took 6 months to put in a functioning temporary fix. Yes we had a blanket over the window for the entire winter instead of glass. The safety of the area is usually alright, there was an assault at the front gate of the building this summer and the building and parking garage were "broken into" when someone left one of the doors propped open so people came in. Last but not least one of the workmen for the building used his keys to come into our apartment and look through our things when he knew we weren't home. All in all the price for this location is one you can't beat, however you get what you pay for. I wouldn't recommend this leasing company.