The Chesapeake

I just moved out and was glad to leave. Pros: 1. bright and sunny apartments with ample natural light 2. excellent and prompt building management 3. nice ambiance in the lobby and shared facilities with the Saratoga 4. great amount of space for what I was paying for 5. overall safe area Aside from that, the Chesepeake isn't the best place to live for the price of what you are paying. Problems include: 1. Outdated kitchens that don't have ample storage 2. Moldy bathrooms that they only solve through painting of the walls 3. Mice infestation that is only solvable via stick mice traps and other temporary measures 4. Electricity is covered by you. In most rent-controlled buildings, they are included in rent. 5. Thin walls. you can hear other neighbors and the vibration and sound of the elevator if you live right by it. 6. Living above the loading dock is annoying 7. packages and food get stolen if you don't pay attention to the delivery people. Security guards don't care. 8. The security guards don't seem to know what they are doing. Very complacent and don't help your guests that are visiting. 9. It is fine if you stay in your own apartment, but many of the building residents are rude and disrespectful.

prior to 2021, this building was fine. general annoyances of any rent control building, inefficient procedures, lack of follow through, sweltering heat that you can't control. For the past year it has been disgusting and unsanitary. One pest control issue after another. Cockroaches climbing the walls. Rats and mice. A feeling that nobody actually knows how to run the building. The cockroaches were pretty bad. They used the sticky mouse traps to collect them, but nobody changed them out, so there were dead cockroaches outside of each apartment door with an assortment climbing the walls. The mice are pretty bad too. At least every other day I have to dispose of live, squeaky mice who are stuck to the sticky traps. A mouse/rat actually ate through a sealed bag of bagels that I left on my counter. If you contact maintenance, you have to do cartwheels to find a window of time. Generally, from their perspective if you put in a work ticket, then they expect that they can come anytime, no window. If you try to arrange a specific time due to a conflict (ie. working from home) they act as if you are the barrier to fixing the problem. The reaction from management? A cold attitude and admonishment for not using their inefficient procedures effectively. I've spent $300 on plastic containers to keep my clothes and dishes in, I cannot cook in my apartment, I cannot reliably coordinate with pest control/management entry/exit. Oh, and the sink and bathtub are constantly plugged, so I try to shower at the gym. One does wonder, what exactly am I paying for? There are a couple of staff members there who are AMAZING and I genuinely think that the maintenance crew is doing the best that they can and are probably understaffed. However, somebody in this management chain either really underfunded the staff or is just negligent.

Cockroach issues! We ran into cockroach issues at this apartment in both units we lived in. The cockroaches were young and thriving. Pest control continuously told us that our apartment itself was very clean and that the problem was coming from elsewhere in the building, but it took months for other units to be inspected. We are very unhappy and disappointed in management's response. The problems lasted for months until we eventually terminated our lease early because we were unable to use our kitchen for over a month! We had to throw out our kitchen appliances, couch, and record player, among other things like contaminated food. We would open our drawers/cabinets to see roaches crawling all over our items. We would also go into the kitchen in the middle of the night and turn on the light to find dozens crawling around.

This apartment has probably been the worst dc apartment I have lived in. First off you have the nosiest neighbors, especially since the walls are paper thin, and forget it if you have noisy neighbors upstairs you will stay awake because it sounds like someone is constantly moving furniture or rolling something around at all hours. The management is nice, and the only reason I moved here is because of the Saratoga building next door and the shared amenities. There are far nicer and quieter and more reasonable apartments in this location. I would highly recommend looking elsewhere. The buildings heat is controlled and it gets terribly hot in the units, and the AC is small and not sufficient to cool the entire apartment in the summer. Another thing to note, this building is filled with smokers, and people smoke like chimneys outside and indoors. Your apartment will smell like it. All in all, I wish I had known these things before moving here. I am waiting to leave this place!

I've lived here for about 4 years. First in a one bedroom and then to a two bedroom. Firstly, the rent is way too high for what you get. Scratched, damaged, and paint splattered floors, old kitchens, doors that wont shut. But honestly, those are just little things that can be lived with. What is truly the worst is the pipes. When it gets cold they turn the heat on and that gets the pipes going. It sounds like such a stupid compliant, but trust me, they are horrible. The pipes sound like there's someone in your wall just banging a wrench against the pipes. And its ALL THE TIME! Every few hours they go off. My roommate and I have to pause the TV when they go off they are that loud. Because its all the time, it makes it impossible to sleep. Basically all winter I never had a full nights rest because I would wake up from these dumb pipes. I would stay away, there are other apartments in the area at the same price that are nicer.

The lack of ventilation is really bad and you can't control the heat, only can control the loud AC unit that's in the window. There is no ventilation in the kitchen or bathrooms so smells in there last..and it's brutal cooking in the winter. There are some random bugs I've gotten coming into my apartment every so often, at least one a month but no giant cockroaches thankfully. It's a very old building and the unit I moved into was completely different than what they showed, we had to send many maintenance requests to get doors shaved since they wouldn't shut and tiles had cracks in them. The best part about this place is what's shared with the Saratoga. Wouldn't recommend the Chesapeake though.

I've lived here since January and the only complaint I have is the lack of central air. other than that, the property is well maintained, clean, and the staff is lovely.(especially Susan!)

I have lived at the Chesapeake for about 3 years and I have really enjoyed it. Upsides - The location is wonderful - very safe neighborhood, walkable to metro and bus lines, near to restaurants, dry cleaners, liquor store and grocery. (Despite what the map up there says, there are LOTS of restaurants - Potbelly, Subway, Thai food, Sushi, Pho, Italian Pizza Kitchen, 2 fancy cafes, neighborhood bakery and Starbucks) The maintenance staff is INCREDIBLE - within 3 hours of putting in a non-emergency request the other day, they came by to assess the damage and promised results within days, including ordering a new part. Since the walls are concrete, there is RARELY sound bleed from the neighbors. You can hear noise from the hallway but hardly ever do I hear people on any side of our unit unless maintenance is turning it over for new renters. High ceilings, parquet wood floors, open floor plans, large closet space (a major bonus!) Downsides - My apartment looks over the loading dock which is a veritable echo chamber - we hear trucks pulling in all day: the garbage trucks make the most noise but they come mid-day so if you work regular hours it wouldn't be a bother. Also, if you have a unit on the outside of the building, I don't imagine noise being a problem unless you keep your windows open. It's an old building - the good thing about this is the rent control! The bad part is that it means more maintenance than you may get in a newer place - however, see above note about the maintenance staff being great. Small bathroom and kitchen, concrete walls make it difficult to hang pictures, little outdoor accessible space (there is some but it's pretty small)

Great management staff. Spacious, "affordable", rent-controlled apartments for a DC address. All the renos and upkeep clearly go into the Saratoga but hopefully they'll start swinging over to the Chesapeake in the next 18 months.