Essex

Other than the basics of the apartment working as expected (running water, heat, and new appliances), this place leaves so much to be desired for what they are charging. As a resident for over 2 years, I have seen the decline in the quality of life I have come to expect being a resident at Essex; most of which is a result of poor communication from management, and the shoddy building standards of the units once you put everything under a microscope. Management is much more content to cover their bases and deflect blame for the active construction that has been on-going since May 2023, which conveniently enough, was right when substantially all lease renewals were effective, and when new residents had already moved in. They have tried to sympathize with us, but obviously they don't know what it's like to wake up at 3am to concrete pours, construction starting at 6am almost daily for the past few months, all without letting the residents and myself know in advance. Again, they are content on making us aware that it is not their fault/problem despite it being a new construction for Preferred Living (the management company) only after enough of the residents reach out to voice their concerns over the situation. Additionally, there have various recent security incidents with cars being broken into/tires being stolen, unauthorized cars without proper tags parking in reserved paring spaces, using the handicap spots as their personal covered spot without penalty, and installing a cheaply made "gate" with a combination cable lock that can easily be cut or figured out in an afternoon. As was the case in Spring 2023, to get ahead of the major construction activities in the winter/spring, we were offered lease renewals 4-6 months prior to our lease expiring. They were also encouraging us to astroturf the apartment's review score using Google reviews under the guise of giving one of the facilities staff members a bonus (of a non-specific value) if they were doing a great job keeping the common areas well-maintained. There is also very high turnover of staff here at this time and has been the case since Fall 2022 when most of the original staff that onboarded myself, and many others who first moved in here in Winter/Spring 2022 had for different opportunities. Many of our amenities were scaled back without notice; the most obvious being our 24/7 gym that now has modified hours but no schedule posted anywhere. Given that there is a sizable portion of the residents work nights, this a great blow to them. Finally, as with the overwhelming majority of these 5 over 1's that are being built across the nation, the walls are thin and sound carries between units like you wouldn't believe and it's nearly impossible to have guests over in the evening due to the cheap materials used to build our apartments. The walls are so easily scuffed and it's obvious that they only painted a single coat of paint in most areas of the apartment (good luck trying to clean up tomato or grease splatters if/when they occur). I would have given this place a 5 star review back in 2022 when the place was new and management was on top of meeting our needs. This place can be so much better if management was more forthcoming with changes to the apartment, and advocating for the residents. For what we're being charged to live here, you are better off taking your money elsewhere.
Mar 19th, 2024

Updated review: living here currently feels like a joke - they are highly unhelpful and insensitive to construction and have made it very clear that "it must suck for us"- obviously 3am concrete pours for the past few months does suck. They are very keen on making us aware that it is not their fault/problem despite it being a new construction for this management company - you'd expect some more sensitivity. We had various recent security issues with cars being broken into/tires being stolen and they put such a mediocre gate (as there is ample car entrance space right next to the gate if someone really wanted to enter). It is quite crazy that they highly offered lease renewal right before all of this started to transpire. It is also interesting they encouraged google reviews before all this as well. There is also high turnover of staff here at this time.
Mar 10th, 2024

Very clean and quiet apartment to stay. 15mins drive from osu. Super sweet manager Ms. Shannon, takes our words seriously and solve problems efficiently.
Jan 23rd, 2024

Dre does an amazing job keeping Essex clean! The staff and maintenance are awesome.
Jan 11th, 2024

Andrea does a fantastic job and is always very friendly. Very lucky to have her at the Essex!
Jan 3rd, 2024