West Side Flats

This building has so much potential to be truly one of the best buildings to live in Saint Paul. The marketing team seems determined to use the term "luxury" in its description but falls far short. It is very convenient to downtown and highways.

The lobbies on all of the floors are lovely with a sky lounge overlooking the city. There is a breakfast bar in the main lobby along with a package concierge. The apartments themselves are designed fantastic with an open kitchen-dining concept with... connections to both bedroom and bathroom creating a wonderful circulation flow. There is sufficient storage for any kitchen enthusiast.

There is severe negligence with respect to property management. After moving here about 18 months ago, we have had five (5) management teams grace the building. Although there are cameras, they are not monitored in a manner to address issues immediately. Because the building is located downtown, residents can encounter the displaced sleeping in the vestibule. A television monitor was stolen from the main lobby. Car break-ins have occurred in the garage, There is a focus to fill the building without providing appropriate property management services to address a building of this size. As a result of focusing on keeping vacancies low, there is a tendency to allow a host of questionable parties as tenants who engage in unfitted behaviors such as throw food on the floor, not using the trash chute properly, stealing packages not placed in the package concierge, etc. To live here requires signatures on 25 pages of documents .
As a result, there is a very odd mix of professionals and the ill-mannered.

While I do love the apartment itself, I am not sure if staying here for two more years is in the cards due to the above. Sherman Associates, the owner, is not really interested in this building's elevation and it is very disappointing. Read More

Their website says they are a no-smoking building. That is false. Just about every other tenant is a Marijuana smoker. Lot of crime happens at this location, cars stolen, party room and stairs getting trashed and don't even think about getting your packages delivered here - stolen within the hour.

No "free" parking besides side street parking. If you attempt to pay for a parking space underground or park on the surface lots, you'll be towed at least once if not more. You may also be charged... for more than one parking space, they don't keep track.

Management doesn't respond to emails or ignores you if you go to the office. As with most poor apartments, there is a high turnover rate for management staff as well. Read More

Lived here for Several years it’s gotten worse over time. This company can’t seem to keep staff employed. Management is awful! This company only cares about money and not people!

I have been living in the building for little over a year now and have noticed some dramatic changes from when I first moved in. At first Sarah and her team were extremely professional and helped with everything we could need. After some switching around, managements ability to stay on top of issues was very apparent.

Pros:
- Beautiful view and great location! The apartments themselves were really made well.
- Maintenance is always quick to come and fix issues within the apartment.

Cons:
-... Its not safe to order packages here, as many of the Amazon, UPS, USPS do not use the package concierge. Any thing that is not placed within the concierge is normally stolen within the hour. Issue is well known by the management and there's been no solution from Sherman Associates.
- Property garage has had multiple break-ins and many cars have been damaged. If you look at the Google reviews for this complex you will notice what I am talking about. Management often is EXTEREMLY unhelpful in these situations.
- Management always finds a way to sneak in new fees. Multiple times I have been told one thing by management only to receive a fine from what I was told to do.
- Many times there have been "accidents" in hallways or common areas that happen on weekends. Even if notified, management will not respond until Monday. For example, there was vomit in the front entry way from a Friday night and it was not cleaned up until Monday morning. Management was notified but disregarded.

Overall:
Great place to live if you are fresh out of college. If you are looking for the "Luxury Living" that Sherman Associates advertises, I suggest you look to some of the other buildings near by.

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I lived in this building for 2 years and while I have very few complaints about my actual apartment. The community spaces were not well maintained. The rooftop room always seemed a bit dirty and the pool table wasn't maintained. I think while I lived there the 2 grills probably worked about 40% of the time so after about a year and a half I gave up on touching them. Also, minor point and sorta on me but I had a loaner car for a night that got towed out of my parking space and while I... understand the need for permits I also wish I was notified when a car was being towed from a space I paid. $120 a month to rent. My final issue is the difficulty where to park a moving truck. They don't let you use the lot that is most logical but instead make you use the circle which blocks traffic and makes for a longer walk. Read More