Baker Chocolate Factory Apartments

I lived in Baker Chocolate Factory Apartments for 2 years: one year in a studio and one year in a 2 bedroom apartment. I had a fantastic experience. Never had any issues with the leasing office although I did hear about occasional mishaps with other residents. The complex underwent a lot of upgrades while I lived there (new gazebo, repainted and redid flooring in all common areas, lighting upgrades) and I always loved walking home to the gorgeous exterior (and interior) of the building. The building is VERY close to the Mattapan Trolley that connects to the red line at Ashmont and I commuted on it for 2 years with seldom any issues except for last winter it was closed down due to snow. Lower mills has undergone a lot of upgrades recently too, with some fantastic new places to eat and shops. Definitely gotta check out Bred, Sweet Life Bakery, the Cake Pop Shop, Ester, and Steel and Rye, all within a couple blocks walk. Not to mention the Star Market is only about 2 blocks away. Definitely recommend checking this place out if you’re looking for a pet friendly place to live that’s near the T!

My wife and I signed on for another year because we love this place! You can’t find a more beautiful spot in all of Boston. Walking score is great, T station within walking distance is huge. You’ll have an extra transfer with the trolley, but totally worth it to be in such a quaint spot. Milton is across the river with amazing houses and restaurants (not to mention the people).
A big seller is that this location is dog friendly. We have a Dalmatian mix that is now friends with all the people and dogs in the building. People living here are extraordinarily nice and respectful, we’ve never had a problem with noise or complaints. Within the year that we’ve been there they’ve upgraded the paint, light fixtures, carpet, and are currently remodeling the gym. They really care and are on top of any issues that come up for us.
Overall I highly recommend it. Welcome home neighbor!

Beautiful Spot; professional management, it is an old chocolate factory, no ghosts, just sweetness here. They management company is new and they have upgraded and are continuing to upgrade since we moved in 2015 Good value for the money, quiet, safe, commuter and family friendly. Lots of brick and cobblestones it is charming spot with good appliances, hot water, heat, ac, dog run, laundry and omg Bostonians don’t lose your monothematic minds but there is off street parking!!! This is really the only neighborhood in Dorchester on Milton/​Mattapan Line (and in lots of Boston I might add) that is truly «walkable»; bank, restaurants,(real restaurants) hardware, post office, supermarket, mbta, upscale gym, 2 vintage stores, library, music school, hair salons, yoga, Catholic Grammer,& Girl’s high school, Church, park, playground, farmer’s market, a cab will actually come pick you up, parking, a river run’s through it and a parade in June.

Beautiful apartments, space for dog walking, but most importantly the front office staff are great, Jess and Judy are extremely helpful with resident needs, just renewed my lease for another year!

Inchange my review solely on the HVAC billing practices. Disgustingly shady and borderline
Illegal. This may he the reason I decide to move

I should note that I don’t live there, nor have I ever lived there.
But I know people who have, and I have stayed over and visited many times.
Pros:
*rent is less expensive than in the city or Cambridge
*immediate area is nice, nearby grocery store is awesome
*T-​stop is nearby (also see cons)
*they allow pets
*they allow smoking, if that is a requirement for you
*the heat is on for a huge portion of the year, and you don’t get billed
*the (one?) maintenance guy is very nice
Cons:
*T-​stop that is nearby is the trolley, which doesn’t run as regularly as the usual T stops, and in snow just doesn’t at all (there is a bus right there that goes to Ashmont as well though, assuming the bus is running)
*as a guy on the T, I would feel fine most any time. Not sure about women late at night by themselves — the girls I see in the building seem to walk around in teams when going out — or Über home (taxis won’t always go from the city, or will complain).
*driving from the city or north of the city to Baker Apts is just ALL OF THE TRAFFIC (similarly for the reverse — basically commuting by car is the worst if you live there)
*on top of terrible car commute, their parking lot is too small, terribly maintained (even when not snowing, and when snowing they just plow everyone in if they even plow at all — easily days can go by where they do nothing at all) — also the spots in the lot are too close together, so you get dings, and then cars regularly get broken into
*there is a reserved lot for the cars, but the waiting list for that is long enough that you just won’t get a spot in a year or two
*the building reeks of smoke (isn’t an issue if you can’t smell that if you are a smoker yourself)
*while it is nice not getting billed for the always on heat (you get billed if you turn on your heat, but even if you don’t, it is a sauna) — but it is always 80+ degrees so be prepared to always be sweating
*the other people in the building with dogs are hit or miss — many of them don’t follow the rules and have large unruly dogs off leash, which leads to dog altercations
*there are issues with the electrical, so that lights die out faster than they should — particularly in bathrooms
*noisy — and since they allow pets, dogs tend to get worked up over the noises, which sets off other dogs — a chain reaction… all of the time
*the place is a maze, and you need a master key to get in and out of the maze — up and down stairs (or slow gross elevator) — this is hugely annoying if you are carrying a box
*boxes seem to get randomly delivered and/​or lost if you have something shipped there
*many food delivery places will not deliver, and if they do, due to no parking — they complain and sometimes won’t come back, and they rarely will come in — you have to go out and get it from them, finding wherever they parked outside of the building
*huge hassle to move in/​out due to the no parking
*the traffic flow from the building to the parking lot requires walking across the street to get to the parking — it is not well lit at night — people have been hit and killed in that accident, and the parking lot gets robbed — women likely won’t be thrilled to walk it alone at night — then when you go to park or get around, you are just always dealing with that huge intersection — it is very annoying
*some of the apartments (the management company seems to be trying to drive these people out) are part of some lower income state plan thing, so people on disability and the like — as a result, you occasionally see things like an older woman peeing in the hallway (I think in that particular case, she was moved out to a home).
*due to the maze qualities of the hallway and laziness of residents, you frequently see trash in random places, because it doesn’t make it to the proper places
*the management staff are either clueless, actively terrible, or just useless — hard to tell which, and hard to tell which is malicious (like «if we screw this up, maybe they will leave and we can rent that apartment for more after we renovate») and which is just incompetence.
If you previously have lived in terrible places, with holes in the walls, and your landlords stole from you (I have, for sure) — then this place is better.
If you have previously lived in a nice place that is owned by a real management company — this place is definitely not better, it is really terrible.
(That said, this was 2015, and it was definitely worse before.)
These cons of course are why the rent is cheaper than in the city — and as you will see from other comments, even the cheaper rent is likely still too expensive for what you get.
Do note that a month before winter came, they did build a gazebo in the courtyard. Fix the gross carpets? Improve the parking situation? Nope. Build a gazebo for no reason, that nobody asked for, that nobody wanted or uses? Yup.

I lived at Baker Chocolate Factory apts (BCFA) during most of 2014 through January 2015. My experience was great. I cannot see any resemblance between my own experience and that of the other Unilocal reviewers. The management and maintenance teams were polite, helpful and responsive to all my information and repair requests. I requested minor maintainance four times during year; each request was met with a quick and effective response. All of my interactions with Michelle and Judy were favorable. I asked for help with smokers who were throwing their lit butts near my windows. They responded quickly with a reminder message to the community, and the problem was addressed immediately.
Lots of improvements were made to the common areas during my time there: benches next to the river, new bbq grills in the lower courtyard, a fenced-​in dog park, a nice gazebo in the upper courtyard, an excellent work space w/​a private meeting room and public wireless access. All of these changes addressed what I originally saw as notable esthetic and functional shortcomings (absence of a Clubhouse) of the BCFA. The «new» management is paying attention to how they can add value and improve the resident experience.
The location – right next to the Milton T stop and the Neponset River Trail – couldn’t be better. This neighborhood has a high walk score – it is easy to take care of most of your needs by walking. I also liked the hip feel of the converted factory complex, and the cobblestone courtyards with river riews. My guests were certainly impressed.
Some folks were clearly unhappy about paying a monthly fee for parking or pets, but that seems to be the norm for the Quincy area apartments … especially those close to the T. Fairfield management also provides a resident portal, which makes it extremely easy to pay rent and other bills electronically… and to communicate with local management if you you cannot make it in during business hours.
Don’t read too much into these outdated Unilocal reviews. If you are looking for an apartment in the South Shore area, the BCFAs deserve a second look.

Let just start by saying if there was a no star option I would of choose that. Since the new management Fairfield Residential took over this place has slowly declined in customer service. To be more specific the property manager Judith Presnol has to be the worst property manager I have ever come across. She is very smug and condescending when you speak to her and if Fairfield is trying to win over the residents of this community they should truly do something about her. I am one of many tenants who all have had horrible experiences with her. She is rude and nonchalant when it comes to addressing community issues.
The maintenance staff was generally good about handling issues when you speak to them directly but going through the proper channels of calling the office are truly frustrating. Total lack of communication. I have noticed that James has left the company he was very helpful and always took the time to help me with my trash and any other issues I had.
If you are looking a place to move this has the potential to be a wonderful community but I would not recommend it until the management issues are addressed

This is THE WORST PLACE I HAVE EVER LIVED IN. EVER. EVER.
This place LOOKS beautiful but omg, the smell, the cleanliness, the customer service, the PROPERTY MANAGER!!! HORRIBLE.
Little do they know that me and some of the tenants would meet just to figure out how to complain about this!
I have to google corporate contacts because they REFUSE to give it to you unless you tell them your name and what apartment youre in! Why?.. So they can retaliate against ME?.. No thank you.
We opted to move out instead and its been the best decision we made and we agreed on passing along the info to everyone else.
They dont have enough workers, pipes burst and manure scent seeps through apartments! Leaky roofs!
And that property manager??. Speaks to minorities with such disrespect with no shame. And i am WHITE.
If i needed anything, i went to only one person JAMES… a maintenence worker there.
Hes the light in that darkness.
And the woman at the front desk was never rude to me as well.
BEWARE. LOOK ELSEWHERE!!! INVEST IN SOMEWHERE ELSE.

We moved into this building partially because of the prior management, but then it switched to this new management and the experience has been absolutely horrible. Management has clearly shown they do not care about residents, asking me to call on their behalf for requests. In my experience, management is supposed to call on behalf of its residents (crazy concept!).
They have also flat out told me they don’t have any information on its residents, including our own phone numbers and those of our emergency contacts, so that’s super comforting.
It should also not be the residents’ fault they are disorganized. Management spent 10min explaining how the prior management didn’t give them enough information. Not the tenants problem! Their job is literally to manage the grounds and make their tenants happy. Based on this, I have no clue how they spend their days — maybe convincing people to move into this horribly managed property? This could be why there are people constantly moving in and out (primarily out).
Simply put; the residents and their pets are great, the management is terrible.
And for the record, they requested that only nice posts be listed and that we should go to them with concerns. I tried going to them once and had to listen for 10min about their own problems. And the fact that they requested residents only post nice things should really show terrible they are.

I have been here 2.5 years and love my neighbors, my apartment itself, and the neighborhood. It’s so walkable with outdoor access, and feels like a real neighborhood where people know each other. I loved our 2 maintenance guys previously– they really cared about people and the building. My only complaint to this point was the cost, but since everything is so overpriced in Boston it’s hard to compare.
Unfortunately a new company bought the building and took over management 12÷19÷13. The residents are in an uproar. I’ve rented for 15 years and never seen such deplorable maintenance anywhere. We pay above market rate for our building and they are flat out not maintaining it. (Please see my photos I uploaded to confirm.)
— Dumpsters now sit in the main entryway days at a time, and trash rooms are not maintained with floor to ceiling trash. Waiting for the rodents to arrive. Broken glass from an entire door that broke was outside the door to the handicapped lot for 1.5 weeks.
— Snow removal is not taken care of at all. Two kids with shovels arrived a day after the snowstorm to remove snow for 3 huge buildings and 2 parking lots. The city has been called with complaints from the neighborhood of people falling. The handicapped lot is a disgrace. The fire exits for 1^st floor apartments are currently blocked because they piled snow in front of them. This was reported 4 days ago and nothing’s been done.
— 2 pipes burst in the last week because the building had no heat or hot water for a few days. A family was misplaced with the first, and our whole building had to be evacuated with the second. Maintenance didn’t know how to turn off the fire alarm. Some of my neighbors still don’t have heat. The only communication to residents about this was a letter 36 hours after the problems began which essentially said «winter storms, what can you do?» I’ve been through much worse winter storms here and we never had problems before.
— No return phone calls are given to a single maintenance call and everyone is left in the dark. The new leasing office head has zero customer service skills and has succeeded only in further enraging every resident she’s come in contact with in her short time here.
Do not give Fairfield a single penny. They have no interest in maintaining a good place to live for residents and are completely unconcerned with resident’s issues they’ve raised.

Updated 5÷15÷16: Stay away! Stay away! Stay away!
If you decide to live here, you are out of your mind. We have been living at Baker Chocolate for a couple of years and it’s been fine up until the new owners (Fairfield) took over. Living here is now a disaster.
The place is unsafe and they disavow their obligation to provide a safe environment, the place is dirty, the property manager is a nut job, and the maintenance staff is very unskilled.
And every year they raise the rents outrageous amounts, we get bogus electric bills from the owner, and the apartment floors are covered by tacky fake wood and ugly, commercial grade rugs.
The following are more details.
UNSAFE:
1) The owners disavow any responsibility for resident safety.
a) For example, the lease states the following.
— «Video cameras are not intended to protect, monitor or give a sense of security to any residents or guests.»
— «Baker Chocolate Factory Apartments has no duty to remove accumulated ice or snow on the common areas.»
b) The owners also periodically send around an email that states the following: «Remember that your security is the responsibility of yourself and the local law enforcement agencies.»
2) The lobby doors are left wide open all the time by workers, so anyone can gain access to the building.
3) We used to have two locks on our door. But they recently took off one of the locks (the more secure deadbolt one) for no reason whatsoever. So now we have even less security. Also, they never bothered to repaint the door and fill in all the holes left as a result of removing the lock.
DIRTY:
They just let the trash pile up and it spills over into the hallway from the trash room, causing a pronounced stink. Take a look at Rebecca M’s pictures — nothing has changed since the time she posted them. Also, on trash days, the dumpsters block almost the entire exit.
THE PROPERTY MANAGER IS BELLIGERENT:
Judy Presnol, the property manger, is a mental case! She likes to fight, is uncaring, unaccommodating, and is just plain rude and mean-​spirited. I have never met anyone like her. She is crazy, and I don’t use the word lightly. She needs to be put on the psychoanalysis couch seven days a week.
POOR MAINTENANCE:
There is only one full-​time maintenance worker, and he knows very little and is sloppy. Also, It takes a week to get even the simplest things fixed.
POOR SNOW REMOVAL:
They do a terrible job shoveling snow and they don’t seem to like sanding the sheets of ice. They hire one or two kids with shovels who are more interested in text-​messaging their friends while on the job. One of these days, Fairfield is going to get sued when someone falls down and breaks a leg.
POOR HANDLING OF EMERGENCIES:
The off-​hours emergency call-​in system is a disaster. It is based out of state, and the people who take the calls have no idea when you can expect someone to show up.
For example, when I asked one of them when the maintenance person will show up to fix my broken toilet, she said. «I have no idea» and then abruptly hung up.
ELECTRICITY BILL RIP-​OFF:
We get two electric bills-​one from NSTAR and one from Fairfield. In other words the owners are functioning as a utility. I wonder if this is legal.
MARIHUANA:
The common areas often reek of marihuana.
SKYROCKETING RENTS:
And every year they raise the tents outrageous amounts.
FAKE:
The apartment floors are covered by tacky fake wood and ugly, commercial grade rugs.
CONCLUSION:
If we could give them no stars we would. Stay away! Stay away! Stay away!

I love living at Baker Chocolate Factory Apartments: Lower Mills is a wonderful community and i love the Neponsit trails, the restaurants, shops, and much more. What a great neighborhood.

This review is about the Baker Chocolate Apartments at 1200 and 1220 Adams Street in Dorchester. Since I have only had positive experiences at every place I’ve lived in Boston until I moved here, and since I want you fellow Unilocalers to only have positive living experiences too, I am writing this review for you:
Don’t move here, especially if you have dogs.
Dealing with the management was so awful that I had panic attacks. I have gotten along great with all other past landlords and my dog has gotten along great with all past neighbors for all eight years of his life. Until we moved here.
There are so many other great places to live in Boston, and this place is NOT really dog friendly, or people friendly, or any kind of friendly. Living here was traumatic.
If you love to be around great parks and/​or if you are looking for great dog-​friendly places, look at:
* Delphi Properties in Cambridge (right near the Cambridge Common, four colleges, a bunch of great dog parks, Harvard AND Porter Squares, and the Charles River);
* Prudential Realty in Jamaica Plain (with lots of dog-​friendly listings near Jamaica Pond and the beautiful Arboretum);
* a LOT of great independent listings in Beacon Hill (a short walk to the Boston Common, Public Gardens, the Esplanade, as well as doggy boutiques)…
And then if you’d like a really affordable dog-​friendly area, Medford is full of dog friendly homes and great dog parks. Even if you just look on Craigslist, you’ll probably find a bunch of great listings.
Finally, if you love the ocean and have a car to commute with, Hingham is an amazing place to live, dog or no dog.
Good luck in your apartment search!

I’m not one to write a bad review but I feel compelled to warn people about the management group here. They stole my $ 500 deposit that I put down on a loft. I put down a deposit and within 48 hours decided not to take the apartment (realized the commute would be painful). I called and told them I wasn’t taking the apartment. I thought everything was fine until 3 weeks later when they cashed my check and I get a call from someone in the mgmt office telling me to come in and sign my lease. I explained to them that I had explicitly told them weeks before that I wasn’t taking the apartment and why would they cash my deposit before I’d signed a lease anyway?
I still don’t have my money back and looks like I’ll have to file a small claims suit against them to resolve this.
So, proceed with caution. Maybe this is an isolated incident but I wouldn’t trust them now to be above board with money.

My boyfriend and I lived here when the building was sold and the management company changed. We moved out after 3 years because of the rent hikes — going up the max 20% every year. We got the impression that the mgmt company was hiking rents in order to force turnover, as we knew they would be putting in hardwood (or laminate) floors and redoing the kitchen (and hopefully the bath) when we moved out. The place needed to be updated, so you can’t really complain that they were doing it.
I miss this apartment a lot — it was an amazing space (we were in a loft in what used to be the storage attic), and the location is beautiful. The neighborhood is great and has a number of local shops and restaurants that I miss as well.
I would move back here if I could afford to, but we’re now renting a small 2-​bedroom in Quincy for less than we were paying for our studio loft at the Chocolate Factory! The prices would have been reasonable if the building was located downtown… but it’s not.

I lived in the Baker Chocolate Factory between the mid ‘90s and the mid 2000s. It was a long, downhill slide during that time. On the positive side, it is a beautiful old building, a nice neighborhood (but it could use some more restaurants & shops), I had wonderful neighbors, and, back when I first moved in, there was pretty good management and a great team of maintenance guys.
Well, the management staff changed over time, and the maintenance team was cut and cut. My apartment– and this was true of the dozen or so apartments I had occasion to see– was outdated even when I first moved in. It looked like it had been renovated in 1982 and not touched since. That was fine at first, since I was paying relatively low rent. At that time, at least the common areas were well maintained and kept safe and clean.
By the time I moved out almost 10 years later, my rent had been hiked to market rate, despite supposedly being «affordable housing.» Nice though the maintenance guys were, they were too understaffed to be able to keep up with the place. No money was being spent on the place– the front door bell set-​up of my building broke and was repaired with duct-​tape for the last year I was there. My 20+year old dishwasher broke repeatedly, and rather than replace it they kept jerry-​rigging it. Reduced staff caused security issues as well. The final straw was a rent hike that was actually higher than what was standard for the neighborhood– I found a larger, cheaper, nicer apartment two blocks away– and an increasingly rude management office. There was one nice person left there who tried to be responsive to us, but she left shortly after I did. The main manager was this seemingly meek woman whose response to everything was pretty much «Suck it up,» and who, I witnessed, lied to prospective tenants about the condition of the apartments, how recently fixtures and such had been replaced, et cetera. An ongoing promise to convert the complex to affordable condos never materialized. These are old buildings, being neglected, and problems with HVAC, windows, and insects, and mold arose.
This is all unfortunate, because the Baker Chocolate apartments could be really good. I like the Lower Mills neighborhood, and it may become even better if the recession doesn’t hurt it too much. The Chocolate Factory, if managed properly, has the potential to be jewel of mixed-​income housing. I heard, but could never verify, that questionable practices by Hallkeen (the management co.) that came to light after the death of the company president have caused legal problems. If this is the case, I hope someone responsible takes over/​has taken over and straightens it out.
Please note that I have not lived at the Chocolate Factory in a few years, although I still have friends both there and at another Hallkeen property in JP, so I do hear the scuttlebutt sometimes. I hope it has changed.