Esplanade

We stay almost a year with them. We like the services and everything was ok. But u have to be careful when check in to report any damage etc in the apartment because that was our mistake. I saw small burn in the marble in kitchen and I remember I told that for one of maintenance guys and he said we need to remove the whole things etc. So I said no it’s ok .
Finally when we check out they let’s us pay 1200 for this damage. So it’s was a lesson learn.

I apologize in advance for the extensive review, however I want to be able to give you a review that is extremely insightful so that you can make the best informed decision about choosing a place to live.
The city of Houston has its positives and negatives, but for a large metropolitan, it is definitely not the worst city I could have lived in. My wife and I enjoyed our 2 years there very much and the hospital where our daughter was born was first class.
We chose to live at the Esplenade due to the fact that the apartment we lived in (2 bedroom, 2 bath, loft style) was fairly large and compared to some of the other apartments in the area, the price was slightly better for the same amount of square footage. I say «better» in the sense that instead of paying $ 3000/​month we paid a few hundred dollars less than that. Although the apartment was carpeted and the appliances were on the older side, they weren’t deal breakers.
1) Security Issues — This was probably our most frustrating complaint. As you’ll read in other reviews on Unilocal,this apartment complex has serious security issues. Many speak about the fact that the gates, although they require a key fob to get in (garage, hallway doors, etc.) often times these gates would not be working, and so they could be opened without a key fob. The rear garage entrance probably worked well about half the time we lived there, if that. The most troubling issue is that this apartment complex sits on the edge of the 4^th ward, so the rear of the complex is in a sketchy neighborhood. Unfortunately, the malfunctioning gates are the reason why our apartment was broken into in July 2014. There was 1 security camera that caught the intruder as he was walking out of the building, but I feel this wouldn’t have even happened had they had working gates! To add insult to injury, we were on the top floor! On top of that there were countless other vehicle break in. I counted 13 times they emailed us regarding a vehicle break in during our 2 year stay there.
2) Maintenance Issues — Although the maintenance people were usually nice, almost none of them spoke English very well. Also, most maintenance issues would take at least 3 days and 2 separate phone calls to the maintenance hotline in order to get them completed. The only time any issue was fixed in a timely manner was when our AC went out and the temperature in our apartment went to 83 degrees. This happened 3 times, twice in the last 2 months we lived there. This issue was resolved in ONLY 6 hours each time, even though they consider this issue an «emergency» per their maintenance guidelines.
3) Apartment Conditions — The apartment itself was in fine condition, however our windows had terrible leaks which were made apparent during thunderstorms, where the water would leak in through the windows and soak part of our couch. I notified maintenance regarding this on multiple occasions and NOT ONCE was this issue properly fixed. One time they stated they would come to seal the windows and never showed up. We also had a terrible time dealing with roaches and other insects that would crawl into the apartment. The complex was agreeable to treat the apartment exterior with insect and roach repellent, however they neglected to mention to us that they would charge us a monthly fee included in our final rent. Overall the apartment we had was fairly spacious.
4) Staff Issues — The staff at the package/​mail office were for the most part very nice people and would send us notifications that we received a package in a timely manner. I can however recall at least 5 different times that we did NOT receive a notification from them that a package arrived, yet we were able to track that the package had arrived via FedEx or UPS. There were 3 other instances in which we had received packages that were somehow LOST by the package office, although we did eventually find all 3 packages. I can’t say the same about the leasing office. With the exception of Josh Hebert, the rest of the people in that office were extremely rude and not at all helpful at all. Most particularly, they would fail to notify us in a timely manner regarding certain issues such as water being shut off (twice this year alone this has happened). Kyle was always emailing people regarding paying rent in a timely manner, yet almost NEVER was their website functioning properly; on many occasions it was impossible to pay rent online due to multiple errors and glitches with the site itself. I can’t blame this on the staff, but moreso on the company that oversees management of this property, Riverstone, and its parent company, Greystar. For such large companies, they really functioned like a fledgling small business.
I’m limited by character count but ultimately I would NEVER recommend this apartment complex. The overall experience is not something I would wish on my worst enemy.

I have liked living here for the most part. I have always felt safe. The close proximity to Hermann Park, Rice running path, Med Center, and museums is great. Also, it’s easy to jump on the highway or head nearby to Rice Village.
Getting a maintenance work order is a pain and getting them to actually respond is more painful. I usually happen to see a member of the maintenance team in the breezeway and ask for help. They are more than happy to. It’s not their fault. It’s the management.
Finally, it has been about a month and a half since they decided to close the main pool to work on it. Right before Memorial Day and the entire approaching summer. It’s now July. Maybe they could have done this in the early spring or just waited until after summer? It is pretty expensive here and I would really like to use the nice pool closest to my apartment. I realize there could be way worse problems in life, but this is my review of Esplanade.
To end on a good note… my lease is up in a few months and I’ll be moving elsewhere :)

Deteriorating apartments, security issues, and an overworked staff plagued our 6 month stay at the Esplanade. We are very thankful to no longer live at that complex.
(1) Apartment in poor condition and getting worse. Our apartment suffered from leaking air conditioning vents, broken washer unit, periodic massive leaks from the water heater, and periodic sewer odors. As a result, we lived in a very stinky apartment whose carpet was drenched by water heater overflows. Worse, the maintenance staff proved to be extremely unhelpful and it took at least three call-​ins and complaints before stop-​gap fixes were completed. None of the issues were ever fully addressed, so I am sorry for whomever moved in after us – they will face the same discomfort.
(2) The Esplanade has extreme security concerns as car and apartment break-​ins were frequent during our stay. The apartment key fob locks were often broken and non-​functional; they weren’t repaired during our entire stay. One of our neighbor’s door was smashed in and some of his belongings stolen. Had our neighbor not stopped us in the hall and urged us to put additional locks on our door, we never would have known about the break-​in since the apartment staff chose to not send out a notification of security concerns. On one particular night, 18 cars were broken into at once. Again, the apartment’s response was delayed and unsubstantial.
(3) Apartment staff so busy sorting out mail and packages, that they could never really help out with major issues. Complaints about the apartment condition went unanswered and nothing either related to bills, apartment grounds, security concerns, or otherwise went addressed without multiple complaints.

I lived their for 2+ years in 2 bed room apt. The complex is nice. Has workout room, pool, and heated lap pool. Pet friendly. Alot tenants have dogs. However, some do not pick up after their dogs. All my service requests were handled quickly.
It’s walking distance to Hermann Park, Golf Course, Science Museum, Fine Arts Museum, Children’s Museum. Really nice area. Some of the surrounding properties are lower income, but also mixed within some very high end town homes. I frequently walked my dogs at night around 9pm on Hermann Dr. I never felt unsafe.
The major downside is cost. They are pretty expensive. My rent increased 40% in the 2 years I live there.

About a month after we moved out, we got a notice that we owed $ 50 for carpet cleaning. Called the property to discuss, and they gave me a phone number for their corporate offices — I’ve called them several times and left messages over the past 3 months, and just found out that they have now sent our file to a collection agency without ever bothering to call me back. Very frustrated — living there was nice but definitely not worth the hassle. I hope they’ve spent more than $ 50 trying to get that from us! Ridiculous.

This is by no means a terrible apartment complex, but I feel for the price I have definitely had better. There are nice things and bad things about it, but I feel if you are going to drop over $ 1000 for an apartment you are better off taking your money elsewhere.
The apartment complex is nice and being close to Hermann Park is definitely the best thing this place has going for it. I loved it that this place had carpet in the living room /​bathroom and that it didn’t have hard wood floor that most apartments default to. The parking garage is big/​safe and has plenty of room for guests.
Be warned, this place is a BLACK HOLE for cell phone coverage. I tried AT&T and Sprint and I was lucky to get one bar both in my apartment complex and in the lobby. This was actually the main reason I moved out of this complex.
I personally never experienced any crime, but it is located on the fringe of the bad area of town (go any close to UH and things get dangerous pretty quickly). I never really went out at night, though I hear Hermann Park isn’t the best place to go in the middle of the night.
I had a bad experience the first couple of days I moved in. They had not hooked up my washer correctly and the first time I did laundry my apartment was FLOODED. I had to call emergency maintenance, wait on hold for literally about an hour, and finally get someone to come out to my apartment. They installed the jet fans under the carpet that sounded like a plane taking off and made my apartment borderline unlivable. Again, I am a pretty forgiving guy, but the management/​staff seemed very unwilling to work with me (I’d figure they would’ve given me discounted rent for a month or something considering this was a result of their spotty maintenance).