Harborview

Just to get an idea about renting in the area and how high the prices are here — check out
Basically this place is in the upper 85^th percentile of prices and… it’s just not justified. Also, I had the joy of having to put in a maintenance request about the horribly strong smell of dog urine in the stairwell (4 – 6 weeks I put up with it before finally reporting it), the ticket was closed saying it was «fixed»…apparently they used a perfume or something and it lasted a day or two… stairs once again have the wonderful fragrance known as dog pee.

I’ve lived here 1.5 years and can’t get out of here soon enough. The first few months were great and I have met some of the best friends but things have declined significantly over the last 8 months. Once Harborview decided to start doing construction it has ruined the place. I would be interested in learning the retention rate over the last year.
If you love living in a dog park meets construction zone, you have found the spot. Every day I have to step over dog pee in the hallway, dogs barking all day and night and the roof deck has turned into a bad owner dog park. People putting their dogs in the pool, I’ve been bitten twice and it’s usually irresponsible dog owners that don’t watch their dogs as they poop and pee next to the pool. The building doesn’t do anything to correct this even after complaints.
It’s sad because the place has potential with a good location minus the homeless but near the water and a great view.
Top issues:
Construction team pulled up the carpet in the lobby and main hallways yet kept the nails exposed for a week. Took me calling corporate after bringing this up to the office twice for them to fix. Stepped on it twice but luckily had this shoes on. Water is off just about every Thursday.
AirBNB has gotten bad and if you like telling guests the best places to go every weekend while relaxing in the pool, it’s been interesting. Just look on AirBNB. One chic even has 52 reviews of a spot and you can see the lock boxes on the apartments.
The dog/​cat situation is getting worse. Dogs barking all day, peeing inside the hallways, owners not picking up after them outside, dogs in the pool, jumping on you at the pool, biting you at the pool. Cats are also running free and a friend was attacked by one and was in the hospital for a few days. Office didn’t do anything after she complained. I’ll let her talk more about that one.
Overall the people in the office are just rude. They find excuses for everything (read their responses here) and try to blame you. I even get most of my packages sent to my office now to avoid them. Luckily they got rid of the worst one recently so hopefully this gets better. They even have threatened people to not post reviews and shut down the other Unilocal account from the building when it was called Archstone Harborview.
I only post this because the office seems to not listen to anyone’s recommendations or complaints and are only interested in raising rents significantly. Many people that have just moved in are shocked and wished they would have known what they were getting into.
Hope this turns around because it could be a good spot.
I have many pictures and videos to support the above and will also post.

Positives–
* The maintenance guys are great. Always friendly, quick and super helpful.
*The girls in the office are super nice. They try to fix things that are probably beyond their control.
*the roof view is beautiful.
Negatives–
* Water is shut off quite frequently.
* no in apt laundry
* elevators are in really bad shape and frequent «out of order» sign
* need improved pest control

THEY SHUT THE WATER OFF EVERY WEEK!!! WHY!!!
The carpets are absolutely disgusting in the hallways and stairwell as well… At least I can walk to everywhere downtown.

I lived here for two years (June 2013-​July 2015) and never would have left except that I had to move to another city for a new job. It is hands down the best place I ever lived as an apartment renter, and probably the best I will ever have. There were hiccups over the years, especially with my move-​in, but everything was always resolved very professionally, with fairness, and in a timely manner.
Why I loved (and will miss) Harborview:
1) I had a 1-​Bedroom 585 square foot unit (Floor Plan G), and it was so masterfully designed that it felt BIG. I also had the luck to get one of those rare units in the building layout that didn’t share walls with any other apartments.
2) Perfect location. It’s a half mile, just a few blocks from Ralphs/​Horton Plaza/​Gaslamp. The area is beautiful and quiet and safe and adjacent to the water. You don’t get all that party noise from Gaslamp and people are a bit older (30s and up versus 20s) It was like heaven being able to do that 3-​mile run from home to Petco Park along the marina, then jump into the rooftop sundeck pool upstairs back home, and then be so close to all the fun of great restaurants and bars in Gaslamp.
3) My unit was practically pristine. The building was erected in the 1990s, but they have kept it up so well, and it felt like 99% like a new place when I moved in. This was the first time I moved into an apartment and didn’t feel like I was inheriting someone’s old dust, scratches, mold, etc.
4) The leasing office. It’s open on weekends and the women are professional and helpful.
5) Maintenance issues. You can call or submit your request online, and it usually is handled the same day. They have the same maintenance staff on site all the time so you will see their friendly faces and get to know them so you feel like you can trust them when they’re entering your home.
6) Night time security. It was great to always have a security guard walking the grounds after 9pm and into the wee hours of the morning. It was a friendly face that kept us safe, and also I appreciate that we could go to him (there were multiple guards rotating) when there was a noise complaint. In two years of living there I had maybe 3 times when a neighbor was being super loud and disrespectful and I was able to have the security guard take care of it and shut things down quickly.
7) Noise. This was the first time in my life when I was able to sleep the first weekend after moving in. So quiet! At least my unit was. Now I’m having a hard time being able to sleep with ANY noise because I got so used to things being so quiet at Harborview. I definitely heard parties though from the rooftop during the weekend days, and at night on weekends but I was surprised that 90% of the time those parties totally shut down at the stroke of midnight. People are just respectful here. If you’re considering living here though, I do recommend a courtyard facing unit (which mine was) because otherwise you’ll hear the trolley all the time. I must stress though that it’s possible that other people don’t have as quiet an experience here.
8) Community events! There are social paint nights, tacos and beers at the pool, annual Padres game, etc for the residents, which is just awesome. Also, almost every week for the last six months: free Einsteins bagels and orange juice Saturday mornings at the leasing office.
9) Very secure building with electronic locks, and in the last few months they redid the elevator access so you can’t even go up without an electronic key fob.
10) The rooftop sundeck has such an amazing view of the water and is an incredible haven to hang out. Last summer I was up there three nights a week dipping in the hot tub and pool and enjoying the propane grills. 4^th of July you have front row seats to the downtown fireworks overlooking the USS Midway.
I am upset though that it seems there is a problem with the mail delivery. They overhauled the mailboxes half a year ago and renumbered them so that your mailbox number is different than your apartment number. Super confusing probably for the mailman, as I ended up missing a LOT of mail for several months. The issue wasn’t ever resolved as far as I know because it’s hard to know how much mail you lost because you don’t know what was missing. But I recently found out I was missing a credit card, Christmas card, and wedding announcement. Also I frequently got other people’s mail delivered to my box.
Still when 90% of your living experience is good, that’s pretty incredible.
In summary: water-​adjacent downtown location; safe and quiet place to live but close to Gaslamp; very well designed and well-​kept units; professional management.
If you have any questions please feel free to private message me and I’d be happy to answer them.

After two years of living here this morning I was woken up by a crash so loud that it sounded like an entirely full bookshelf had fallen over… it was the NON STOP CONSTRUCTION going on directly above my apartment. This was followed up by non stop hammering, power drilling, throwing around of other materials, stomping, and other noises you DONT want to hear at 7:45AM. Sitting here in my apartment now it is entirely UNLIVABLE to exist in this environment. For someone who doesn’t work from home but wishes when she got home from work to enjoy some peace and quiet, that is unrealistic living here.
This building is superficial appearance to mask the terrible upkeep of the condition of the building itself. In the past 9 months my apartment bathroom has flooded due to my neighbors drains backing up and entirely drenched my carpet with drain water. I found that out at 8pm when I returned home and it took TWO maintenance visits to clean it (still smells) because they didn’t do it right. Pretty sure the carpet has to be ripped out but they didn’t do that.
Last week my air conditioning unit POURED out water all over my bookshelf and ruined a couple things. Where did the water come from out of my unit? I’ll never know.
The point is —- I don’t pay as much money as I do to live in this part of downtown to live in a CONSTRUCTION ZONE with unreliable apartment features. I can only imagine how much I would lose my mind if I 1) worked from home or 2) had a baby, I feel for all you.

Amazing location and a great rooftop area with pool and bbq. Possibly the best staff and service I’ve experienced. Had an issue with my bathroom that was taken care of asap!!! Great quality apartments all newly renovated. The only drawback is the constant construction, but each improvement makes the complex that much nicer (new lobby at 780 west G is looking amazing!!). They often have complimentary bagels on Saturday mornings. Every concern met with sensitivity and grace by all staff at the leasing office. Best rates in the area and across from Lion’s Share.

Our car has been broken into twice in there «secured» garage. They are currently remodeling. It’s very noisy and there are workers constantly going in and out. This is NOT a smoke-​free complex. And now my neighbor is a chain smoker. There are so many animals and nobody cleans up after there pet. There is always dog pee and poop in the hallways/​elevators. My wife almost got bit by about a 70 pound dog.

Too bad there is no option for ZERO STARS on Unilocal!This place has some of the rudest and most inconsiderate people that I have ever had to deal with. While the pool and the location are enticing, I would steer clear! The problem is that the Irvine Company, turns out to be a heartless money making machine and nothing more. If any thing goes wrong with your apartment unit, your bikes get locked in because the door to the room is jammed shut, or there is a loud construction office operating out of an apartment down the hall from you, then you will be greeted with nothing but argument and disdain from the office staff! I will be sticking to smaller management companies instead of corporate and soulless conglomerates in the future!

If you LOVE living in Renovations and have a company that doesn’t care at all about you, this is the place for you!!!
I will start the review off with a few good points, the location is great but those trains are extremely loud and will keep you up at night. The pool is great and I have no complaints about that!
Other amenities are decent but half the machines in the gym do not work and everything is pretty much broken. I asked last year (2014) for some things to be fixed and it was never fixed. They kept promising for renovations and it gets pushed back every single month. When we first moved in (Oct 2014) they said renovations would start in December. Not the Case, I believe the only thing being renovated right now are the apartments so they can charge more for each living space. That matters more to them then the amenities.
The biggest complaint I have is when the leasing company put all the men who do the construction/​renovations in an ‘office’ which was the apartment next door to us (we shared the same porch). I work from home and my desk is next to the window, so when the 10 plus men would come in and out of the porch entrance all day, they would be able to see me. It was horrible and really awkward. The men were nice so no complaints there, but still it made our living situation uncomfortable and very loud. I leave the porch door open for light and air circulation and could hear all their conversations. We did complain and they offered to put us in another apartment, but our lease was over in 5 months so it seemed like more effort, and all the apartments were MORE expensive then what we were paying. I requested a privacy fence and they denied it. We were finally forced to find somewhere else to live because I am pregnant and living next to these men (who by the way would leave their gate open from the main floor where homeless people walk around and could easily make their way straight to my apartment). We asked to leave the lease without penalty due to these terms and other things that were making our space unlivable. They immediately got their very expensive lawyers involved. It was awful, they treated us like trash and completely denied that a company of construction/​renovation men were living there. Whatever you call it, seems pretty ILLEGAL to me Irvine Company. We requested to leave mid April to term our lease by end of May. After lawyers got involved, we decided it wasn’t worth the effort. We wanted to just pay the termination fee and move on. However, they said we didn’t let them know officially until mid May which is false so they made us pay another prorated fee of over 700 dollars. They claimed you needed 30 days notice, but our formal email wasn’t good enough for them. So be careful with that, they will nickle and dime you and do NOT GIVE A SHIT about you or care about anything you have to say. They will not negotiate or even listen to your side of the story. Customer service failed so bad here.
Bottom line, this is a large corporation, if anything goes wrong with your place, good luck ever ever getting out of your lease. They are soul sucking, money hungry, evil Corporation. Also, the girls who work in the leasing center act like a bunch of stuck up sorority brats.
I do not recommend this place because of the customer service and all the renovations that are going on right now. I do love the location though! I wish it was a different company that owned it because overall, they were pretty awful and caused me and my husband a lot of stress and headache. Good luck living here.

This property is amazing! The location is one of the best aspects, right by everything a person could want. The views from the rooftop pool are ridiculous!
Everything you need the staff and maintenance team are there to take care of promptly, the renovations are a bit loud but totally worth it.
At least twice a month they throw community events, my favorite being the taco night. GREAT FOOD!
I highly recommend this property to anyone looking to move downtown!

I can’t believe how quickly you guys turned after I moved out.
I just called to verify about my pet deposit and Linzy answered my phone around 4pm on ⁵⁄₂₆. I was kindly asking her about my pet deposit, and she told me «I don’t see any pet deposit here» so I told her once again that please look it up for me one more time because I really deposit for $ 750 for the pet.
Her reply amazed me in a super negative way.
As soon as I said please look it up for me one more time, she literally told me «Well, how can I find the dog deposit when you never paid for it?» I was really surprised that this kind of customer service is even exist. She needed to be calm down.
I told her that I can’t believe you just said that to me. She pause like a second and said «Please hold a moment» and after she talked with someone, she told me it was already included my deposit.
Now I get that the pet deposit was included on my total deposit, but there wasn’t any indication or note that the pet deposit was included and that’s the whole reason I called and wanted to verify what happened.
She could have found easily what happened before she told to the customer «how can I find the dog deposit when you never paid for it?»
Maybe she had a rough day or not in a good mood, but that doesn’t give a reason or right to treat a customer like this. Please have some professionalism about the job.
I heard over the ARS phone that «this call will be recorded» so I’m assuming you can hear it again and review what was wrong about the service. I really hope that the call was recorded well.
I will post this review on other websites too for other people who will be considering about this place and also for your improvement of the customer service.
Thank you.

Couldn’t be happier.
The new upgrades at Harborview make my new apartment feel like a home! The leasing office staff has been nothing short of amazing and the maintenance staff is top notch. All my maintenance requests were handled immediately.
Occasionally the water shuts off in the building for a short time. The office team does a great job of keeping residents informed of upcoming projects. I haven’t experienced any noise issues in my 8 months of living here and I don’t think I will. People that are sensitive to noise usually don’t choose to live downtown.
Living next to seaport village– walking distance to Gaslamp and the harbor– rooftop pool– brand new upgraded interiors — what else could I ask for?

I lived in this complex for about 6 months and it was a bad experience overall.
I was paying $ 1600 for a studio which is a lot of money so i was expecting at least a little bit of comfort. however, fire alarms were going off at night and nobody fixed that issue. it went off at least 3 times when i was there at night. at some point, fire department didn’t even show up. i mean what if it was real fire?
UPDATE:
I wanted to give more information about my experience now that there is a reply from the business.
I lived there between July 2013 and December 2013. The false fire alarm incidents happened around October-​November 2013. It happened at least 5 times. Some of them were around 4 am and some were around 8 – 9 pm. Fire department were there for the first ones but they didn’t even show up for the last ones. The alarm was just going off and everybody was just waiting outside for it to stop. Some people didn’t even leave their apartments since it’s false alarm. But if it was real, that would have been real disaster. Ask anyone who lived there at the time and look at the records please.
On top of that, elevators didn’t work during and after these fire alarms. It took them couple of days to fix them. Also there were usually other problems with elevators. So elevators were constantly out of order.
These things can happen anywhere, I agree, BUT if I am paying $ 1600 per month for a studio, then I expect these issues to be fixed immediately or at least an apology. When the alarms were going off in the evenings or in the middle of the night, we couldn’t get anyone on the phone. Fire department couldn’t do anything. No one helped the tenants during that process.
About the garbage disposal tunnels at every floor, they kept getting blocked almost every other day. They didn’t have a solution for that. It’s mostly people’s fault, I agree, but they should have solved the problem somehow.
PROS: Maintenance was quick. .I had a problem with the fridge and they changed it next day. Location is good.

And another reason why this place is legit. Toilet broke yesterday (on a Sunday) and Maintenance was up to look at it in less than 10 minutes. Told me it would be repaired the next day. It was– and got a lollipop to boot. They are awesome.

I am so happy I chose Harborview Apartments! Everything is so nice and clean and the staff is the most useful and friendly staff I’ve ever experienced. Even the Maintenance team is exceptional. I have only been here a short time and everyone knows my name and greets me with a warm smile every time I see them!

I am going to write an objective review, so that you may make an informed decision on where to live.
I have lived here since 2012. This place used to be fairly quiet, but over the last year and a half it has turned into an area where college students come to party. I realize living downtown that people will tend to party. However, their parties generally last until 4−5AM. The walls are thick, but the floors/​ceilings are thin, so if you have partiers above you, good luck. The management will do nothing except call them or put a piece of paper on their door. There are no consequences for disturbing your neighbors. If you do want to rent here, you will want to rent a 4^th floor apartment not facing the courtyard. The courtyards echo quite a bit ever since the fountains have stopped working a year and a half ago.
That brings me to my next point: The grounds are in terrible disrepair. People let their dogs pee in the hallways. When you tour the place, look down. The spots on the carpet are dog pee. In the stairways you can see brownish/​greenish colors, which is dog poop. The common area carpets have not been shampooed since I’ve been here. If you tour the place during the hot summer, you will be able to smell how unsanitary it is. While looking down, look at the baseboards and how dirty they are. Look at all the scuffs on the walls and the holes. They aren’t being repaired. The carpets in the stairways are ripped so badly that we could not open the fire exit door. Someone with enough strength busted it open, but it broke the door. This has been broken for over 8 months. The walls have not been repainted at all since I’ve been here. My toilet seat cover has never stayed in place. I put in several maintenance calls when I first got here, but I realize these efforts are futile. They will come and fix it, and it lasts about a week, then it breaks again.
The ventilation in the building is awful. There is one (in some floorplans two) old AC/​Heating unit mounted on the wall from the 80s. If the fan becomes unbalanced, it sounds like someone is repeatedly knocking on your wall. This can be an issue if your neighbor leaves their unit on and leaves for the day/​night. Your bathroom will become quite swampy if more than one person uses it because the fan in there does absolutely nothing. Also, after taking a bath, I noticed green/​blue crystals at the bottom. Then I realized they were blocking the aerator in my sink (which I had to remove because it got clogged so frequently). This is from the old pipes. I would not drink the water here.
The other residents here are quite young, so they tend to not clean up after themselves in the laundry room and other common areas. You will find cigarette butts in the stairways and in the garage, along with empty beer bottles. If the dogs do make it outside, they do not go 2 blocks down to the dog park. Instead, they pee on the building, so the grounds smell like dog urine. My upstairs neighbor lets their dog poop/​pee on the balcony, then dumps water on it to wash it off. I can’t keep anything on my balcony because the poop/​pee rains down on it.
Now, the place isn’t ALL bad. The location is amazing. You can run out in the Embarcadero, it is close to Horton Plaza and the Ralph’s grocery store. There aren’t massive amounts of homeless outside of the building like at Vantage Pointe or Market Street Village. The rent is very reasonable considering that you are living among hotels and $ 800,000+ condos. These perks are why I’ve put up with the place for so long. My lack of sleep was really my breaking point, and I’m embarrassed to bring people over here in fear of them stepping in dog poop on the way to my apartment.
Irvine is going to do renovations to this place, as they measured my kitchen cabinets not too long ago. If you move in, I would be wary of construction. It hasn’t started yet, and I’m not sure when it will, but Irvine likes to buy old places and renovate them. Look at La Mirage/​The Village as an example of this. Although updating the cabinets and countertops will not fix the problems with this particular building. I am a believer in the «broken window effect.» If there is a broken window in the neighborhood, the perception is that the neighborhood is going downhill. That’s why I’ve tried to pick up the laundry room every time I’m down there, pick up garbage in the hallways, and notify management when I think they need to get involved. I understand with the rent that I pay, I’m not going to get 5 star service and amenities with granite countertops and hardwood floors, but I just want the place to be clean. That’s all. And I’d like to actually be able to get sleep at night. It has been so long since I’ve had undisturbed sleep.
For a similar budget, I would recommend Market Street Square/​Kroll Center Apartments or 600 Front. The location is similar and the price point is similar, but the grounds don’t seem to be as unsanitary.

So lived here since 2012 and last night my key for my apartment didn’t work. Went to the leasing office today and they took my key and said they will have it fixed in a week. Thank goodness my husband has a working key cause other wise we’d have to leave our apt open. I’ve never in my 40 years of life ever not had a key to my apt: scary shit. Thanks Irvine for taking such good care of your tenants !

TERRIBLE condition. TERRIBLE building design. NOT SECURE parking. GREAT location.
This place is easy to rank (if you are familiar with the property), and deceiving and less objective to review if you’re not familiar with the property.
Floor plan and building design:
hardly gets worse. Incredible poor design. Wasted space, units lack light… feels like an apprentice architect/​engineer worked on this project.
Gym:
decent but lacks area for stretching and abs — and the free weight area is ridiculously poor.
Patio in rooftop:
closes early… this is the problem. The hot tub jet system frequently doesn’t work. Other than that it’s pretty good. Great view.
Parking:
very unsecure. No cameras. Parking spaces are extremely small. Very poor design.
Rent:
prices are 20 to 30% too high for what you get.
The units:
The units I’ve been in our small, lack lite, black windows, and are even worse given the terrible maze like floorplan/​building plan.
hopefully the Irvine Company will repair and restore and improve this place quickly… really needs a lot of work.

I loved my actual apartment. After living in DC for so long, the prices seemed low for what I get. We had the 1 BR with loft model, and the floorplan was awesome. I loved having the loft as an office, and the space will be great when we have people visiting. The location is awesome, a block from the embarcadero which made my training runs easy. Bars in the Gaslamp are a 5 minute walk, so is Ralphs, and now the awesome Lions Share restaurant/​bar is across the street. Parking is easy, and I found the leasing office to be helpful and friendly. Oh, and the rooftop pool is awesome, although you need to be there early to snag a lounge on nice days.
The area is nice, there aren’t vagrants this deep into the Marina District, and traffic is low to non-​existent. The only main downside is the fact that there are train tracks right behind the building. A freight train comes through several times a day and they are very generous with their horn. I haven’t been woken up by this yet, but it definitely rumbles through every evening.
All in all, I was happy with my apartment here and it’s not like the train was a surprise.