206 Bell Apartments

Modern building with fantastic staff in a great location.
Pros:
Staff is extremely helpful, friendly, professional. Shawn in particular is great at taking care of anything that comes up, as well as proactively improving things. We just got a great new TV up on the deck, for instance.
The central location is great. Loads of stuff within walking distance, and everything else is a short bus ride away. I’ve been here over a year and almost never drive my car.
The building is modern, clean, and comfortable.
Has a view of the sound from the roof, and a fantastic view of the city. The surrounding 2 – 3 blocks are devoid of tall buildings, so you can look at the tall ones from enough distance to be pleasant.
Cons:
This part of Belltown is salty as hell, so you need to be able to deal with frequent panhandling, drug addicts, random violence, public urination, and noise. I don’t feel threatened, but it is what it is.
Much of the building is rented out on hotels dot com and whatnot so there are alot of visitors and transients coming in and out.
The heat during the summer of 2015 was unbearable with no AC.
The closets do not contain any lighting or power outlets which means you’ve gotta figure out how to deal with that on your own.

I’ve read the other reviews of this community and wanted to throw in my two cents for anyone looking to lease in Belltown.
First of all, yes, the building is located on Earth and currently the Earth is orbiting the sun. I spoke with Shawn and Aaron in the front office and they assured me they were working on a plan to block out and/​or destroy the sun, however, this may not take place until late 2017. But then again, many buildings in Seattle and throughout Washington don’t have air conditioners and you may have to go outside sometimes for a bit of fresh air.
Also, it turns out that Seattle is located right off the Pacific ocean and ever since the development of the mast and sail ships have been coming and going at all hours of the day, delivering goods and introducing Seattleites to new people, new cultures, and all walks of life. Thanks Obama! But I’ve lived at 206Bell for two years after moving here from New York, I’ve seen my share of homeless people and drug addicts and I can assure that the ones we have here in Belltown aren’t nearly as insane and destitute as their counterparts in Manhattan. In fact, if you leave them alone, they leave you alone. Or, if you’re feeling particularly crazy, I even found that if you’re polite and treat them with respect like fellow human beings, they tend to do the same to you.
All that being said, the reviews here should actually focus on the building and the building is one of the best the city. It is reasonably well constructed with wood laminate flooring, stainless steel utilities, a stackable washer/​dryer and full size oven and refrigerator. I live on the eighth floor and have never had any problem with noise even when people are on the roof appreciating our amazing view of both Elliott Bay (off the Puget Sound) and the Space Needle (a large pointy thing that tourist like. .. okay even Seattleites like the Space Needle). The common areas on the roof and in the lobby are clean, modern, entertaining, and very comfortable. The gym is open 24 hours a day and the equipment is well maintained with access to water and clean towels. The garage is easily accessible, also well lit, and has additional bike storage.
The management team is bar none. Aaron and Shawn have been here for over a year and both are friendly and readily available to help with any questions or concerns you might have. In the past I’ve had to submit maintenance request with Shawn and he has always responded within 24 hours and been able to either repair or schedule a repair right away. He works fast and ensures that the problem is fixed completely so that you don’t have to keep following up over and over. Aaron is usually in the office or otherwise touring the building with a potential resident, but always able to help with any issues between neighbors, schedule delivery and receipt of packages or dry cleaning and to make sure that building is responding to the needs of its tenants.
For the past year, I’ve been considering buying a condo in the area and these two people have kept me from leaving the building simply because of their dedication to making 206Bell a community that feels like home. They work hard to make the residents feel at home and are always holding social events and looking for ways to make our building feel like more of a community. If you are looking for a place to lease within five miles of 2^nd and Bell, 206Bell is clearly one of the very best places you can choose to lease from.
Oh, and get this, the building is located above Bell + Whete which has a huge selection of beer on tap and is about a block away from Local 360 which, I’m not kidding here, has one the best burgers in the whole damn state. Across the street is Rocco’s pizza, which rivals any New York pizza place and beyond that there are about a million other fantastic dining spots. You’re also about 15 minutes from Whole Foods Market and from Pike Place Market.

I lived in 206 Bell for 1 year. After 2 months my fiancé and I were counting down the months until we could move. This is my first Unilocal review but I really wanted everyone to know what they are getting into when they sign a lease at 206 Bell.
1. THE HEAT! Last summer in Seattle was hotter than usual. This building has huge windows and only hook ups for stand up AC units which did not help the apts that have the sun shining in all day. We lived in a corner apartment with windows all around the living room and bedroom and the sun was brutal. We had 5 fans, stand up air conditioner unit, and all blinds closed all summer and our apartment was ~13 degrees hotter inside than it was outside (some days over 100 degrees). Beware if you live in an apartment ending in 12. We spent majority of our summer sitting in the air conditioned lobby until 10 pm when it finally started to cool off.
2. This is by far the sketchiest part of Belltown. They beautified Bell St with table and chairs but now those tables are filled with homeless and druggies. They set up grills to make food and even tents to sleep in. I walked my dog at 6 am and was extremely nervous every morning. There were times that I was approached by very sketchy people, and even followed one time and had to run into the building. On many occasions there were drug needles on the street outside 206 Bell. I would never walk my dog past 10 pm at night alone.
3. We had a lot of trouble getting the leasing office on the phone. Almost every time I was in the lobby the leasing agent were playing ping pong. The previous leasing agent was Brittany and she was super helpful. She is now on maternity leave but hopefully she will come back!
4. There were two occasions in the last year that a homeless man was sleeping with his shoes off on the couch in the lobby. He yelled at my dog to «shut up» when he started to bark. It was frightening, but thankfully other tenants were in the lobby with me.
5. This apartment building has basically become a hotel with people renting rooms through VRBO and
. Tenants of the building have complained of the all night partying and noise. It seems that nobody resigns their lease so they are filling up the rooms in other ways.

I recently moved to Belltown from Kirkland for work/​commuting reasons and I am so far, very happy with my decision. The transit system is very close and easy to navigate, the area is thriving with restaurants/​bars, and the rooftop deck is super sweet. My one bedroom is a good size with a cool urban vibe. The dog park across the street is very helpful during the day, however, I don’t venture out there at night– it’s a little sketchy for a young woman alone. All in all, I am pleased with the building and the surrounding culture. I am looking forward to living in the heart of the city and exploring more and more.

I have been lived here for almost a year and this place is totally not what I expected.
During the first six months, it seemed nice. But the sound proof in this building was a disaster. You can clearly hear your neighbors’ footsteps. And someone living upstairs just keeps stamping at the floor almost every day. Besides, I was awoken from the sound of my neighbor’s opening their doors several times. And the other night, it was almost midnight, someone just tried their keys to open my door for several times and then found out he was in the wrong floor. It was very scary when it happened at night.
At first, the manager there was very helpful and nice. But after several changes (they changed their staff frequently), the new assistant manger is very indifferent and not helpful.
When it comes to summer, the nightmare just begins. Don’t even think about the apartment which facing west. I suffered from the stuffiness all last summer and the window cannot completely open which make it impossible to circulate the air. And their one bedroom is more like an studio with a wall in the middle. Since there are no windows in the bedroom, the temperature is higher than living room.
After we moved out from the apartment, they charged a very expensive cleaning fee. And at first they even don’t offer me a detailed list of the charges. Just say «cleaning». After I asked for a detailed list, they didn’t reply me until a week later, the bill has already arrived. Then I asked them again and again, in the end I only received partial list which cannot explain the charges. At that time, it is almost the deadline for the bill. As for the bill, it has two options, pay online or mail it. Since I don’t have enough time to mail it, I have to pay it online. And they asked for extra charge for online payment.
The apartment is close to Seattle downtown, but considering its problems and its move out charge, I don’t recommend it at all.

We rented a room through
and we so disappointed. First because the charged us a $ 75 cleaning few for a 1 night stay. We had to wait to get the key when we arrived. When we booked the room it was not made clear to us that this was a private apartment building. The listing looked like a proper hotel. The room itself is clean and nice but everything else is shady and the photos are not even close to what this looks like. Be wiser than myself when you book this place.

My boyfriend and I lived in 206 Bell for roughly a year.
Pros:
— The area hosts some of the best restaurants, bars, and cafes; it’s right in the middle of everything and most of Seattle’s hottest spots are in walking distance
— Awesome rooftop deck equipped with BBQ grills + tools, tables, chairs, couches etc. Beautiful views of the water and the surrounding city, especially on those (rare) sunny days
— The Belltown Community hosts free events right in front of the building on weekends i.e. concerts, wine-​tasting, dancing etc.
— Nice amenities: 24hr gym, community room filled with neato games (pool table, foosbal table, etc.)
— Whole Foods is a ~15 minute walk away
— The building is brand new and clean
Cons:
— The area surrounding the dog park /​bus stop is probably the sketchiest part of Belltown. I never felt completely safe walking around at night by myself (I kid you not the boyfriend wouldn’t let me out of the house sans pepper spray, which thankfully has yet to be used)
— Belltown is rife with many hobos and druggies, I’ve been yelled at and harassed on several occasions
— We were awoken by gunshots numerous times, and I’d often find bullet shells en route to the bus stop. Neeless to say, living here gave us both anxiety… in exchange for street cred
Whether you’re fine dining, bar-​hopping or running from gunshots. there’s always something to do in Belltown!

Current resident here
I would not recommend this place if you are looking for quite enjoyment of stay. It has terrible noise isolation between floors to the point where you can virtually here stamping noises of residents from upper floor (surprising given this place is just constructed)
Also, their office business hour is not as advertised. They often close office way before 7 pm, which makes it harder for working professionals to interact with them (to get delivery package etc)

Even though it seems to be many young people that live here w/​maturity issues (i.e. making their front door look like a dorm) it’s a great place to live. Amanda and the staff are great.

3 months after the latest update: The TV at the «TV room» is still stuck at the same channel. So I’m downgrading them to 2 stars. I don’t think anyone cares.
I’ve been living here for a short time now.
There are pros and cons:
Pros:
Sam from building personnel is wonderful. Hardworking, willing to help, and nice.
The building is brand new and the location has a walking score of 98 or 97.
Nice, smiley personnel in general.
Cons:
–I understood what ‘yappie’ meant after moving in. Screams every weekend night until 3 am on the street.
–There is no concierge despite extreme overpricing. This causes you to become second priority after moving in. I am trying to get the free wireless password for two days now. The person at the leasing office just looked at me, turned her back and kept talking to the prospective customer. I mean, are you kidding? I am paying $ 1750 for 615 sq. ft. and $ 150 for the ‘compact’ spot they gave me that is on the farthest corner of the parking lot and impossible to maneuver in. Ridiculous spot that can’t even fit my Yaris and I am paying that much for it.
–The residents are likely very young and haven’t lived at a professionally managed building before. So I had huge moving boxes sitting in front of my door for two days because my neighbor was not civilized enough to take them down. Also, smell of marihuana in a non-​smoking building is not cool or fun. Did I mention the ‘pacman’ covered apartment door of another resident? I understand tech culture supporting these quirky interests because most of the new talent is, well, kids, but I don’t want to invite my friends to a building that feels like a dorm and I don’t want to be treated by the management like they could keep me waiting endlessly at their door for a password as they take their time with a new client.
–The architecture is TERRIBLE. If I was the person who designed this building, I’d seriously consider another career. The hallways are larger than my bedroom, huge staircase, yet I am trying to maneuver my 3 seater couch so my nose doesn’t touch the TV when I sit in front of it. YET my damn bathroom has so much free space I can easily fit a twin bed inside the bathroom. Also, did I mention the exceptionally small bathroom counter? Yes, you architect, are not a good one at that.
–The TV downstairs is stuck at FOX news and they just can’t seem to be able to get it off of child controls or stick some batteries in the remote. I could be OK with it if it was showing BBC or something. But FOX news? C’mon…
–Everytime you open the thrash chute, be ready for the huge whiff of smelly garbage air that hits your face, sometimes along with a used tampon or two… Mmmm feels like spring. Again, bad design. Downstairs is open to outside so it’s creating a strong current. But the «management» doesn’t care really.

A great place to live if you want bedbugs. Yes, this brand new building already has a serious pest problem. The apartment I stayed in was infested, in the sense that there were already adult bedbugs when I got there. They have an incubation period of about a week, and I had bites the first night I slept there, so they must have already been there for some time before I arrived. The management clearly has no idea what they are doing and do not understand that this infestation is not confined to one room. They may not have the authority to properly treat for pests, as the building is owned by Riverstone. They don’t even have the authority to alter the terms of their leases. Regardless of who is at fault, the result was serious negligence.
The building itself, the bedbugs aside, is nice. Hardwood floors, beautiful if small kitchens, gorgeous view of the lake from the roof. Horribly overpriced, as everything in Belltown and around the new Amazon campus is these days (want anything more than a shoebox studio for 1200 a month? good luck), but nice. It’s very much geared towards the yuppie crowd, as is obvious by the tacky window stickings (take a walk by or google street view it to see what I mean) and their playing a playlist of ten songs that were hot two years ago in the lobby. If you want to hear «paper planes» every time you walk into your building to remind you how trying-​to-​be-​hip-​but-​so-​not your apartment is, then this is the place for you.

This is a very modern property, however after exploring the neighborhood at night I think this might be a more viable area in a few more years. The rooftop deck is spectacular. There is also a small dog park across the street.

My fiancé and I looked here as a possibility; we live in a slightly older building in the area and were thinking about upgrading. We were not impressed. Both of us are architects, and what we love most about our current place is that though it’s only 650 sq ft, it has an amazing layout and great corner window view. We were going to have to increase our rent by $ 500/​month for the same sq footage, no view, and a bedroom without any windows and barely big enough for our bed.
But that is not why I’m giving this place two stars. I know belltown is expensive and often poorly designed. It was the people that bothered me. The manager was pushy, like we OBVIOUSLY must’ve loved the place, because who wouldn’t? We asked about the «on premise dog park» we saw listed on the website to find out its actually the local 3^rd and bell dog park, which has been known to have needles lying in its rocks, and, though close, is not on premise. I also asked point blank about the bell street park construction and when it would move to between 2^nd and 3^rd and was told it wouldn’t. Not that she wasn’t sure or didn’t think it was going on 2^nd, but flat out was only being built between 1^st and 2^nd. WRONG! As soon as the current area is done they will move to the next block. I can handle the construction, what I can’t handle is management who isn’t honest.
Needless to say we’ve decided to stay at our current place. It may be a little older, but for only $ 200 –400 more per month we can get 200 more sq ft and an even better view. Keep looking, don’t let the fact that this place is new fool you. It’s poorly designed and has dishonest management.

The location itself is central but in a bad part of Belltown. There are a couple of homeless shelters right around the block. Guest parking will be impossible to find if you have guests. There is work going on in the building so if you moved in now, you would hear a whole lot of construction activity. The apartment itself is nice enough but some of them are dark and gloomy. Before deciding on this, take a walk around at 6 pm.
The pricing itself is very haphazard and subject to «market forces». The management of this apartment building came across as devious and underhanded. Just their behavior made me decide against renting and pursuing this further. I was told by a staff several times that they would check on a certain apartment. He was to get back to me on certain terms after an hour. I waited for 2 hours and then called him. He was «out» and had left a message with someone else saying that the apartment was gone. Interestingly, I could still see it as «available» until the time of writing this review. He was schmoozing 2 potential tenants and just driving up the prices. In my experience, greedy apartment managements such as this one will always hike up the rates and fleece their tenants year after year.

After moving to Seattle a week ago, 206 Bell was one of the first (out of 22) units I saw in the city. I had been emailing with Amanda (the property manager) for a few days prior to my move and she helped schedule and reschedule my appointment due to travel changes. I received a fantastic tour from Tracy in which he showed me multiple units within my price range and helped me imagine furniture in each unit. He was even patient as I continued to look between units and color schemes (this happened a few times). I made my decision a few days later and Wanee was so great. She didn’t even get ‘credit’ for my lease, but showed me the units again, helped me decide which unit was best for layout, view, light, etc. She was a great coordinator between management and myself and was a pleasure to work with.
All of the staff at 206 Bell really went above and beyond to help me imagine myself in the building and get me moved in as soon as possible. While the building isn’t quite done, the staff is allowing me to use storage for my belongings and working with me on an accelerated move-​in date. Even the construction crews helped me find the leasing office right when I first got there! If this is how great the staff is during the stressful time of construction and temporary offices, I can only imagine how helpful they will be once everything is settled in 2 weeks.

This is a new building which will open in a few weeks.
I worked with Amanda who not only gave some great concessions to make my client happy, but ended up helping store her stuff in temporary quarters until their storage is finished. Really above and beyond customer service. Am pleased to recommend this property.