Apartment Review for The Zenith - Baltimore, MD

I was a resident at the Zenith and I would NOT RECOMMEND this “luxury” apartment building for numerous reasons, including safety (or lack thereof), poor management, shoddy building materials and design, and loud noise from the bars below. *I am not trying to write a rant, I am simply giving facts in black and white and explaining my experience. I realize some people may have a better experience here than I did.* First, there were numerous times when employees failed to keep the garage door closed, which resulted in break-ins, and this problem only became worse during baseball games and other events. I have lived in large cities with high crime rates for many years but I was disappointed that the management failed to secure the building by simply closing the garage door. Second, I experienced shoddy building materials and design. There was a maintenance problem with my apartment very early on, which was never fixed, and I was told that I would have to pay for replacement of the product myself, despite that fact that it was faulty to begin with. Additionally, I believe the heating unit was undersized for the apartment because it could not adequately heat the living space. Finally, I believe the water heater unit was undersized for the apartment because if I took more than a 5-minute shower I would run out of hot water, and if I had done laundry recently with just warm water, forget it-there would be no hot water! *MOST IMPORTANT*, I experienced very shoddy building design, which was only made worse by the poor management of the building. The elevators were regularly broken or not in service, and despite the fact that residents were informed that the problem was being taken care of, it was not resolved, even when I moved out! In fact, my most frustrating experience at the Zenith was when I was moving out. THERE ARE NO FREIGHT ELEVATORS, so moving in and out is VERY DIFFICULT, not only for the one moving, but for all of the residents in the building who must wait for the only other elevator! Not to mention it is very difficult to fit furniture in those elevators and your movers must take numerous trips because there are no freight elevators. In fact, my WORST EXPERIENCE at the Zenith was moving out. I reserved an elevator (they let me reserve it in a 3 hour increment only!), and the management failed to reserve the elevator (by locking it so that other residents could not use it while the movers were loading it up). This ended up costing me several hundred extra dollars because I had to pay 3 movers for a few extra hours. Every time they tried to load the elevator it was on another floor and they had to wait for it to come back up (which can take a while at the Zenith). I informed an employee of the elevator situation and informed her that I had reserved it in the manager’s office and she said “I know, there is nothing I can do about it.” Finally, there was excessive loud noise from bars below, often until 2 a.m. I was disappointed with my experience at the Zenith. There are several apartment buildings only minutes away in harbor east that truly live up to their “luxury” reputation.