Metropolitan Towers

I lived on Metropolitan Towers (tower A) for a little over one year and it could not have been better!
Pros:
— Fantastic location, specially for newcomers to Vancouver/​Canada. You can quickly buy anything you need for your new apartment on London Drugs, HomeSense, Staples, FutureShop, Apple Store, and many other places, all in walking distance. Sears closed down last week, but some department store will open on its place in one year or so. And, even better, you have Nesters Market in the building, where you can get your daily groceries. If you don’t like it, there are at least two more supermarkets at waking distance.
— Still location related, it’s really close to many parks and gardens where you can take a walk after work to relax and enjoy the view. Yaletown and waterfront, all in waking distance. Stanley park is a 10 minute bus ride away. Oh, did I mention you’re really close to a huge number of bus stops and both SkyTrain lines?
— Very nice and professional management. They live in the building, so they know what’s going on. They quickly fix anything you need, they help you, they’re really nice people. Maintenance happens very frequently, the building is always in pristine condition.
— Apartments are well designed and they have a lot of light. Even if you’re facing North, like I was, you’ll have plenty of light when Vancouver weather allows it. The windows are huge, and they provide a great view of the city.
— I never heard any noise from the neighbours, aside from a few objects dropped on the floor above mine. I never heard conversations, music, or anything else coming from other apartments.
— Security is taken seriously. You have to use your key to enter the building, and then again to reach your floor in the elevators. I never had a single problem, never saw suspicious persons on the building. They have ²⁴⁄₇ security. Security will also sign and receive your packages, and send you a notification email when that happens.
— Appliances are great, and include washer/​dryer in the apartment. Dishwasher is a bit noisy, but works well.
— They have an underground garage for residents and visitors. Never used it since I didn’t have a car.
Cons:
— Although I never heard noise from the neighbours, a lot of noise comes from the street, specially fire trucks, ambulances and police cars. They’re built to be heard, so there’s not much you can do about it. It’s downtown, after all.
— Most apartments have carpets that I personally hate, although I was told they are installing hard flooring in some apartments now.
All in all, it was great living in Metro towers. I worked from home most of the time, and loved to be there. I’m now living in California, and I only wished apartments here were half as good as Metropolitan Towers were.

We lived here for a year and loved it!
*The location is excellent* Right in the middle of downtown within walking distance from just about everything. Nesters is right downstairs and you can walk to all the restaurants & shops on Granville and Robson Streets. You’re only a few blocks from Davie Street and a few blocks from Gastown. A quick walk to BC Place or Rogers Arena. It’s really perfect.
*Layouts of the apartments are very efficient* Everything in Vancouver is small, but these apartments were well thought out. They have washer/​dryers in the unit along with a huge storage closet within the unit and a storage locker downstairs. The open layouts worked well and we loved having the large windows throughout the apartment.
*Staff was always very friendly* and responsive to anything we needed. We lived in 1506B — facing Seymour Street which means that you could hear a lot of the noise from Granville Street when the windows were open, but it’s just something you’ll have to get used to. We ended up just using white noise and were fine. It’s just a part of downtown living to us.
*Great value for what you pay for it* No, it doesn’t include parking, but we found that you don’t really need a car in Vancouver anyways. And, yes, you do have to pay $ 15/​month for the gym — but it’s worth it. It’s the largest and nicest gym we came across while apartment hunting, so $ 15/​month is worth it. There were rarely more than a couple people in there at a time.
Overall, I’d say there’s no reason why I shouldn’t give it 5 stars. If we hadn’t moved away from Vancouver (down to California), we would likely still be living there.

My fiancé and I have lived in Metro Towers for over 2 years now. We started off facing Seymour in the AF floor plan. It could be very loud most nights and I had trouble sleeping. A smoker moved in beneath us and it was unbearable. Management did all they could, but it didn’t stop so they helped us move to another apartment in the same building.
We are now in an AP floor plan facing Nelson and Richards. It’s so much quieter and being in a corner suite gives us more windows and natural light.
Pros:
— location (Nesters, Viti’s, Granville, 3 sky train stations close by, etc.)
— can have 2 cats or 1 small dog
— need repairs? Give them a call and they’ll sort you out almost immediately
— noisy neighbors? Give them a call and they’ll send up security
— 24-​hour security guard, they sign for deliveries/​parcels
— floor plans are great, most are open plan and have jack and jill bathroom, plus solariums/​balconies that have two entrances.
— storage locker
Cons:
— no pool
— no BBQs allowed on balconies
— parking is additional
— dogs must be less than 25 pounds. No Chows for me :(
Management is fine if you pay on time and don’t give them a reason to be upset with you. They aren’t lenient, but they have to be tough to do their job. They manage two towers! Like, 300 apartments!
They are actually pretty funny people when you chat to them and will go out of their way when you need something within their means. They replaced our washing machine when it started playing up with a brand new front-​loader. They helped us move to a new apartment with no hassles, they fixed our leaking toilet in the same day we called them. The lists goes on.
I don’t care that the gym is $ 15 per month, you don’t have to use it if you don’t want to. Plenty more gyms around that are packed with people in peak times if you want to put up with crowds. You can join this gym and another at this price. It’s also bigger than many on-​site gyms I’ve seen in nearby apartment buildings.
The location and convenience, plus the buildings being pet-​friendly are the big winners for me.

Metropolitan Towers is an «all-​rental» management firm which runs two towers, side by side. There is a ²⁴⁄₇ concierge, however he is only there half the time it seems. There is no pool. There is a media room and a library which has free wifi. You can steal the signal up to the 4^th floor (:
If you are looking into renting at one of these «all-​rental» buildings, you may want to think again. It’s run by a group of eastern European women who are, to put it bluntly, dour. They don’t seem to be the happiest bunch, and proved that by the fact they literally try to make everyone’s life much more difficulty than it has to be. They make you jump through hoops when you could just walk straight.
Even though the building was constructed in 2002, nothing has been updated so it’s not a new nice downtown flat like most others.
Key point: The in-​house office staff (who are there EVERY day) aren’t the happiest or most helpful… do you want to live with these kinds of people?
They also charge you $ 15 a month to use the «health club» — which is just a gym. They also require a 2 month notice to stop the «health club» membership. Some things here are designed to be a rip-​off.
On the upside, they have an online site where you can request repairs to your unit, where they normally fix it within the same day. I found this to be fantastic.