Gables Uptown Trail

Read all of the other reviews and it paints a pretty clear picture. DO NOT LEASE HERE.
I was one of the original residents from when the community opened three years ago. This place started as a nice residence but has rapidly gone downhill. Expect a FRAT HOUSE Thursday-​Sunday, and if that’s not bad enough, expect a regular 3−4am wake up call on a Tuesday from a crack head fighting with their significant other in the courtyard.
Now that you understand the poor quality of your neighbors, you will not be surprised that there are regular vehicular BREAK-​INS in the garage. Speaking of the garage, the «security» gates work half the time and guest parking has been inconveniently moved to the roof requiring «guests» to drive by your ride and giving them access to every community entrance on each floor. I would NOT FEEL SAFE living here, especially if I were a female.
The only staff quality here resides in the maintenance and janitorial staff that I feel terrible for, having to clean up PUKE from drunken SMU brats and DOG FECES from the countless irresponsible pet owners. You are destined to step in one of the two in the stairwell within a week of living here.
«But it’s a luxury property, it’s gables, that’s what they sell in the leasing office!”(?) WRONG. There is little «luxury» about this place besides the amount of your rent. Don’t expect to find help outside of standard business hours (while you are at work) and definitely don’t ever expect to see a security guard on the property.
«Well, the pool looks cool…» Yeah you can enjoy it with a bunch of white trash bros that are slamming natty lights, taking pulls of fireball, and blaring house music while whistling and drooling at the one poor girl trying to lay out. (Creep city) Oh and did I mention none of those degenerates actually live here? (Who invited you?!)
You do not get what you pay for, save your money or SPEND IT SMARTER ELSEWHERE.
The only thing this property has going for it is convenient location.
«But why are you qualified to give this scathing review?» You might ask. Outside of living through the transformation from class A luxury Uptown community to borderline third world sh*t hole in the short span of three years, I manage commercial apartment communities for a living. I’ve seen it all.
Sorry Gables, I don’t know if it was the buyout by Clarion, or the lack of being able to maintain a qualified staff, but you have a serious problem child on your hands. But I assume you already know that. I don’t envy the position of trying to manage this asset on behalf of its investors. It’s amazing they haven’t replaced you yet.
At the end of the day, if you are thinking about leasing at Gables Uptown Trail, save yourself the pain of learning the hard way and live elsewhere.

This place calls themselves a «luxury» apartment yet they make you pay for your own light bulbs. Hallways carpets are stained and 50% of the gym cardio equipment is out of order and have been for over a months with no signs of progress. Definitely not renewing after the lease is up.

So here we go, I have lived at gables uptown trail for 2 years now (although I am moving out this weekend). My unit was brand new when I moved in. I have generally been very happy. The location is perfect if you are set on the uptown area — literally everything in uptown is walking distance from here. Katy trail is your backyard and McKinney is your playground.
I notice there are a lot of people who complain about noise… I guess I got lucky bc I live on the side that faces fairmount street and not the bars or construction. it’s very quiet on this side (besides the occasional 2am drunk that feels the need to scream his drunkenness while walking home).
The units are well built. I have never heard any of my neighbors on either side of me and all units come with built in wall speakers (of which I have blasted at 1am w no complaints.) in fact the only time I hear ppl blasting their speakers is when I’m on my balcony or my window is open.
With that being said — the building is experiencing typical aging. That or whoever moved in above me last year jump ropes at 3am or is literally sprinting across their living room like their house is on fire at random hours. The only indoor noise you can remotely hear is above you, but not on the sides.
The Maintenance team deserves 5 stars all around. These guys are AMAZING. The response time is incredible. For example, as I left for work this morning I noticed that my AC filter needed to be changed. I simply logged in online at my lunch break and sent the request… it was done by the time I got home. The maintenance team here is incredibly consistent, fast and reliable ²⁴⁄₇. They are by far one of the biggest perks of living here. And trust me these are things you learn to appreciate when renting.
Now the issues I have/​had — every so often the guest gate entrance fails to work. It’s a hit or miss. Although when it fails to work — it’s not that anyone can open it and get in, it’s that when guests try to call u from the box to get in, it never works and they are forever stuck outside until you go physically go get them. Which is another issue, most places in uptown have 24 hour concierge — there is NO concierge here at any time of day. Also — the door from the parking garage on my floor randomly doesn’t work (despite many of our complaints) and it usually happens when I’m carrying a ton of groceries which ticks you off even more bc you can’t get in your own building without walking around to the side or another entrance. However, I have met multiple residents this way, being stuck in the garage together.
I agree w the another Unilocaler… The hallways smell weird, just weird. All of them, but at least they play music in the hall speakers?
Packages — you better know when you have a package being delivered. Track it like crazy. If you get a package sent to you without knowing it — you’ll probably never see it at all. They don’t call you, email or deliver it to your place if the package is dropped at the lobby… you will have to hunt it down in the unfortunate event that UPS or Fedex doesn’t leave it at your door. There have been a few times where I was sent gifts/​packages and never knew until it was returned to UPS or Fedex. Trust me on this.
And finally there multiple holes, chipped paint, missing art work in the hallways that haven’t been replaced or fixed in a good 7 months. This strikes me as very odd bc maintenance is on top of everyone’s unit but I guess the common areas aren’t as much of a priority? To be honest it’s sometimes embarrassing. I’m not an uppity person but for what you pay to live here — the halls could use some TLC, and the floors a deep cleaning and it would be nice to replace stolen art work or at least take the nails out of the walls where vacant.
Again, Generally speaking I’m happy that I did live here. It’s secure, location is great, parking is easy (tons of guest/​visitor parking), units are very nice, maintenance is ideal. It’s got some kinks but it’s a decent place to live!
That is all

I lived in another Gables (Villa Rosa, right across the street) and had a 5 star experience. Super long story short, when my lease was up there I moved into Uptown Trail for just a couple months. The difference is night and day. I seriously can’t understand how anybody would tour both complexes (which are both have the same outrageous rent) and then choose Uptown Trail. Here we go, in no particular order:
1) Every floor smells weird. I can’t explain it, but everybody agrees. Sometimes it’s because of beer cans and/​or dog poop (yes, poop in the hallways. I saw it on two occasions.) But even without those things, something’s still off.
2) The elevators are constantly locked for people moving. This would be fine if there were sufficient alternate routes, but there aren’t. Depending on where your unit is within the complex and where your car is parked, walking to the other elevator can easily add 5+ minutes to your morning commute (like it did mine.)
3) The concierge/​management is severely understaffed. There’s one guy who is really nice/​helpful when you can find him, and the maintenance team really helped me out when I was in an after hours pinch (thus 2 stars instead of one.) But nearly every single time I went to the office I had to wait at least 10 minutes before I saw somebody. Plus, the girls who work there aren’t too friendly.
4) I know this sounds super diva, but the coffee machine in the lounge never worked.
5) The layout of this place just doesn’t make sense. It’s obvious they were trying to maximize units without thinking about flow/​functionality. Getting visitors from downstairs was always SUCH a pain.
6) If you prefer a more contemporary look, you might like Uptown Trail better than Villa Rosa. Either way, the quality of finishes and amenities (the pool, game room, office center, lounge, etc.) are unarguably better across the street.
If this place were cheap, there would be nothing to whine about. But if you’re going to shell out $ 2400 for a two bedroom, do yourself a favor and check out another property in the area first.

For the premium price that you pay one would expect better from Gables. I have lived at Park 17 and really loved it there; however, this place is like a frat house.
The pool is full of drunks, bottles, and trash. The security is non existent. I paid for a secured bike room and found my bikes stolen when I moved out. Gables failed to notify people that were paying to store bikes in the room but continued to charge you the monthly rent on the room. They have not communicated with me on my request for the rent to be refunded and claimed they did not tell me of the thefts in order to keep from a panic from happening.
When I moved out I has two reps walk my apartment to tell me how good it looked. Three days later I got a bill for a full cleaning and two drawers in the fridge were cracked. I asked to see the drawers and they refused. There was nothing wrong with them since I washed them when I moved. It was an attempt to get more money from me just like they did by not telling me of the thefts in the bike room.
I have had sit down conversations with them which I recorded. They stated how the place is not safe and there security is lacking.
This is not the place for a family or a professional who wants to come home to a quiet home.

Welcome to the Dallas Fecal Palace, a place where dog feces is abound everywhere outside as well as piling up in the wonderful Gables Dog Park. I used to visit this great place before it became so known for its soiled premises. In fact, with where the dog park is situated, I try not to frequent Katy Trail Ice House any more because of the foul stench coming from the adjacent dog park where residents and Gables employees enjoy letting their dogs do business and leave it there to fester, attract flies, and create a stench that would make anyone gag.
Honestly, Gables Uptown trail used to be a really good building, but then management changed after the initial year it opened and the oversight on the property has been quite lacking. You know what is even more interesting, the dog park has supposed surveillance too, so if Gables actually wanted to do something, they could just issue fines to their residents who come outside and use the dog park as a glorified shitting park. It is like living next to the city dump.
I am all for dogs, I love dogs, but clearly the dog owners in this building are incompetent, and so are the managers who continue to let the dog park and the adjacent landscaping to be littered with dog feces and beer cans. Sometimes there is even feces on the bottom floor back by the dog park entrance, so maybe it is the people down there who let their dogs run amok and pooo everywhere.
All I know is that this Gables property has trouble policing their dog park. Most of the Gables properties are awesome, but this one is starting to go down hill. I could not imagine living at this Gables again unless they charged under 1000 a month, which I know they do not, but that is all its worth given how the property is maintained.

Awful! Just the worst! So loud. Feels like living in a fraternity house minus cute guys. The pool is an unattractive version of party at the hard rock. It is so full on the weekends you can’t get a chair or most times even find room IN the pool! And the pool/​grill side is so bad. LOUD all weekend. And I mean all weekend ++ Thursday night to Sunday 11 pm it’s so loud with my patio door and windows closed I had to turn my tv up and could still sing along to every song being blasted outside.
Management are all CLUELESS. They only care about getting your $$. I pay 1500 + for approximately 700 square feet and they can’t even return email asking if I received a package (I had. Office staff signed for it a month before — they never make any effort to tell me that though and I had to track it with Fedex claims to finally locate it since office staff couldn’t «remember» signing for it — and doesn’t keep a package receiving log.) Maintenance guys are great but that’s it! Unless you like hanging out with douche bags who talk about how much money their PARENTS have — DON’T even consider this place! Sucks!!!

After more consideration, and tougher, louder Fri/​Sat nights, I’ll just have to come out and say that this is not an easy place to raise a newborn. Too loud, inconsiderate and often drunk neighbors’ guests, and now with a second construction site adjacent to the building, can’t ever sleep past 6am. Again, great product, but after more time spent here, poor execution for this young, starting family