Cold Storage Lofts

I lived here for one year in 2011. I lived in a three bedroom two bath with my best friend as a Roomate. I can say with all seriousness that living at Cold Storage Lofts made me feel like I was living in an insane asylum. First of all, as another reviewer noted, this place is very odd. It’s huge, but feels empty. You hardly ever see anyone in the hallways, and never more than one or two neighbors at a time.
Logistically this place is a nightmare. There are two elevators that are both heinously slow. One is next to the parking lot, but is at the farther end of the building, which you have to take down to the lowest floor, through a door, then up some stairs and through another door, then finally out to your car. The other one is more centrally located, but again you have to make your way through a couple doors and it’s nowhere near the parking lot. Getting out of my apartment was a 5 minute process just to get to my car.
Now onto the apartment. Let’s start with the floors. They will never be clean. I mopped, scrubbed, did everything I could think of, and they were still not clean. Any time I walked around in socks the bottom of them would turn brown. I had to wear house shoes at all times. Also, forget about owning anything glass. Yes I know that it’s concrete, but glasses on the floor that tip over break instantly. My Roomate shattered two iPhones and an iPad. (Although he’s a bit more clumsy.) Now onto the appliances. When I lived there, they were old ugly white appliances. The microwave was above the oven, up so high you had to extend both hands to get stuff in and out of it, so it was a dangerous prospect for heating up your food. The washer and dryer were small European stackables inside the hallway closet, and aside from not being able to fit hardly any clothes, the dryer just plain didn’t dry due to being «economic». My roommate’s bathroom was a decent size and design with a normal size tub. My bathroom was a decent size, but the shower was the smallest stand up I have ever seen, I could hardly move while showering. The cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom were old, flimsy fake wood. I will say that the space was quite large. There was plenty of room for different layouts in the living room and dining room. And now this brings me to the walls. Now I don’t mind lofts, but for the life of me I will never understand why people are ok with having a bedroom without a complete wall. My bedroom had one wall that didn’t go all the way up, and on the other side of it was the living room/​kitchen/​dining room. This meant if I were trying to sleep, if my Roomate went into the living room to watch tv, or tried to make food in the kitchen, I could hear every little sound. I tried hanging a curtain and sheets to help muffle the noise, but non would stay up, or help for that matter. I could go on for an hour about the walls. We did have one very large window that faced downtown and actually had a beautiful view.
You would think that would be all of it right? Wrong. Aside from the above mentioned nightmares, during my time living there no fewer than two people jumped off of the balcony inside to commit suicide. The second one I can’t confirm, but at the site of the first suicide, a large square had to be painted with special paint to cover up the blood. I’m sure you can still see this square on the ground floor today. Also, every single weekend without fail, someone would pull the fire alarm. Add in the drunk and shady characters known to hang around outside the entrance, and you’ve got a complete hell hole.
The only positive things I have to say about these lofts are the amazing location, central to everything in the river market, and the large and open floor plans. I can’t speak to the staff because I didn’t interact with them a lot.
In the end I lived in these apartments full time for a little over three months. After that I moved in with a friend I had only known for a few months in Liberty, MO. His apartment was 20 minutes from my work as opposed to 3 minutes from my work that the River Market was. That’s how desperate I was to get out of there. Luckily he did not charge me rent, so I continued to pay rent to Cold Storage until my lease was up. I would thereafter only stay in my loft only 2 or 3 days a week.
I would only recommend these lofts to my worst enemy.

This is one of the worst places I have ever lived, the staff are unhelpful, obtuse and make it pretty clear they couldn’t care less about your concerns. The common areas are always filthy, you frequently see staff «cleaning» with mop water that is black. There is always dog urine in the elevator and the elevator frequently breaks down, usually over a holiday weekend. The staff are very two faced, when you’re a prospective tenant it’s all smiles and friendship, but as soon as you sign a lease they treat you like a piece of dirt. They frequently buy good reviews promising cash and vouchers for positive reviews on the internet or in surveys clearly skewing results in their favor. Had I seen the apartment before signing a lease (I leased from outside of the country) I would have never moved in. When moving in, after 27 hours traveling, I opened the door to my apartment only to smell the overpowering sent of cat urine and it only went down hill from there. I would gladly choose to be homeless before living here again. I counted the days off a calender until my lease was over.

I’ve been living on CSL for almost a year and I’m really happy to be here. Yes, I read the review below by the guest who just looked at the loft and I’m a bit puzzled but I guess to each its own. Located in the River Market you have pretty much everything you need at your fingertips: Farmers market, restaurants, coffee shops, music stores, asian markets, river trail & parks, highways, NKC, NEKC, Downtown, etc. It is awesome to go to the farmers market and not have to deal with parking because you are only one block away! Gym? ²⁴⁄₇ in building (so no excuses for that NYE resolution), washer & dryer in unit with bigger ones for comforters and such on the second floor (no sharing laundry with everyone in the bldg. needed or logging mountains of clothes), a new «business center» with tv and computers, couches and tables to hang out with neighbors or relax, a new doggy park for the pup-​tennants to run around, a pool on the roof, a parking garage that is heated on winter, and a very friendly staff that take care of the building and really care about the tenants.
In regards to the previews review, yeah, pool is a bit small, but it’s right there on the roof, no need to drive and get membership to anywhere to be able to relax (and after 24 hours in the building, no, it is not a maze at all, just take the elevator to the 9^th floor! Quiet hallways=quiet neighbors, no drunken raves at 3AM from the neighbor next door, it is clean and staff always says hello. There are no buildings right up against CSL, there is an energy facility, but not like what is normal in a KC/​NYC busy neighborhood. The S&W views are of downtown KC, E is NECK and N (Which is why I guess the lady saw) is views to NKC, the plant, the river, trains & bridges and the airport. I’ve lived in quite a few apts./houses in quite a few countries and CSL is on the top 5 apts: it’s clean, quiet, very conveniently located, great amenities, friendly staff, friendly neighbors, great price!
1Br apts. do have windows on only one side, they are big though and go wall to wall, so do not think they are a cave or anything, bigger apts. do have more windows. At first it did bother me a bit when I saw the apt. just like the lady mentioned, but really, I live in my living room and kitchen, I still get natural light to my br. and at night I don’t have to worry about a peeping-​tom, the bright street light that is outside the window or the neighbor’s car lights to wake me up (as it used to before at my previous place). I’ve actually had much better sleep since I moved here, and I know of a few other places who also have windows across just one wall of the apt, so it’s not uncommon.
Why 4 stars? I would love another key access on the north side of the building or by the garage entrance so if you are using a dolly for grocery shopping you won’t need to go all the way to the front to get in, and a repainting of the parking spots in the parking lot a little bit wider would be awesome… spots can get a bit tight sometimes. Oh, and a lower pet fee a month, the other places where I lived there was either no fee or $ 10/​mo, $ 25 has kept me from getting another pet, $ 50 a month would be too much for me. That’s it.

I really enjoy living at Cold Storage its really nice to be so close to the City Market. I never came to City Market before moving down here. I am glad I made the choice to live here. Teeway is the BEST!!!

I moved in 2 months ago, and i love it! I can walk to some really good restaurants and the City Market. MY apartment is the perfect size for me and the maintenance is very good. My puppy loves the cement floors and loves being home with me. It is way less expensive than other lofts in the area and I am very, very happy there.

I have lived here for about 7months and I love it. I haven’t had any problems with maintenance, etc. the lofts are super affordable and spacious. Very thankful for my washer and dryer in here too. And the pool is a blessing to have in summer. All the lofts at really nice and living in city market is great. Office people are really helpful too!

This review is completely based off of my experience with viewing the Cold Storage Lofts. I have never lived here, and know no one who has.
I found the pictures on Craigslist after a few months of pretty heavy apartment hunting. The views/​space looked great for the price so I set up a time to go and view the «loft». The location of the Cold Storage Lofts is amazing. It is right by the River Market and has great highway access. A nice big parking lot for tenants and also paid underground parking. The fitness center was awesome. This alone made it hard for me to not rent here. It was a legit work out room with equipment that looked really up to date. I was really impressed, and wish the rest of the place could have stayed consistent with the work out room. The pool was meh. It was cool that it was on top of the building, but you had to go through maize of elevators and spaces just to get to it. The building also seemed empty. For being such a large building with so many apartments I assumed I would see bodies moving around. Nope. No one. It was almost like I was going into a deserted plant and about to be murdered. Creepy.
The apartment itself had newer looking furnishings, full washer/​dryer, a microwave, and dishwasher. Nice sized kitchen, and a beautiful window in the living room/​kitchen area. The view from the window was horrible. It was right up against another building, and honestly quite depressing. I looked at a 2bedroom 1 bath, and a 2 bedroom 2 bath. The size of the apartments was really nice. I had no issues with the size. Where my issue comes in is the fact that the only windows you have are in the kitchen/​living room area. No bedroom windows, no bathroom windows. Nothing. I need sunshine. I imagine if I enjoyed sleeping in a basement this would have been ideal for me, but I need lots of natural light and these apartments do not cut it.
Overall I liked a lot about the Cold Storage Lofts, and if they had a window in at least one of the bedrooms I could have considered it, but I do not want to be in a 7^th floor basement.