Milano Lofts Apartments

The rooms are just beautiful inside. They’re very spacious with a good view of the street. iI’s all updated and very modern inside including the bathrooms. The only thing is all night and day long you can hear how loud the streets are with the honking. I don’t know if they’re doing construction but it was really worn down from the garage to the elevator to the room. The parking garage is so packed and it’s really difficult to get to your parking spot with how steep the hills are. Not much of a lobby but once you are in the hallway of your floor it looks like a hotel.

I agree with the prior reviews. Renewal increases are ridiculous. I also had over $ 500/​month increase in the last two years for someone who has been very responsible. We had no hot water for months, the garage is leaking water, an elevator has not worked for over a month (it has taken me 15 minutes to wait for the elevator one time) and people are always moving. I have no issues with the security, but just the price and all the upkeep issues are just too much to handle. I am typically patient but even I have my limits!

I’ve been here for four full months and feel like I have a good enough idea of what’s going on to leave an informed and balanced review.
First of all, you really cannot beat the location. It’s not as scary as deeper into historical core, and you’re honestly in the middle of everything. Bottega Louie, Standard, Whole Foods, Sugarfish, and some 15 – 20 other destinations are within a 2 – 3 block radius. Industriel is downstairs and Water Grill is across the street. I’m happy as a clam with the location.
I’ve had minimal issues with management. Maintenance staff is A+, and the leasing staff in general has been great with handling my deliveries and other random issues. The building itself is beautiful and the arched windows are so darn pretty. And I have never heard noise from the neighbors through the walls — the doors are definitely not sound-​proof, but the walls and ceilings are totally solid. The security guard on the week nights is one of the most polite people I talk to on any given day, gets to know the residents, and goes above and beyond his duties. I don’t cook but the kitchen seems to have everything you’d need.
The flip side. My biggest complaint is the morning noise. I know it’s a historical building but honestly, double paned windows are a necessity to combat the 6:30am trash trucks that sound like WWIII fought by Transformers and King Kong and will wake you up as many as 3x a week, especially if you’re on one of the lower floors. Other nearby historical buildings have double paned windows.
The weekend security guard is the opposite of helpful and cannot be more obvious that he hates his job (when he is actually there). Speaking of which, there is no daytime security, which is surprising in DTLA in a building where the average studio price is over two grand. Finally, there are almost no amenities. Realistically, very few people would ever use a pool or gym regularly (I literally didn’t miss either even once), but if you are among those people, you would probably have a problem with it. The washer/​dryer also sucks. It washes small loads ok but I probably kill a polar bear every time I try to dry anything because it takes like 3 hours to dry like, a tank top. I end up sending my laundry out.

So the issue we had with the water temperature has been resolved! We never really brought it up to management until it stopped working and had only hot water coming in. Once we brought it to their attention, they started working on it immediately. It was a much bigger issue than we had expected so it took a couple of days to fix it. But they made sure to keep us updated on each progress.
Now everything is perfect! Also, we’ve had several other maintenance requests that were always resolved right away –even on a Sunday!
The maintenance/​cleaning staff are always friendly and professional. I used to work as a property manager for multiple buildings and I’m very impressed with Milano’s excellent management!
Only complaint is renewal increases but c’mon now we’re in a real estate boom especially in DTLA! What do you expect? I’d rather pay a premium for a nice clean building with excellent management than save a couple of hundred dollars for a crappy SB loft.

Renewals increases are ridiculous. It’s hard to want to call this place your home when they are constantly hitting you with huge renewal increases.
Over $ 500/​month in the last two years to a tenant that has been there for over 5 years?! With friends like the Milano Lofts leasing office, who needs enemies?
The building is solid otherwise, but there are plenty of other buildings that have the same qualities and often more amenities than the Milano lofts… and that is where we will be headed. Congrats on losing quality tenants!

I’ve lived at Milano Lofts for the past two years and have very few complaints. I’ll be moving out because I anticipate my next renewal offer will be just past my price point. With an increasing number of other options downtown (many with more amenities), I’m okay with it. I haven’t had any of the horror stories other reviewers have detailed, and my experience living here — even with a few small cons — has been great.
The staff in the main office and maintenance has been nothing but friendly and helpful, though the front office is closed for two days out of the week. My few maintenance requests were resolved within a day or two. Compared to other places I’ve been downtown, security is a little lax: the guards are only available at night and they’re often not at the front desk. While a fob is required to get in the lobby, they aren’t needed to use the elevators.
The units are nice and feature modern amenities and appliances. I have a great corner unit with natural morning light and I love it, but I deal with a lot more noise. The windows do nothing to stop sound, so if you have an exterior-​facing unit, you might want to invest in a white noise app/​machine and earplugs. Even then, I still wake up from the loud banging from trash trucks at 7 am. I can’t speak for the interior facing units, but I would expect they would be a quieter option. Sure, I consider noise part of living downtown, but there are other older buildings in downtown that were renovated to cut down outside noise significantly.
I can vouch for another reviewer’s claim that the water temperature in the shower does change from time to time. A minor inconvenience that doesn’t happen too often.
The washer/​dryer situation improved in my second year when I was upgraded (or at least it’s worked out that way) to a separate washer and dryer. This set-​up works much more efficiently than the previous Euro-​style washer/​dryer combo I started with.
As for the amenities, the roof is very simple but great, mostly because of the night-​time views. It’s also relatively small, with just some chairs, tables, lounges and one grill, but sharing the space hasn’t been a problem as the roof is pretty quiet most of the time.
You just can’t beat Milano Lofts location, and I think that’s really what wins me over. It’s just a short walk from everything you need: a Metro station, Ralph’s, Figat7th, and is central to all the bars and restaurants in South Park, Financial District and Historic Core; and soon a Whole Foods just down the street.

We are moving out! This place has gone down and it has many problems. There is no maintenance –on duty. The mgmt sucks… They lease to crackheads and we have to put up with loud parties, fires, and no response from management. Leasing office signs for packages and then claim they are not responsible. Very unethical team. We run a business from home and its very frustrating. They don’t have a resident manager and no one to handle these type of issues :(

Moved in a a few months ago. So far everything with with Equity has been awesome! They are on top of the maintenance, the building is always clean, and everyone who lives here is friendly.
Washer/​Dryer in all units. You can only do small loads, but there’s washer and dryers available on the top floor. There’s parking in the building, if available. Air conditioner also works great! It’s also a safe/​clean location, near lots of bars and restaurants, and the metro.

Lived here for a year and loved it. The apartments are gorgeous, easy to keep clean. The walls are thick — you only sometimes hear noises from the hall through the door, never from neighbors. Huge walk in closets. Granite counters, beautiful cabinets and showers, central AC, pets allowed. The best quality & space for the price downtown.
The only downsides are that parking is really expensive, $ 250, or you can park two blocks away for 125. Also the street outside always smells like piss from all the dogs and homeless people. The washer/​dryer in the apartment basically doesn’t work but there are machines on the top floor.
There is a doorman at night. The apartment is right in the center of the nice part of downtown with bars, clubs, restaurants, gyms, Ralph’s within walking distance. Always felt safe walking around the apartment at night alone.
Old management was amazing, there is new management so I cant vouch for them.

Pro’s
–Great Location
–Modern, quality finishes
–Nice tile floors
–No extra charge for pets
–Value — price/​sqft/​location
–Good management
–Soundproofed from other units.
Cons
–Old windows — very noisy if you’re too low and face the street
–The refrigerator door opens the wrong way and you can’t change it
–The washer/​dryer combo is worthless (there are washers & dryers on the top floor though)
–No rooftop pool
–No balconies
–Expensive under-​building parking
Overall, for the price we pay I don’t mind giving up some small conveniences. For a well appointed, clean, safe apartment I feel like we’re getting a steal!