The Parker Apartments

There are a lot of new apartments in Portland, so I love the fact that The Parker is new but yet looks like it’s part of an established neighborhood. It was also refreshing to see beautiful, classic décor in the common room vs. the industrial chic/​live-​edge wood look you see in every other new place in town. I loved the roomy, U-​shape kitchens instead of the galley-​style that seems to be pervasive today. The staff seems very eager to welcome new residents and they are also pet-​friendly which is a plus.
Definitely in my top 3 list for 1 bedroom options!

This place would have been worth the cost if the people running it weren’t terrible at pretty much everything they tried to do. For example are washer stopped working so they gave us keys to an empty unit next door until they could get it repaired. 3 months later we go to do laundry so we head next door unlock it walk in and notice someone moved in during the day. They yelled out so we ran back to our room mortified. I guess management forgot our washer was broken and also forgot they gave us keys to unit they were trying to sell. Another example was when we originally moved in our heat just didn’t work, took about 2 months to fix. When we are paying over 2300 a month this kind of stuff shouldn’t happen. Also they have super hi turnover of employs new people every month is never a good sign. I’m just glad we got out.

The construction noise all around us is constant so you can’t sleep even on weekends. Your car is blocked from getting out of garage due to construction vans. Maintenance repairs take weeks. The only up side is free coffee.

(Updated)
Here’s my experience moving in and living at the Parker 1 month.
PROS:
— The residents I’ve come across so far have been friendly and respectful.
— The communal area (esp outside) is good for both relaxing alone or socializing/​grilling out with friends.
— Supposedly there are a lot of resident events in the building; I haven’t seen one happen yet, but it was a selling point for me when I was looking around at apartments. (New to Portland)
— Rent prices are reasonable for the size and area.
— I like the way my unit is laid out, particularly with the large kitchen counter and walk-​in closet.
— The leasing office gets back to you quickly when you reach out over email. Skye has been particularly helpful in accommodating my needs, and I want to give her a shout-​out.
— Automated payment: it is not unusual for buildings to have antiquated payment systems. I like the fact that the Parker has an auto-​pay set up so you don’t have to worry about manually paying rent and utilities.
CONS:
— Construction all around the building affects traffic and parking around the unit (a lot of the construction crew take parking spots around us). Secondarily, it’s unlikely your view will be much more than a bunch of construction workers and a bunch of cement. This is likely going to go through 2016. Construction noise has been okay, but disruptive at times.
— I hear my neighbors upstairs when they walk around with shoes on or make a lot of noise. I don’t see this changing because it’s a construction issue.
— The leasing office closes at 6pm, which can make it difficult doing things like renting the dolly for transporting large items or picking up packages. I don’t always make it back home from work on time to get things done through them. That being said, the leasing staff tries to help as much as they can. An example is they will work with you to get you the dolly after-​hours if you give them a heads up.
— My stove stopped working and I had a weird smell coming from my kitchen. The leasing office put in a work order, but it took several weeks before the maintenance staff came by to address it. The sooner you can put in your working orders the better because it can take a while to get addressed.

I could write a novel about my experience with The Parker, but I’ll try to edit it down to my favorite parts.
A little backstory. We were living in San Francisco. Ridiculous rent prices. Small studio. And this with salaries that were pretty high by most standards. Key takeaway: San Francisco had become insanely expensive and in our opinions it was no longer worth living there anymore, as much we loved the city. So we decided to begin exploring other cities, looking at job opportunities, and in the end the pieces fell into place that led us to Portland.
Our apartment hunting was thorough. We looked at several properties on the West and East side. But The Parker was the one we kept coming back to, and here are the reasons why.
1. THE QUIET. We lived in a super noisy area in downtown San Francisco. Super close and convenient to a lot of things, but the racket every night on the streets, even 10 floors up became exhausting after awhile. The Parker is situated in a super quiet neighborhood in the Pearl. Yeah, there’s construction around because of new buildings going up but you can hardly hear a thing with the thick windows they’ve installed in the units.
2. It’s in The Pearl. Who doesn’t want to live in this area, at least when you first move to Portland. Super convenience and close to so much of what Portland has to offer, and it’s a gorgeous spot in the city. Great little parks around, you can walk to almost everything, and the residents both in and outside of the building are nice and friendly.
3. The building and units themselves are terrific. Stainless steel kitchen. Gorgeous views (whether you’re facing the bridge or the courtyard). Wonderful communal lobby and suite that you can chill in or rent out for special events. Communal gym when you’re working from home. Eco-​responsible water use for both the bathroom and kitchen. Each unit has a washer and dryer (that alone would cost you a fortune in SF). Convenient parking garage. Storage units on each floor for the residents. And the units feel incredibly spacious even if their sizing on paper sounds small. Our 1 bedroom is terrific. And my friend’s 2 bedroom is amazing.
4. The people. The property group and resident managers have been nothing but splendid thus far. Always friendly. Always willing to answer questions. Always willing to provide as much information as possible. This was the way it was before we moved in, but they’ve continued their outstanding service even after moving in here. And they have these little get togethers here and there that try and bring the residents together so they can get to know one another. A nice touch.
5. Very pet friendly. That was incredibly important to us. We’re big animal lovers and supporters, and almost every unit has a pet. You think they’d get noisy after a bit, but it really hasn’t gone that way. You hear the occasional barking or what not, but the units are relatively well built in terms of making sure they cut out neighbor noise as much as possible.
6. VERY affordable, at least by our standards. Units like these go for a small monthly fortune in SF.
Are there drawbacks? Sure. No building is perfect. The top thing is probably that there’s construction going on all around the unit, as an additional three buildings are going up as they continue to develop this area. However, they only construct (for the most part) during proper working business hours and you hardly hear a thing. It’s a welcome change to the insane amount of noise we’d hear in our building in San Francisco. Gorgeous older building, but the windows were rail thin which wasn’t ideal as you might imagine.
Anyhow, overall, it’s been great here thus far. We moved in October of 2014, and we’re going on almost 6 months now. And I wouldn’t change a thing.
Move in. Seriously. Best move you’ll make.