Veloce Apartments

The only pro about this apartment complex is the location.
Apartment — Room sizes are odd. In our apt, the master bedroom was tiny, while the guest room was huge. The fixtures and power outlets are in very odd places. My favorite was a towel handing right over an electrical outlet. Also bathroom drawers that wouldn’t open with the bathroom door open.
Storage– There is very little storage in the kitchen considering how much space was available. The cabinets are ridiculously deep, which take up space that doesn’t get used often.
Cleanliness– I know for a fact someone comes in to vacuum the hall once a week, but the stairs are always musty and have a funky smell. There was dog poop in the stairs for months
Amenities — While the amenities look fine, there were often lights out, gym equipment that wasn’t working. They also charge you for using the movie room, so I never bothered with it.
Communication — While the staff is nice, I often found them forgetful or aloof. The worst was when I handed in my keys a few days early, no one told me I was effectively changing my move out date and would incur charges for «insufficient notice». (I thought theyd keep the keys in storage for the two days I wasn’t there) If I didn’t get something into a service request it would never get done. If I sent an email, 90% of the time I had to go down to the office in person to get a reply.

Pros
1) Location: Transit center is right next to this. It is located in the heart of Redmond.
2) Decent insulation for walls and floors: I chose an apartment on the top floor and in the middle of the community and had no issues with noise from neighboring apartments.
3) Professional management: This was the second apartment I lived that was managed by Equity. They are professional and respond to requests promptly.
4) Emails: A lot of communication with management can be done through email, but sometimes it does take few days to get a response.
Cons
1) I was charged 85 $ for some paint job on move out and 65 $ for carpet cleaning. 65 $ for carpet cleaning is normal considering my experience with other communities in the last 4 years, but I felt 85 $ was too much for paint touchups (A liter of paint costs like 5 – 10 $). It is not a big deal considering it is less than 0.5% of the rent you pay in a year.
There are 2 – 3 people in the office who manage 300 – 350 apartments in the community. Karrin and Matt were really helpful and made my move-​in/​out hassle free.

I was a resident of Veloce Apartments from 5÷28÷2014 to 5÷28÷2015.
I am rating the complex 4 out of 5 stars for the following reasons:
1. Location — Veloce is in one of the best spots in Redmond. You have multiple grocery stores, gyms, a library, spots to eat (best coffee shop in Redmond is in walking distance — Cascade Grind), the transit center, fire department, and 2 movie theaters all in walking distance.
2. Features — Veloce has garaged parking (reserved spots available), FIOS or cable, reservable lounges and poker room, a gym, yoga room, and loading dock. While I was there, the company managing the complex (Equity) is continuing to make upgrades to the complex, including separate water valves, newer garage locks, and other minor changes.
3. Staff — I had no issues during my stay at Veloce. The staff (Karrin and Laura were extremely friendly, helpful, and understanding). I only had to use the maintenance staff once, and they responded in a timely manner and solved the issue.
4. Move-​in and Move-​out — Veloce does charge for mandatory carpet cleaning but they tell you this upfront (check your lease people). I was not charged anything on move out and received my full deposit back.
I removed a star for the following reason:
1. Odd layout in some of the apartments. Some, but not all of the apartments have a slightly odd layout where things like towel racks are placed over light switches making the rack not optimal to use. My apartment also had along the wall heating that made it not possible to put furniture along one side of the wall.

Welp it was great until the very end. The move out was a nightmare. And when I say nightmare, I mean it. Basically told us we left our home filthy, when in actually it was spotless. And not like we had ten Animals and don’t know clean spotless. I mean wiped down base boards and bleached floors spotless. Maintenance missed our pre move out inspection and left us sitting for hours. We contacted the office and «Maintenance called out sick» yet there was TWO techs sitting in the office when I retrieved my mail. We couldnt reschedule on our time because well… It didn’t work for them. So they came. Didn’t leave an estimate and it ended with an 1k bill that luckly 350 of our deposit covered. But that 650 that we owed couldn’t be broken up into payments. It has to be paid within what… 45 days or straight to collections. Thank god they have Karrin. She’s a saint. But the company enforcing the rules the maintenance team was a joke. Never again.

I’ve lived here since September 2014 and can honestly say that I’ve loved my time here at Veloce. Unfortunately, I’m leaving early due to a change in employment, but wholeheartedly recommend this complex. In fact, I’m sad to leave!
Pros: Great insulation against noise and cold. I rarely hear anyone, except when people pass by my door. The energy-​efficient windows minimize heat loss, and I’ve turned my heat up only a handful of times this past winter. Appliances are all in fine working condition. My studio floorplan has a large bathroom, walk-​in pantry/​laundry room, and enclosed sleeping area. Great location and proximity to downtown Redmond attractions. The staff is also always friendly and prompt to respond to maintenance requests.
Cons: Sometimes my key fob fails to open the garage door late at night. The complex also has a somewhat confusing layout, when trying to get from building to building.

One star is too many. Absolutely terrible staff. Made us run into a million dead ends with every simple step of living in an apartment. I have never seen such inconsistency in knowledge by employees. We were told one thing, only to have it completely undermined by someone else, time and time again. We only stayed two weeks in this joke of an establishment, but the very evident lack of professionalism continues (no response to emails, unexpected billing, etc.). We moved to another Equity apartment and it has been incredible. Stay away from this one.

Stay away, please.
Not a good apartment complex to live at.
Place is weirdly constructed… you basically have to go downstairs to get anyone in or teach them how exactly to get around the labyrinth to get to the 2 – 3 access phones to call you… just easier to go downstairs yourself.
Rent hikes — bat shit crazy… I just didnt want to deal with the hassle of moving… but found out… same apartment on craigslist for 1275 and lease renewal for 1650 per month.
Any good review is around 2009 – 2010 and is because of the old management — the new one… not good. Thats the reason none of the staff stick around either. Every few weeks you go down to the management office — everyone is brand new.
I had a really bad experience on move out because terms promised to me at move-​in are no longer respected. Why? Because the management changed hands 2 – 3 times in the past 2.5 years and they don’t care what the previous management told you… they renew your contract and silently change terms without informing you… but oh… they sent over a 50 page document for you to read through and sign. Shame on you for not reading through the full 50 pages to realize that your security deposit doesn’t mean shit now and you pay for all kinds of things at move out.
I had to terminate my lease earlier (1.5 mths) only because I was leaving the country… a fact I had told them multiple times and I gave a proper notice as required… now stuck with a bill of around $ 3000. Super fun!
Did I mention having no water for a full day is almost a regular thing in building C as well… they have very shoddy plumbing!
Also, the kicker (saved it for last!)… did you hear about the bum doing some sort of drugs in the women’s washroom near the gym, using the common room as his dining area and the stairwell with his makeshift bed in building C? Did you know he still has access because he knows a buzzer code? Need I say more?

The new management is the reason we moved out! They are in my opinion extremely rude and unprofessional. Also, watch out for them stealing money from you, check your conservation bill they raised the service fee on mine even though there was a set rate in my lease. Also, the conservice bill was always changing drastically.

The apartment looks nice from outside but god save me from this eternal noise and construction here! It’s like living in a middle class apartment complex in Columbia where the eternal, noisy, renewing of things to jump into the next class never ends and they will still be in middle class. You won’t feel at home here ever. Well. May be if they paid attention inside apartments rather than outside, the residents would be happier? But they are always priming the outside uselessly like a trap for new residents.
Oh yes the heat! Inside apartment is so well insulated (as they claim) that it’s burning hot in summers while AC’s run outside the door in hallway. I rather open the apartment door and live inside with some runny nose neighbors kid walking in while we are making love– like again. In third world country Columbia! Oh no I can’t open the window for air. Did you just forget about the loud, eternal construction noise outside?
I need my homely quite time sometime.
Oh yes, did I also tell you about entering this fort? My friends are scared to come all the way to the apartment door now as they are scared of opening 8 doors with access before coming. So, I’ve to take my poor — looking– for– peace– ass– downstairs every time we are expecting someone as if I’m their personal chaperone.
Space inside is okay but all the other things makes it not worth it.
Update– so when the lease was up finally, they decide to spike up the price so much that month to month was impossible. We still did one month extra. Then again when we finally moved out (yay) they screwed us up by keeping our security for made up– absolutely non-​understandable — reason– which we still don’t understand (No one does). Apartment is clean, no damages, all clear. Still they somehow rounded it up as we left a day late??? People moved in the very next day. I mean VERY FUCKING NEXT DAY in a well clean apartment. No loss to the apartment for money at all but still they chose to rip us. Very utterly unethical. Very bad customer satisfaction effort made. None actually. Somehow the manager held a grudge for us putting our foot down and rolled magical false numbers to make it all even and zero in the end. No logic worked. Only magical balancing of numbers to take whatever you gave them. Every penny taken unethically (just like you’re ripped off in a third world country while Travelling) The Veloce monster only knows how to take. Magical weed smoked math to make a zero! We put our foot down but that caused us very much — permanent damage to our rental history, as the delusional manager gave our case to the collections falsely! (Despite us paying every damn rent on time and more)
This Veloce was the WORST experience ever. Ever and ever. I guess, I have to blatantly ask people to — DO NOT STAY THERE.

We lived here for two years and it was not a pleasant experience. The location is okay but noisy, and the rent increases did not make living in this rundown place worth it. This place looks nice on the outside, but it is shoddily put together. NOT WORTH IT!
Apartment: The paint scratched off the walls easily, just by bumping my hand against it. The carpet frayed at the edges. The evaluators and key fobs were constantly not working, so that we could not even enter our building. Service requests were not filled. There were constant plumbing problems and the water was shut off many many times, sometimes with no warning. For those of us who work from home, it was a real issue.
Staff: the office staff was incredibly rude to me and my husband on many occasions, and even lost our deposit check and information, got our parking information wrong, and other things which ended up costing us money because they would not fix the issues. I heard office staff belittling and being very rude to another tenant on several occasions when I was checking my mail.
Amenities: The ping pong table had one broken paddle and no balls, and the electronics didn’t work. You had to pay to use the amenities, which were not nice enough to pay for. There was always trash and dog poop outside and in the interior stairs (we used the stairs since the elevators were very slow and often broken). The poop in the stairs was there for over a year, and the trash was not taken out regularly so the garage, stairs, and outside paths usually smelled horrible.

I have only given 2 stars because the building is new and the apartments are in a good condition, I have had terrible experience with the management though, from the first day my washing machine had issues and have called them around 4 times !!! every time they come in and say nothing is wrong, the washing machines spins so hard that i can’t stay at home while it’s washing and caused damage to the floor and the the walls and threw off the dryer once, the manager said to me eventually that those washing machines are pretty new and we will not be replacing them !!! and at the end i gave up and went out while i am cleaning my cloths !!! it’s only a good place if you don’t have problems that have to deal with the management.
other than that yes you get your mail and live at a relatively new apartment but with a big rent as well !!!

The walls are pretty thin; The neighbors are like wildebeests rompin around like Courtney Love opening a bag of Cheetos after a coke binge. Mostly on the weekends I can hear the neighbors fight (well, the guy yells and the woman cries, I think about interrupting by knocking and asking, «On a scale of one to Chris Brown, how pissed are you at your wife?) and other times they’ll have the loudest sex that I’m sure they’re trying to reenact some Fifty Shades of Grey crap. Mother of the Year that «lost her kid» (Sky Metawala) lived here and the FBI kept coming around asking questions. (Looks really good, especially when they stop your car on the way out of the garage and look in your car to make sure you aren’t hiding the kid) It’s not quite Section 8 housing in Detroit but the new management is definitely not ok. READ YOUR CONTRACT. They sneak in some fees like they’re trying to sell subprime home loans. Mark-​Taylor currently has a sign that reads: Love Lives Here on the outside of the leasing office. The only kind of lovin’ you’re going to get from this trainwreck of an apartment complex is the kind you don’t want: they’re raping everybody SSSOOOOO… «Hide yo kids, Hide yo wife Hide yo kids, Hide yo wife Hide yo kids, Hide yo wife and hide yo husband ‘cuz they’re rapin errbody out here»

Veloce is a great community! The staff is friendly and the apartments are great. I live here from May 2009 to February 2010 and had to move out due to some unforeseen circumstances. The management worked with me and didn’t charge me an arm and a leg for terminating my lease early. I would highly recommend Veloce for anyone looking for a great place to live in Redmond. The only reason it doesn’t get 5 stars is their lack of a hot tub. It’s the only amenity I would actually use so not having one made me a little sad. Other than that, awesome apartments!