River Flats at 820 Monroe

"We've lived here for almost 3 years and really enjoyed our time here. Beautiful rooftop, exposed brick with high ceilings and amazing location. For the most part it's pretty quiet outside, the walls and ceilings seem really good as noise from other apartments was typically not a problem. Maintenance was absolutely incredible--by far the best and most knowledgable and friendly maintenance staff either of us have ever experienced from an apartment before; we had a few occasional minor issues during our 3 years of living here, and issues were always addressed promptly and really professionally. We will honestly really miss living here, but we've outgrown our 1 bedroom apartment and were lucky enough to find a house in this difficult housing market :) . Lofts of GR was truly a perfect place for a first home for me and my husband after I moved back to Grand Rapids. The staff at Lofts of GR has always super flexible and friendly and we have really had the best experience here. I know we will miss the location and our cozy apartment on the river! Highly recommend if you work downtown--it's been the perfect location for me as a healthcare worker during the pandemic! only a 2 minute commute to Butterworth and 10 minutes to blodgett hospital. We will miss it here!"

"Just a quick review of 820 Monroe and the leasing process with management. Back in April I had found unit #221 available for move-in starting June 6th, I completed the application along with a $200 Holding Fee they required. I requested a move-in date of July 1st but in their email confirmation that morning they said could not do anything later than June 11th, which I agreed to. They also provided me with links to interior photos of the unit, those did not work at the time. I asked for a tour of the place for the following day and they agreed but said they could not give me a tour of the unit for rent (#221) because it was occupied, so they sent a link with interior pictures of the unit, which did not work. The tour was with Lauren, she showed me a similar unit on the 2nd floor, then she took me upstairs to a unit on the 4th floor (#414), beautiful unit by the corner that I had not seen listed at the time of my application, which was already rented out but she said she would double check with property management to see if the prospective tenants would consider a switch with unit #221. I emailed her later asking for an update on #414, along with a link to the pictures of unit #221 for a third time. Lauren emailed me saying the unit on the 4th floor was not an option with the tenants moving in next week, and whether I was reconsidering #221. She provided me with a link with pictures of the unit, 4 days after my original ask, which did work and showed dimmed looks of the unit. Considering all the circumstances I decided to go with a different option. I emailed back to inform her of my decision and wonder if there would be some return of the Holding Fee. Lauren responded saying that the Holding Fee was non-refundable as they had turned away many people that were interested in this apartment (note, this would have been within a period of 10 days-between my application and my withdrawal and an earliest move-in date of June 6th). I checked apartments.com later that morning to find out that the unit had already been put back on the market and by the next day it was already off from both apartments.com and the 820 Monroe website. I replied the next day asking if they had some language in their application agreement that would secure the fee to them in full (considering I had not been shown the actual unit for rent and it was over 6 weeks ahead of their scheduled move-in date). She replied saying that this was stated when I was applying online, before I submit payment and agreed to the terms and conditions. I went back to their website and could not find an attachment indicating the non-return of the Holding Fee of $200 as part of the application process. My disagreement with their approach comes from them holding onto a full $200 Holding Fee which did not affect another person from accessing and leasing the unit over one month in advance of the original move-in date, and who would have also been charged $200, and considering that shortly after my withdrawal the unit returned to the market and was already taken down a day after. I just wanted to call out this business practice."