Equinox 409 West Gorham Street, Madison, WI 53703

"Living at the Equinox is a great place to live as a UW Madison student. The management is great and responsive. They also are extremely helpful with anything you need. The maintenance is amazing. They fix anything wrong in a timely manner. We even got new floors and a dishwasher put in. I am so happy with this place I resigned for the following year! I would recommend the apartment to any fellow badgers!"

"The place isn't terrible, but many aspects of living here are inconvenient and honestly, quite annoying. There were at least monthly fire drills that required you to evacuate the building. Sometimes these events occurred twice a day. The alarm was extremely annoying and would persist for 30 minutes on end. While I appreciate the effort to protect occupants, bi-weekly to monthly 'reports of an emergency' are ridiculous and extremely inconvenient considering the price of rent. If a real fire were to ever occur, it would be a 'boy who cried wolf' situation. I don't see any other apartment complex having these issues in the downtown Madison area. Additionally, the water would be shut off for 8-12 hours at a time monthly. While the building itself wasn't terrible, such interruptions are grave, especially with an increase of online classes and exams which student often take from within their apartment complex/home."

"This place was atrocious, and I would never recommend that anyone live here. To start the lease, we had constant problems with the AC, which resulted in 80 degree room temperatures. This was never fixed even 8-10 months once the summer came around again, despite over 10+ maintenance requests. Aside from that, almost none of the washers and dryers were reliable. I essentially paid money into the machines just to watch them completely malfunction. Some other minor issues included molding in the bathrooms, broken appliances, and the water having to be “shut off” for hours every week. I’m sure the owner will respond to this with a “Oh I’m sorry” type of comment. However, nothing will convince me that Madison Property Management cared about their tenants. It’s a cheaply run place that is way overpriced."

"Equinox may seem like a luxury apartment building, but it is poor quality. We dealt with leakage and mold issues repeatedly over the span of a year. Instead of fixing the root cause of the issue, they put band-aid solutions causing water leakage/damage again and again. On occasion, there would be a homeless person in the lobby. One of the two elevators were broken during move-out, which made the process extremely long. The walls are extremely thin, so you can hear your neighbors and noise from the hallway. I know of another apartment that had water leakage for a month and it took maintenance weeks to fix this. MPM offered a laughable amount in monetary compensation. They broke the terms of the lease as the room was not in a livable condition with the mold, dampness, and smell. It is not worth ~$850 per room. They do not offer carts for moving in/out. The AC broke multiple times where the apartment was 80 degrees in the middle of summer. I would not recommend this building."

"Avoid MPM at all costs if you're renting in Madison. Lived at Equinox for three years with roommates, a "luxury" building that is probably approaching 10-15 years of age and it was starting to show. Our unit and many others experienced leaky windows and floors leading to moldy carpets and soggy walls that would go unfixed until someone's parents got on the phone with management. They do not take college students, the full grown adults living in their property, seriously whatsoever. Our unit reported a soggy carpet and visible mold problem and it went unfixed from October to March until a parent called and threatened legal action. Both our unit and our friend's was unlivable for periods at a time but they never offered to provide us with a new unit or pay for a hotel. Every solution they proposed or actually did was only temporary and the problems would resurface almost immediately after they were "fixed." See the photos for proof. They offered laughably minimal financial compensation for years of hassle and the at times dangerous living conditions. If it weren't for COVID, we likely would have sought professional help in seeking more compensation for damages. Students - we promise there are better places to rent downtown. Parents - don't let you kids live here unless you want to constantly call management because they wont take your student seriously."