One Canal Apartment Homes

"I’ve lived at One Canal Apartment Homes for six years now. We’ve had our fair share of annoying maintenance and management issues, but continued to renew because we love the location. In the last year the sprinkler system has burst twice and caused us to vacate our home both times. Once with a newborn and then once with a young toddler, both challenging. The second time there was significant water damage to our apartment itself as the pipe was directly outside our door. Management reacted quickly and stated that they fixed the issue and removed all water damage. (Even though our ceiling was open for 6 weeks while they worked.) Two months later, my husband, 18 month, and I are all experiencing significant respiratory problems. Over night visitors began sneezing and sniffling within days of arriving. We reported this to management and vacated the apartment again while we awaited testing and remediation. The report came back with several concerning findings including a six square foot area of water damaged, moist dry wall right next to where I sleep, high humidity both in our apartment and in the apartment hallway where the leak started, and low levels of mold (when compared to the common areas of the building that also experienced water damage before…). Management stated that because the mold levels were low, they would not be taking any further action to remedy the situation. When it became clear our apartment was no longer safe for us and our baby, we asked to vacate our lease with 60 days notice. Management claimed to take our claim seriously, but again reiterated they would not be removing the water damaged parts of the apartment that are still retaining moisture per their independent test and that we would not be able to vacate our lease and be forced to live in an apartment we don’t feel safe in. I could go on and on with a laundry list of other reasons you shouldn’t live here, but the most important and untenable one is that because they are seeing lower rental rates, they are forcing us to stay in an apartment with water damage that is ripe for mold growth."

"One Canal is an exceptional community in an excellent location. I've been living in my apartment since 2018 and have had such a wonderful experience. I can not thank the management and maintenance team enough for running such a well outfitted operation. Their extensive efforts to make living here an absolute joy are noticed each day. You are appreciated!"

"I cant recommend One Canal enough. It has been the best apartment I have ever lived in. The leasing lead, Brian, was so helpful when we moved here across the country and has been such a pleasure ever since! He is the best. Any maintenance request we submitted was handled within the hour (nothing serious- just lightbulb changes, smoke detector batteries, etc.). The entire building (common spaces, the gym, entrance) is kept incredibly clean. The location is excellent- you are a short distance from Star Market, CVS, the North End and are right on the green and orange lines. You couldn't ask for a better location in Boston. The building has a ton of fun community events as well! The concierge team is awesome too! My favorite part of the building was the rooftop! The most amazing views of Boston, a ton of grilling stations and an amazing pool set up! Overall, I have no complaints about my time here and I would highly recommend to anyone looking to move here."

"Our family has lived in OneCanal for 2 years and settled on living here after two extensive apartment searches. Our criteria were: clean, 2-bed, on-site parking and in-unit washer/dryer. Both times we settled on OneCanal. That in and of itself should tell you that, at this price point, it’s one of the better options in downtown Boston. There are some drawbacks, and I’ll detail those below. Apartments OneCanal isn’t an aesthetic wonder, but it’s well-kept and they put a lot of work into keeping it clean. Units are clean and in good repair. If something breaks, they’ll handle it right away. Location Right next to TD Garden, Haymarket and about 20-minute walk to Boston Common and surrounding areas. Feels like it’s central to the city but also tucked away. Having the Greenway nearby for kids to play in the summer is great. Noise On the north side, you’ll hear noise from the street, and it can be obnoxious. Often, it’s people shouting after a Celtics or Bruins game late at night. Windows muffle it but if someone yells and you’re on the 10th floor you’ll still hear it. For a while, construction noise from the demolition across the street was a really big issue (e.g., jackhammering in the middle of the night). The demolition has slowed down and isn’t as loud in the winter, but as long as it keeps going it’ll be annoying, especially in the summer. The demolition also creates a lot of concrete dust, and it ends up in your filter (and in your air). Amenities Nice in general but starting to age. Can reserve common areas. Pool and the views of the city are great in the summer, if they heat it (one summer it took ~2 months to fix the heating). The gyms have decent enough equipment, albeit just basic stuff. Alarms ~12-15x per year (and honestly, this could be an underestimate because sometimes it happens 3-4x in one month) the building alarm sounds. When it goes off, the ENTIRE complex hears a voice repeating that there’s an issue in the building for ~2-3 minutes. It’s overwhelmingly loud, it’s BLARING in your room, and you have zero control over it. You wake up. Your kids wake up crying. It feels very invasive. And it goes off for the entire building no matter where the event occurs (e.g., even if you’re on the 12th floor and the issue is on the 4th). This often happens in the middle of the night or late at night. As I write this, it just happened at 6:30am on Sunday. The fire department must shut it off. It switches to a fire alarm that continues for anywhere from ~15-45 minutes until they arrive. 95% of the time, it’s not a real issue. Usually, a resident burned a meal and opened the door to the hallway. 2x it's been a burst pipe, 1x it was a real fire in an apartment. But it’s often a false alarm. Seems like there’s a better way, but I don’t know the regulations. Concierge/ Management Concierges are nice and helpful; maintenance folks are responsive and effective. The management is nice but doesn’t always respond to emails or calls. They’re more responsive before you sign the lease, and then they stop prioritizing you. Parking There are limited spots. Usually, you’re on a long waitlist before one opens up. But it’s one of the best features of the building to have convenient, elevator accessible parking right under the units. Note that if there’s a Celtics or Bruins game, the street where you drive in gets so congested it’s hard to come and go. Otherwise, no issues. Elevators The 3 elevators at the front entrance/ south side work fine. If you live on the north side of the building, there’s a single freight elevator. It gets shut down almost every other day or so for a resident move-in or out. It’s just not predictable when it’ll work or not. Have I carried sleeping kids in strollers up the stairs as a result? Many times. Demographics Mostly professionals in their 20s/30s (some paired as roommates) and older folks. Some younger families but there are only so many 2 or 3 bed units. Would estimate that 50%+ of the building has a dog."

"We recently moved into One Canal and so far everything has been perfect! All the common spaces are beautifully kept and clean, and the maintenance staff has been the best we've ever experienced in all the apartments we've lived in...they arrive promptly to fix any issue, or you can set a scheduled time for them to come that is most convenient for you. Not to mention that One Canal is in an awesome location and so close to so many cool spots! Would highly recommend One Canal apartments to anyone moving to Boston"