St. James Place Apartments 301 West Franklin Street, Baltimore, MD 21201

"Love living here, feel safe and location is great. Ellen the building manager is awesome. Nothing but great things to say about living here."

"I lived at this apartment block for a year and had a wonderful experience. At the time I was a student and was looking for a budget friendly yet clean and newly renovated apartment which I found. My one bed one bath was very spacious with high ceilings and beautifully renovated with stainless steel appliances and granite counter tops. Maintenance were very prompt and friendly. Free parking was a great bonus. Ellen was so kind to us (thank you Ellen!) and even waived our cleaning fee and terminated our lease early. The area is under development and it can be a little noisy being on the main road but it’s very accessible and worth it for the rent you pay. Please IGNORE the older negative reviews. They were written when this building was under a different management. So far this management is doing a great job and has made many improvements. I would highly recommend it."

"BEWARE! If you like your car and apartment broken into, management/ownership that doesn’t care about residents, St James Place is for you. I lived in SJP for 3 years until June ‘18. Wendy, the former owner, did an excellent job. She went above and beyond for residents. She got my towing fee refunded when someone broke into my car and stole my parking pass and property. She rescued my gerbils when they escaped while I was away. PROS Size and value of apartment. My apartment was 808 sq ft. Rent was $1100 (2 parking spots free) and rose to $1119 and then $1149 in my 3rd year. Appliances are modern and work well. CONS Area is not safe at night. The homeless loiter in the parking lot. One defecated on a picnic table in courtyard that was removed. I have seen backpacks with needles and garbage around building. Car windows get smashed and robbed/vandalized. See pics. Most recent incident on 6/9/18. Vandals break into cars because there is no gate or security. Gate may be installed, but it will not be fully enclosed which makes it useless. Security cameras are old and not up to date. From the security footage I saw thieves go car to car trying to break in but could only see grainy outlines of their bodies. Two people had their apartments broken into and looted on floors 2 and 3. The camera images did nothing to find the perpetrators. Noise from the area. You have a loud bar w/ outdoor lounge next door, random screaming throughout the night, horns from cars and light rail which shake the building. In January ‘18, SJP was sold and management changed. The new management (WPM) is incompetent and absent a lot of the time. Lorraine, the WPM property manager who was recently replaced, sent a letter to residents to meet and sign a new lease. In my May ‘18 meeting I tried to get info about the time frame for renovations of appliances, counters, washer/dryer, cameras, gate, and the building attachment. Lorraine couldn’t give me any answers. During the rest of the meeting Lorraine said my only option was to sign a new lease starting June 1 at $1206 (5% higher) for the remaining 1 month of my current lease or for 9 months+. I asked why I would sign a new lease for 1 month when my current lease ends June 30 and is only $1149. Her response, “You will be evicted if you don’t sign a new lease w/ WPM. WPM is a new company so you need a new lease.” I did some research and found out that what she said was false and my current lease must be honored. WPM lied to me and tried to threaten and bully me into signing a new lease that I did not have to sign. Afternoon of May 16, we were notified to move our cars from a row of parking spaces by 9 AM the next morning for wall repairs. If we didn’t, our car would be towed. Management gave us less than 24 hour notice, blocked half the good parking spots by the entrance for over a week and no repairs were done to the wall. The owner installed a mini washer/dryer unit in laundry room for residents to test. Lots of residents tested it, and hated it. It handles a 1/2 size load and takes 2.5-3 hr to wash and dry. The owner did not solicit feedback from residents and is installing the combo units. Why put a test machine out if they are going to be installed regardless of residents’ opinions? Move out was terrible. I was denied the option of prorating rent for a few days into July to make it easier for me to move into my new apartment. On move out day, they let me reserve the elevator for only 1 hour. How am I supposed to move out an entire apartment in 1 hour? It seems like WPM does their best to make things as difficult as possible for residents once they lock them into a contract. This has been the worst experience I have dealt with in respect to apartment living in Baltimore. The new owner and management are terrible and don’t care enough about current residents-only about trying to find new residents to fill empty units. This area is loud and dangerous and your car or apartment has a good chance of getting smashed/broken into."

"Pretty nice"