The James Apartments

"Maintenance came to my apart (without my permission). I was not notified of this. They left dirty footprints, the light and fan on and a Celsius can in my bathroom as well. Not safe or considerate."

"My experience has been great, no problem internally. Just remember you're in downtown Norfolk and people can get loud on the streets going to there next destination on the weekends. Otherwise secured place to live with a variety of places in walking distance. Especially good for military individuals."

"Took a nosedive since Nusbaum took over. Cue generic corporate response where nothing actually gets fixed."

"I lived here for a year and did not enjoy my time here much but I’m going to try to be unbiased in my review because I know everyone has different priorities. Pros: 1. Nice proximity to restaurants, parks, Ghent, etc. 2. Finishes/appliances are high end. 3. Good water pressure in the shower. 4. They use a service to compile all utility charges into one bill and you can slap it on your rent check. It costs $5/mo. but it was nice not having to transfer gas, water/sewer, electricity, etc. into my name when I moved. 5. There is minimal noise from neighboring apartments i.e. stomping and talking doesn’t carry. The only neighbor issue I had was a dog that barked a lot and it echoed through the courtyard. Cons: 1. One elevator is down 80-90% of the time. 2. One bedroom apartments are poorly designed. I needed a ladder to get into my kitchen cabinets and had to use the counter to store my plates because the cabinets were too narrow to even fit standard size dishes. There is also only one configuration in the living room i.e. a single option as to where to put a couch and TV. There is a single closet and it’s not very large. I downsized a lot when I moved here and still had to get rid of bulky items once I moved in because there is no storage. 3. Maintenance is inefficient. Took over 10 days to replace my ceiling fan (which is the only light in the bedroom) and the building HVAC unit broke down 6-7 times in 1 year. If you have an issue over the weekend, good luck. A fire alarm went off on my floor for an entire day one weekend and I couldn’t get ahold of anyone to turn it off. 4. Street noise, especially on weekends. 5. This could be dependent on where in the building you’re located but my 5th floor apartment received little natural light because it was blocked by another building. Had several houseplants die and it was pretty depressing in the winter. 6. The staff/management has changed 3x since I moved in last year so it is dysfunctional. I moved out June 30th. Legally apartments have 60 days to mail security deposit refunds. Just called mid-Sept. and they haven’t even processed it yet. They said “management changed so things have been hectic.” which I found to be a poor excuse. I will say the lady who finally helped me was very nice and gave me my full deposit back because she felt bad I had to keep calling and waited so long."

"If I could give 0 stars trust me I would… I been living here for about 6months and this is by far the WORST experience I’ve ever had renting. You pay luxury apartment prices for a section 8 housing living experience. A/C never worked for our family in the summer so we suffered with minimal help from the staff. HEAT has yet to work this entire winter and we again suffer with minimal help from the staff. You can call over and over they will act concerned and try to fix the problem for maybe a few hours or a whole day but your problem will be back after that.. they DONT CARE! Our closet shelves have been broken since move in day they have yet to fix it. Our refrigerator shelves have been broken since our first month here still no Fix to that. You pay for $50 a month for parking and still the Garage is full all the way to the roof so paying residents are out of luck frequently on the weekends. I stress to management the fact that I have a 2 year old and a 4 year old living in this apartment and they are freezing and constantly getting sick but they again DO NOT CARE because it’s nearly January of 2023 and still no Change no help and they won’t even consider moving us to a better unit. We ask for more heaters because the ones they have provided don’t warm the apartment up at all and they refuse to Help us. I am forced to open my oven and heat the apartment that way the best I can. And Now we are without Hot water and still NO HELP! Maintenance will lie and say that the issues are and entire building problem but when We ask neighbors it’s proven not true.. PLEASE I REPEAT PLEASE DO NOT MOVE HERE!!! YOU WILL REGRET IT IMMEDIATELY!!!!"