A reader named John got in touch recently wanting to share his travails with Reserve Square. His story is below.
I read your May 1, 2015 story on K&D’s little mouse “problem” at Reserve Square. The problem is that I read it too late. I just wanted to share with you my story of moving to Cleveland. Last June I was told I would be assigned on a project in Cleveland that would be longer term in nature and that I would need to immediately relocate to Cleveland for said position. Given that I needed to be there in two days to be at my new assignment near downtown that Monday, I immediately sought out housing, which led me to reach out to K&D. They offered me a corporate housing unit within their “premier living headquarters” of Reserve Square. As we hustled through the appropriate paperwork, I should have figured this was far too smooth of a process. I was correct.
I arrived on a Sunday night where I was greeted by “security,” acting as sort of a front desk type person, though Barney Fife would be a more apt comparison. I was given the key to my unit and I hustled to move in my own items with no help other than their dolly. My car would be allowed to park in the Reserved K&D parking spot (see pictures) until a leasing agent could provide me a permanent parking pass for the parking deck. Special parking! Fine. Fair. Work tomorrow.
As I wake to my new surrounding on Monday morning, I head down the elevators to make my short walk to where I was expected to show up for work that morning. As I head out the front door I am greeted by the following:
Someone overnight had scratched every keyhole, stole every Mustang emblem, and bent my antenna in some kind of absurd attempt to unlock the car via the “fishing” method. All of this happening with “security” literally ten feet away, at least in theory.
A one-off odd experience my first night in a new city? No big deal. After all, no move goes as smoothly as planned, right? As I got acclimated to my new position and met all of the new people I would be working with throughout my first day, I knew that I would need to get to a precinct to file a police report later in the day. I first went back to Reserve Square only to find two “security guards” that were absolutely clueless as to what may have happened to my car that was parked in vision of the security desk. I was told that they also probably wouldn’t have security tape footage of the incident and could be of no help to me in filing a police report. Fun times. I figured I would throw my work bag up into my apartment and head out to a police station downtown where I could file a report on my car damage/break-in. As I opened the door to my unit my eyes were met by the following.
Somehow my whole entire apartment had flooded, damaging everything I own in some capacity. I was never informed via phone call. Clearly this unit was not ready to be inhabited by a human.
They apparently must have known/heard something was wrong and went to town on the apartment while I was at work. The worst part wasn’t even the flooding probably. They basically just took all of my belongings and threw everything further away from the patio where the water was coming in. Sadly they kept most of my bags on the ground where the water spread, damaging two laptops and waterlogging most of my important documents (SS card, tax forms, Passport, etc) and luggage. If they would have given me a call at least I could have told them to be careful with my personal belongings or came back to the unit myself to help. Outside was ankle-high water. They told me there were “clogged drains,” which is the only thing that made sense because I saw gunk buildup and cigarette butts floating everywhere.
In the span of 24 hours everything I own was in some form or another destroyed by Reserve Square incompetence. When I ask them for any kind of reimbursement, help, or assistance they could offer, they essentially told me it’s not their problem.
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This article appears in Aug 10-16, 2016.
WTG Reserve Square…Black eye for Cleveland because you can’t do your job…
Useless piece of garbage posing as viable downtown living…
I have lived in several K&D Apartments all were a varying degrees of terrible. I found it depended a lot on the local managers. Also, trying to get any help from their corp. office was a joke. They are just a horrible housing company.
can you sue for all your thousands of dollars in damages? I feel so bad for you because what happened to you is not the NORM for Cleveland…it just isn’t…surely THEY are insured and can reimburse you for car and belongings…so sorry someone from your Cleveland job site could not have helped you relocate to a reputable place…this story is AWFUL…
The absolute worst! We had a terrible cockroach infestation that they attempted to deal with, however the apartment became inhabitable and we requested to move out. The manager then proceeded to blame me for the cockroaches insisting I brought them with me when I moved in from Florida. They attempted to keep our deposit and charge us for breaking our lease, obviously we were not doing that. The place was an absolute nightmare!
There is new company in town, two guys from Michigan ……. really tall guys who played basketball at Michigan State who are buying and have bought old historic buildings in the warehouse district. Although they have a lot on their plates, one of them actually LIVES in the building and is constantly working on the renovations with the construction crews….. I rented a place from them and my experience has been nothing short of amazing. Too bad it takes an outsider to see things differently here in Cleveland but as they say…. their “Tenants are their most important assets” they have and they ALWAYS come first…… Look at the Bradley Building, and talk to Justin or Mike (who is the owner) …….I have no idea if they have any left but they did mention an Air BnB / corporate type of furnished apartment….. apparently it is almost 3,000 sq. ft……… oh and I forgot to mention, they have a guest suite that any tenants family can stay in if they visit for get this… a $75.00 cleaning fee !!!! …… I told my Mom and Da about it and they are planning their first visit from Florida soon.
Everything owned by K&D is horrible. I lived in a building owned by them and every year in July (for 4 years straight) I had an annual sink clog that popped up like a holiday. It started with whatever my next door neighbor put down his garbage disposal came up in my bathroom sink. I would put in a work order (for it to be fixed) but no one came. It usually ended with me either waking up or coming home to an over flooded bathroom and soggy wet hallway carpet. Then it was fixed only because it became an emergency maintenance problem. Once everything was fixed maintenance would use a shop vac and suck up the water and the next day K&D would send Best Kleen Carpet Company out to half clean my hallway carpet. I moved and will never live in any building owned by them. They only fix up the exterior of their building and the interior is horrible.
I lived in that shithole for about 1.5 yrs. Worst living experience of my life!! And O have lived in 11 different addresses in last 40 yrs. The Reserve Square staff are rude, shady and outright irresponsible. Maintenance is at a minimum in that building. They allow people to live in bulk crowded within single apartment. There is spilled over garbage, spit, cockroaches, bottles, soda cans, and what not strewn all over that building…in the hallway, elevators, parking floors, everywhere. That building is pretty much akin to slum dwelling….which would be fine if they didn’t advertise themselves as ‘premium living’ and charge an exorbitant rent. If I paid $400 a month for that, there’d be nothing to complain (although I have lived at much better places in that rent range)….but at $1100 a month, that place is a rip-off and a filthy shady establishment. I was damn happy to move….
That is crap! I moved down to Fort Myers to an apartment I had never been. It was such an easy professional transition and when Hurricane Charley came through they reimbursed me $50.00 for food that may have spoiled due to electric being out. I didn’t even ask- they just gave it to me. Sorry about your experience~!!! so unprofessional!!! I would contact the head of K/D!!!!
I’ve never had any of these issues with Reserve Square. I’ve lived there for 6 months and have found the conditions to be great.
You just have bad luck. Doesnt mean its a bad place to live. Should buy a lottery ticket, maybe something will go your way.
It’s a shame they’re awarded so many historical tax credits for development downtown (I wonder who they’re bribing now), Cleveland deserves better!
Worst place I’ve ever lived! Staff were extremely rude, the elevators were almost always out of order, very dirty
All it took was one tour of Reserve Square to see that place is a trash bin. I live in Quay 55 and Marshall Place and I can tell you that the customer service has been excellent.
Taking a tour is major key.
I have lived at Reserve Square from Oct. 2015 to current.
First of all Security has been excellent IMO. They are friendly and Professional. They know and address me by my first name. One night I had accidentally left my debt card in the ATM. I took my money and returned to my apartment forgetting to remove the card from the machine. A short while later there was a knock at my door. Security was there and returned my card to me. I had two occasions in which I left my keys at work. When I mentioned it to the Security desk, they radioed to another Officer who swiftly met me at my apartment and provided me access. No problem. I feel safe in and around the building thanks to their presence. It’s probably a Thankless job and I for one appreciate the Reserve Square Security team. Thank you!
Maintenance has had to come in a few times. They hung a towel rod in the bathroom. They changed filters in the furnace. Nothing major which is a testament to the condition, upkeep and preventative maintenance that has been performed. Again, friendly and professional.
Anirban says:
“There is spilled over garbage, spit, cockroaches, bottles, soda cans, and what not strewn all over that building…in the hallway, elevators, parking floors, everywhere.”
10 months at Reserve Square and I have *NEVER* seen anything of the sort. Occasionally a Resident leaves a bag of trash on the floor of the compactor room which is the fault of the Resident. It has always been cleaned up the next time I passed through. I have yet to see any bugs in my apartment or on the entire floor for that matter
“That building is pretty much akin to slum dwelling”
Bwhahahaha! If you think that this is “slum dwelling”, You clearly have NO CLUE and have lost all credibility with me. Terrible, inaccurate review.
So, in summary, I have enjoyed my stay at Reserve Square and have little to no complaints.
These buildings downtown suck! E12th n Chester at the Chesterfield ripped off my daughter big-time! Bed bugs galore. She ended up leaving most of her belongings there as after months they did NOTHING. AND CHARGED HER1200 TO CLEAN IT UP. THE BUILDING IS STILL INFESTED
My husband and I had to get as far away from Reserve Square as possible. This worthless apartment complex tries to sell itself as “luxury”. In what world does luxury living entail leaking windows, bed bugs, roaches, garbage in the hallways, and broken elevators that work 10% of the time? Corridors smelled like sewage, and I hated coming home everyday. Steer clear of K&D. They must pay apartment search websites to feature their properties despite numerous bad reviews. I’ve met three other people who broke their leases and paid the hefty fines just to escape the insects and mold from frequent leakages.
I lived at Crystal Tower in East Cleveland for nearly 7 years. And, the first few years were fine, but the last couple of years were terrible. The building manager (who has since left) was borderline evil. The parking garage was crumbling, damaged my car and badly damaged a friends car. When I requested a new spot, she claimed there were no more spaces (there were tons of empty spaces). She also informed me that if I didn’t use my spot she’d tow me, even if I parked in the free surface lot. She rented to a family next to me that had drugged out teenagers all over our floor, and she would do nothing. They would use fire hoses to leave the emergency stairwell open to deal drugs between floors (to avoid cameras in the elevators), and still she did nothing. I complained about one of the girls living next door hustling her naked boyfriend out before her parents returned from being out all-night and she did nothing. She scheduled a mandatory meeting for residents during a weekday where she said she would evict anyone who didn’t come. I had to take off work, showed up, and it was about trash in the hallways (not drug dealers). During the meetings, a couple of teenage boys asked if she could turn the ill-repaired tennis court into a basketball court, she said no because it would bring thugs. There was a penthouse room that all of the residents were allowed to use. To escape the idiots next door one day, I went up with a book to read. It was locked. I asked her about it, and she said she locked it and no one could use it (despite its usage being our leases) Then, one day I came home to find an eviction notice on my door. Said, I didn’t pay my rent, but I had paid it. I went to the office the next morning, and her assistant said she had seen my check. The manager just started to yell about how I didn’t pay. She asked what my checks looked like, I told her. She said she had never, ever seen them. I said that was weird, because I’ve had those checks for over a year and had repeatedly paid my rent with them. After a lot of arguing, she finally let may my rent again. I still have no idea what had happened with that check. If she’d accidentally shredded it, she just had to ask me for another one. I would have never complained. Fortunately, I got out before the baby fell out of the window and died, the woman died from carbon monoxide poisoning, and the furnace blew up.
Cuyahoga County corruption remains alive and well through companies with deep political connections that operate with a large middle finger in front of the public…..while laughing all the way to the bank.
There are always two sides to every story. Reserve Square is more then two times the size of the next largest apartment building downtown, and services over 2,500 residents and tenants daily. In any complex that large, there will be issues beyond managements control from time to time. The staff absolutely cares and puts their best foot forward in any situation to take care of the issue as best they can. We are aware who this resident was last year, and are sorry his experience was not a good one.
Well Well Well!!!!!!!!! I stayed there 5 months and broke my lease!!!!!! Black mold, roaches, and and filth!!!!!!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 the place down and start over K& D… Horrible I lived there from June 13 to November 13… Please run away!!!! Don’t let that granite fool U!!!!
the cleveland tennants organization is a place to start with your complaints. did you not secure renters insurance prior to taking possession of the unit for rent? you should have done that for sure….if you are employed and make any decent money you could pursue an attorney to help you out. tennants do have rights and should never be intimidated because they are up against a ‘management’ company…..just sayin’….
Back in the Nineties and Aughts, my wife had relatives…distant cousins…who lived there. It was still classy then. But they were fairly old and the noise from the ballpark…the fireworks going off…bothered them. So they moved out to one of the outer city neighborhoods…it was West Park, I believe. Or it might have been on the Gold Coast in Lakewood. Can’t recall anymore.
They said they needed more peace and quiet. I can’t ask their opinion on Reserve Square because the conversation would be a trifle one-sided, as they are both dead.
Isn’t that problem park right across the street? The one where folks stayed outside making noise until the wee hours, despite city ordinances? What ever happened with all that?
A high-rise slum with a rowdy park nearby…if downtown Cleveland still has designs of being like Brooklyn or Manhattan or inner-city Chicago, we are certainly well on the way. Wonder who’s paying whom to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to all this nonsense?
Chuckles the Clown
Calll the City of Cleveland and the Health Department!!!!!!
I stayed there for 5 beautfull months , with the help of Mrs Jocelyne Tohme , she is really an awesone person, she helped and eased our stay in Reserve Square. The building is only 10 min away from cleveland clinic hospital by car or bus , and its amenities like grocery with middle eastern stuff , laundry facilities , iraqi restaurant, subway restaurant and hertz car rental office in ground floor .The apartment was gorgeous, clean and the view was awesome.The best part was the in building parking . I really recommend it to patients visiting cleveland for treatment in cleveland hospital.Thanks alot Jocelyneand god bless you.