2M Street Apartments

Malcolm Kenton

I moved into 2M Apartments in December 2014 under its original owner/management company, WC Smith. The building was well managed under them and I enjoyed my time there. It truly felt like a luxury building with great amenities. But the building was sold to a new owner/management company, Avanath Capital/Realty, in December 2021, and conditions have gone steadily downhill since then, to the point where most residents either have moved out (myself included - I moved out 2 days ago), are looking to move or wish they could move. I would no longer consider 2M to be a luxury building. Avanath's incompetence at managing 2M Apartments has been staggering. Instead of proactively getting ahead of potential issues, they only address problems reactively after they occur. Avanath's modus operandi seems to be to cut corners to save money whenever possible, and not to act to fix issues unless tenants complain loudly enough. Several high-profile criminal and security incidents took place in early and mid 2022, and Avanath failed to compel their contracted security company, Allied Universal, to do their jobs. People entering the building were not properly checked and regular patrols of the building ceased. Loiterers and homeless people routinely gained access to the building and were found sleeping and loitering in resident common and amenity areas. A new security contractor took over on August 1, 2022, and appears to be doing a good job so far, but Avanath only took this step as a result of sustained pressure from residents and the Tenants Association. Maintenance and cleaning in the building have also suffered. Some residents have waited for months to get appliances and other items in their units repaired. Regular steam-cleaning of the carpets in the hallways stopped. Air conditioning in the hallways failed repeatedly. Several code violations were discovered in common areas and were only repaired after residents complained loudly. Basic preventive maintenance such as replacing air conditioner filters only took place after multiple residents complained. When maintenance installed a new washer/dryer in one of my neighbors' units, they failed to properly connect the drain pipe to the washer, resulting in a large flood when the resident first washed a load in the new washer. Finally, Avanath botched the response to a fire in an apartment on the 4th floor on July 2, 2022 (the cause of which is still unknown to residents), which resulted in the sprinklers activating on floors 2 through 5. Along with causing extensive water damage and forcing several residents to have to stay in hotels, the water intruded in the computer system that runs the main bank of elevators and destroyed the circuitry, causing the elevators to be out of service. Rather than order replacement parts from the original manufacturer, which would have returned the elevators to service sooner, Avanath opted to shop around for a potentially less expensive deal, leaving the residents of all 350-plus apartments on 12 floors to share only one working elevator (the service/freight elevator), which then broke down on a number of occasions. This has caused residents (particularly those with limited mobility) to miss appointments and resulted in extensive and costly delays to move-outs and move-ins, along with other complications. Based on my experience at 2M and on reading other reviews of Avanath, both from residents at other buildings they manage and from current and former employees on websites like Glassdoor, I would advise anyone who possibly can to steer clear of doing business with Avanath. The company appears to have a rotten corporate culture. I hope the company does not acquire any more apartment buildings in the DC area unless and until it cleans house and changes its culture.

Love Jones

Please please please if you care about your peace do not live here. I got tricked by management into living here saying it’s safe when it is by FAR not safe at all. I was not able to sleep one night while in this apartment. The smell is terrible, it’s not safe and not a comfortable apartment to live in. I wish I saw a review about living here before signing my lease because I would not have signed it if I did. I’m writing this so others won’t have to experience what I did. No matter what they tell you it is not safe! Don’t let them get you like they got me. And now I’m stuck.

Dana Kyle

I was a resident in the building for 2 years, and after Avanath took over as the new management company, I experienced a number of traumatic events as a resident of the building. There were a number of domestic disputes that occurred in the hallway that I lived on (at any moment feeling like it could turn violent and often occurring in the early hours of the morning); I was verbally accosted on the elevator by another resident having a mental health crisis (she told me that I needed to tell my gods to get out of her head -- we were the only two on the elevator at the time); there were stray bullets that came through the lobby of the building; there were two different instances in which individuals had guns in the building and residents were not notified by management -- one instance where the gun went off in one of the hallways, and one instance where an armed gunman walked past security in the lobby and chased a resident around the roof; my apartment consistently smelled of cigarette smoke from a neighbor, but there was no action taken; the security and concierge teams put into place by Avanath were incompentant -- always misplacing packages and not following security protocols for guests in the building. Security was by far the biggest factor in me vacating the building, but the overall experience was honestly the worst I've ever experienced.

Denise Bethen

They never answer it’s frustrating