Square on Fifth

T P

I see where SQ5 has failed to honor the terms of THEIR lease and are now nearly three years later pursuing a cancelled lease. Also BEWARE parking deck is D A N G E R O U S...daughter's car smashed TWICE there.

Shreya Santhanagopalan

The resident experience from when I toured was absolutely amazing! I had a great time with the leasing office tour guide and she was so helpful and kind!

Stephen Ralph

4.5/5 if I could. I lived here for 4 years and while not always perfect, this is the best overall student apartment experience you can get near GT. The Rooms: Pictures you see online are pretty representative of what they’re like. Finishes like trim, baseboards, cabinets, carpet, etc are of “Luxury-student” quality. The rooms are significantly better than most of the other “student-focused” apartments, but are not comparable to traditional luxury apartments. Walls BETWEEN units are absolute barricades, you will simply not hear your neighbors if my experience is anything to go by. The walls WITHIN units (between bedrooms) are somewhat thin with just drywall separating them. In addition, many bedrooms share a metal window frame (hard to explain). In these rooms you can easily hear if a roommate is talking, but not enough to interpret what they’re saying. Overall, the sound isolation is perfectly acceptable if a frame isn’t shared. If you know your roommates, none of this should really be an issue. The Building: SQ5 is a fraction the capacity of other student housing which means amenity areas are comparatively smaller, but also much calmer and less crowded. Common areas are rarely crowded and management does not tolerate rowdy groups. The top-floor lounge provides a good weekday study space. Membership to Tech Square Social club (formerly The Garage) is BY FAR the most underrated and underutilized perk of being an SQ5 resident. It is where 80% of my studying took place. Front desk security is hit or miss. Somehow even through three management companies and four years they cannot find someone who will actually be present all night. It was always disappointing coming back at 1-2am with nobody in sight. Staff: I have nothing but good things to say about the full-time staff at SQ5, especially Zack and Mike. They make this place what it is. They are always helpful, greeted me by name, and appear to care about solving property problems. Maintenance has always been prompt and equally as friendly. Various things to be aware of: Internet - Since a thunderstorm a few years ago took our some telecom equipment, the internet has been horrendous at certain times of the day. The issue is massive packet loss (80%+) during the evenings. The office was aware and we got the impression it was corporate management who refused to pay for the quoted network upgrade (which, to this day I think they were being ripped off on). In August of 2022 they completed a complete overhaul which seems to have resolved things, minus some issues right after installation. Common area shutdown - in 2021(?) someone threw a party which ended up out-of hand and damaging some furniture. They closed the common area for an extended period of time as they tried to figure out what happened, then only opened it during the day. Many people saw this as unfair collective punishment. It took too long for this to resolve, when 99% of residents had nothing to do with it. Elevators- When all three are working, there is JUST enough capacity to be acceptable, albeit slow. Every other month, one of them breaks for a day or two and adds 5minutes to getting out. As of Aug. 2022, one of them was “very broken”, and had been out of service for weeks. At some point, these elevators are going to have to be replaced with something faster/more reliable. Overall, I would certainly recommend living here. Especially if you know your roommates, and especially from what I’ve seen at other student housing developments.

A T

IF YOU ARE PLANNING ON SIGNING A LEASE HERE: be warned. When I completed my application, I was given one rate. When my lease was emailed to me the next day, I was given another rate -- one that was $60 more than the one on my application, which was completely out of my budget and not what I was expecting. I understand that prices are based on a tier system, but there is no transparency about rates between application to lease, and in the time that my application was processing, I was left guessing what my final rate would be. Additionally, I completed and turned in my application at the same time as my other potential roommates, and we all got different rates -- only one of us got the original lower rate. It seems unfair and ridiculous that what our final rates are was completely dependent on the seconds within us submitting each of our applications. All of this plus the fact that the application fee (~$200) is non-refundable even if you decide to cancel your lease. This policy may be standard among apartments in general, but some of the other student apartments offer free applications (UHouse, Whistler if you have a code, etc). $200 is a lot for a college student -- not having a refundable option for that fee AND having such a lack of transparency with rates has made applying to SQ5 an extremely stressful experience for me, and one that I don't wish on anyone. If you're thinking about applying here, good luck, and make sure that the rate you're willing to pay is what will actually be on the lease. Note: The employees at the leasing office were courteous and helpful. In no way is this review directed towards them.