VIBE Fremont Apartments

William Lorey

I've lived at The Vibe for nine months and I will not be renewing my lease. I'll start with the positives of this building because there are some. The unit I rented has nice appliances and fits squarely into what I'd call a luxury apartment. The building is in a pretty good location. It's walkable to all the normal things you'd expect from a city including good bars, coffee shops, a grocery store (although PCC is your only option and is exceedingly overpriced), and the Burke Gillman Trail which runs along the water out to Gasworks Park. Also, the building's rooftop is awesome (great views, gas grills, lots of patio furniture). Now onto the negatives. This building sees routine break-ins, which the management is aware of, and yet nothing is being done to secure the building. The most recent break-in happened a few months ago and resulted in me having several hundred dollars worth of packages stolen from the lobby (the building does not have a proper package room so all packages are placed in the lobby). The culprit was caught on camera and was easily identifiable (the building manager graciously offered to show me the security camera footage). The building manager refused to file a police report on this incident despite this evidence he had saying "there's nothing the police would be able to do". I was not offered compensation for the stolen packages and I was informed by the building manager that the building owner(s) have refused to take any steps to secure the building. This would have involved investing in a package locker or a proper package room, or even leaving packages in the stairwell which adds an additional keyfob barrier. It should be noted that the trash room is more secure than where packages are kept (2 separate keyfob doors protect the trash room vs 1 protecting the lobby). What's worse is that the building manager never sent out correspondence to all the residents about the most recent break-in. The only reason I found out about it was because I reached out to him after failing to find my packages in the lobby, so it's unclear the total number of break-ins we've had. The incompetence of building management and their failure to take responsibility for security matters in the building is the largest driving factor for me deciding to move elsewhere. Another consideration about this building is the parking situation. The building has a tiny parking garage and most residents have to street park. On the bright side, a Seattle street parking permit is only around $60 for two years, but finding a parking spot on the street is a hassle. This area is very popular with very few parking garages so it's not uncommon for me to be forced to park multiple blocks away from my apartment, especially when coming home on a Friday/Saturday night. I hate writing negative reviews because I believe people generally try to do their best with the businesses they run but this is an unfortunate exception. I reached out to the building manager one last time before sitting down to write this and they are clearly aware of the building's security problems but refuse to do anything about it. I strongly recommend against leasing at The Vibe.

Matthew Bond

DO NOT RENT HERE!!! This is such an overpriced & cheaply made building that can’t keep tenants & has the worst management ever. I’ve met extremely few tenants who ever renewed their lease. It's overpriced & cheaply made. The only quality building material used was the quartz for the countertops. You’re literally only paying for the location & not a nice place to call home. The “Assistant Manager”, was THE WORST. She was obviously young & at the start of her career, I get that. But she was clearly unqualified for her job & failed to even act like she knew what she was doing. She also couldn’t do anything without consulting with her higher ups…about anything. We often had to correct her on how to do her job when she didn’t. To be honest, her and/or that position are highly disposable. Tenants were threatened repeatedly to be served with 10 day notices for much smaller issues like smoking in the unit, dogs on the roof & more than 3 guests during the summer solstice. It’s such a shame that breaking City of Seattle noise ordinances & attempting to assault your neighbors is tolerated. Eventually, we were allowed out of our lease & we were gone. But the story doesn’t stop there. We had issues even after moving out, yet again, the assistant manager couldn’t do her job correctly. I could go on & on, but if you’ve read this far you already know the obvious choice about moving in.

Carlos

The building per se is nice, the price is cheap, and there are lots of places to visit around. The only downside is if your apartment is on the west side, good luck sleeping because the pub beside the building can be very loud.