Will “Campus Apartments” be good for the neighborhood?
The RTD has a great story about a new landlord in town, Campus Apartments (aka Campus Pierce Arrow, LLC), which now owns 23 rental properties on and around The Boulevard.
With VCU creeping further away from it’s hub, encroaching Oregon Hill and taking over a large part of the fan, any rental company that wants to establish it’s footprint in the area has to start pretty far out. Hence, Campus Apartments buying up properties considered WOTB. But can the parent company “Campus Apartments” be good for the neighborhood?
I actually rented from Campus Apartments in Philly, and as far as landlords go they weren’t too shabby. They took pride in the appearance and functionality of their units. However, if you’re looking for them to do expensive rehabs on the properties along the Boulevard, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
I am always apprehensive when I see a large, out-of-town company trying to manage property holdings locally. On the plus side, it usually means they have money to burn. But, it also removes the owner from the day-to-day push to make things better, like Pierce-Arrow did. If they can keep the promises they have made regarding the maintenance of their properties, then it could be a very good thing.
I agree with Nathan’s anxiety about big companies from out of town coming to take over big chunks of our own. But, if they maintain the properties well, then I would welcome them.
But underlying all this is a troubling (to me) statistic I heard–correct me anybody else who heard this–during the Master Plan Revisited session held downtown this past week. The figure was that of Richmond’s housing units, only 48 percent are owner occupied! We are a city of renters! How did that happen?
This company has very poor customer service. I have been waiting 5 months for my rental deposit check & keep receiving very poor excuses why it has not been sent.
If you have an option of selecting another landlord avoid campus pierce arrow.
I currently rent from Campus Pierce Arrow and it has been a very poor experience. The majority of tenants are young professionals, but they continue to treat the residents as children — constantly checking up and having unannounced inspections. I also had an awful time attempting to secure my apartment initially. I had to jump through multiple hoops. I would call the office to inquire about move-in information and they gave me the run around, were rude and inflexible. They also charged me in full for several days without letting me move in because the apartment wasn’t “ready”. Bad experience overall. They try and skim a profit any way they can — raise rent, increase cost of laundry. They also noticed that tenants were storing items in the basement so they made a rule against that, while simultaneously offering up their $100 per month storage units around the corner.