Garfield Park

To customer S. who posted on 1÷21÷16: what you said is utterly untrue. The management and maintenance teams are incredibly friendly, responsive and efficient. Just as an example: they spent the whole Blizzard 2016 on site and away from their homes and families clearing the area around, getting emergency items for residents in case they were needed, and making sure at all times that nothing went wrong. Christin, Jessie, Frank and Olando are simply fabulous people. On the other hand, not all residents are considerate, respectful of public areas, or thankful for the staff’s work (which includes initiatives to try to integrate residents more in social events). Actually, Garfield Park won the best apartments award. No wonder. So to the unhappy residents: you don’t need to live here.
A very happy resident :)

RENTER BEWARE!!! Keep searching! Do NOT be swayed by the location. It is NOT worth the price. Thin walls, improper management, non-​responsive maintenance, extremely cheap, moldy and discontinued appliances. If you enjoy waking up to the sound of fire alarms, flushing money down the broken toilet and wondering what the next construction crisis will be then this is the place for you!

I’ve lived in this building for awhile. The location is good, but the interior finishing (cabinets, tiles, bathroom fixtures) are cheap. The fire alarm goes off all the time for no apparent reason and the building management appears powerless to do anything about it. Every time your lease expires the rent will dramatically increase, despite the building still having vacancies. The building uses Advanced Towing to patrol the parking garage. Most Arlington residents know of Advanced Towing’s poor reputation and reckless drivers. Sound travels through the thin walls and from the people above. I always know where they get home and where they are in their apartment. The staff in the front office is constantly changing, which makes you wonder why they can’t keep people. The building is one of the more expensive in the area but lacks the same amenities as other properties (no rooftop, no pool, no 24 hr concierge). The property manager is inept and not helpful. She has no personality and usual answer is «I can’t do anything about that»… well great thanks for being the «manager» that can’t do anything about anything.

I’ve lived at Garfield Park since October 2014. I love the building, and particularly love the location… Its in Clarendon but set in the Lyon Park neighborhood, which gives it a nice neighborhood feel. I recently opted to transfer to another unit in the building and Christin, the Property Manager, was extremely friendly, accommodating and helpful throughout the entire process. She did everything she could to ensure I was getting the best deal, and is always helpful with maintenance requests and other building inquiries and I have had.

Live elsewhere. I was choosing between Garfield Park and The Quincy.
CONS
–staff is nonresponsive
–new property manager is subpar and nonresponsive
–thin walls and no concrete between floors
–loud: you can hear drunk people coming home from the bars Thurs-​Sun
–confusing billing and additional billing fees
PROS
–clean common areas
–gym is new (but very very small with no windows)
–parking is nice and easily accessible
–washer and dryer are very nice
–kitchen is huge
First: the staff. Sure they were super responsive when I was filling out the application and choosing an apartment. However, since moving in I have never had a single staff member answer one of my emails. It is literally like sending email into a black hole. Also, the new property manager Christin d’Amato is completely incompetent and for some reason finds it acceptable to bring her loud and aggressive dog to work.
Second: the thin walls and floors. What they don’t tell you when you’re viewing units is that there is no concrete between floors, meaning that unless you’re on the top floor you can hear your neighbor stomping around day and night. It’s so bad that the glasses in my cabinets shake. When my neighbors slam their doors my floors, walls, and ceiling shake.
Third: other residents. If you want to live in a frat or sorority house surrounded my 20 something year olds, this is defnitely the place for you. I have twice been woken up to loud frat boy fights with people screaming the F word at each other.
Fourth: billing. They bill your utilities and rent separately so that you end up paying the $ 2+ billing fee twice in one month. The property manager tried to send a clarifying email about the billing procedure, which was even more confusing.

Love my apt here… bummed to be moving out due to work stuff. The location is awesome – walking distance of public transit (with the best metro express guy ever! Love you Robert!), grocery, restaurants and fun. Also conveniently tucked in close to a residential neighborhood so you get both perks. Clarendon is a fun neighborhood – but the location is such that you choose when to expose yourself to the pleasantries of the fratastic bar scene or raved about Arlington brunch scene. Basic essentials – divine nails and liquor store are literally across the street.
Staff here is friendly and always willing to assist. Maintenance staff are superb! The building is smaller than other larger commercially managed properties, so it feels like less of a churn mill. They don’t waste your money on trying to make a property chock full of mediocre amenities – but providing you a great place to live with stuff in the building you will actually use. Pet friendly! Management changeovers have occurred in my brief time here – but leasing office have worked to ensure it is barely noticeable.

I’ve lived here for two years now. You can’t beat the location, the building is nice and maintenance personnel are great. As other reviewers have commented, there are occasional dog accidents in the elevators but that is the pet owner’s responsibility. As other reviewers have also commented, the walls are paper thin but we haven’t found a building yet that didn’t share that issue.
The biggest issue for us is the faulty fire alarm. It’s been an issue since the building opened. A few months ago it went off during the day and was blaring for almost 7hrs straight (a sprinkler head in the loading bay had been damaged). This week it has gone off twice. Three times in a row at 9:30 at night and once so far at 8:20 this Saturday morning. The alarm is building wide and deafening when it goes off. I have two small children and there’s no doubt in my mind that a noise that loud is damaging to their hearing. It’s also very inconvenient to evacuate them out into the cold for no reason. Lastly and most upsetting to me, my 3yr old now suffers from PTSD as a result of the alarm. He is TERRIFIED every time it comes on. He cries inconsolably, covers his ears and trembles for the entire duration. He also talks about it constantly, brings it up out of the clear blue, day and night. We can’t wait to move out to get away from that damn alarm.

Garfield Park Apartments is really THE place to call home. My husband was actually one of the first tenants to move in when GP opened in Oct 2012. Like everything else in Clarendon, these apartments are on the pricier side, but it’s totally worth every penny.
The entire GP staff is very friendly and always greeting you with a smile. They even host some fun holiday parties, and random happy hours and game night to get all the residents of the building to meet one another. Great way to make new friends if you’re new to the area :) Oh, and of course raffles which have some pretty cool prizes!
For a change, my husband and I actually thought of moving to Chinatown-​DC when our lease was almost over, but after looking around, we decided that we didn’t feel comfortable in any other place but here at GP. This place is spacious with so many things to do in walking distance.
Another Unilocaler actually nailed their review down to all the details and I agree with every bit of it.

I recently moved to Arlington from another state, and was really nervous about where I would live. Searching around online, I stumbled across Garfield Park and decided to give it a shot, and I am sure glad I did!
This place is absolutely gorgeous! It is well maintained, and structurally sound. The common area is amazing and open ²⁴⁄₇. It has awesome sound systems controlled by a wall mounted iPad, free coffee and tea, a pool table and a bunch of flat screen TVs and comfortable table areas that are perfect for getting work done. Everything is extremely high quality and decorated with taste.
The gym is ridiculously clean, and has everything you need to get a nice workout (also open ²⁴⁄₇).
The location couldn’t be better and theres plenty of parking in the garage, and even rooms for your bicycle.
Now, while I understand money can typically buy all of these nice features, as long as you fork out enough of it, what it can’t buy was the sincere and caring experience that I have had from the management of Garfield Park.
I have lived in many, many places throughout the years, and I have NEVER experienced a staff this friendly and thoughtful.
Whenever I have had any issues, the maintenance staff, particularly Orlando and Frank, come and take care of it right away. They are extremely friendly and accommodating and even make a point to followup when they see me to ask how everything worked out.
Marshall, part of the management team, is probably the nicest, most outgoing and reliable person I have dealt with ANYWHERE. My first day at Garfield Park, I had just driven 18 hours straight, was extremely exhausted and arrived right as the leasing office was closing. Marshall stayed for a full hour after closing to make sure I had everything I needed, gave me a full tour of the entire building and did it with enthusiasm and a smile on his face.
I have to say the only con about this place is the price, because it is pretty freaking expensive (like everything else in Clarendon). But for me, knowing that if I have ANY problems whatsoever, all I have to do is send a quick email and Marshall and his team will take care of it right then and there, makes it worth every penny.

The GF and I moved here after a not so pleasant living experience in the Crystal City area and let me tell you, we couldn’t have been happier. We lived here from the moment they opened for a about 1.5 years. Great location (we ended up selling our car because we realized living at Garfield Park we didn’t need one). The unit we lived in was extremely quiet. People in the building were friendly and the place was always immaculate. The maintenance guys always were prompt and polite. The leasing office staff was top notch and professional. In all honesty if it wasn’t for the fact we were relocating to a different city we would still be living there for the foreseeable future. Ive rented 6 different places in a few different locations over the past 7 years and GP was by far the best.