Gables Republic Tower

CONTEXT
Lived here in a larger one bedroom for 1yr on the 20^th floor (2014 – 15)
COMMUNITY
Upscale community with affluent crowd. Every now & then you’ll run into a ‘gangster wannabe’ in the elevator in a tank-​top and droopy pants but for the most part respectful & good crowd.
COST
Its downtown and one of the better properties in the area. An upscale community at a relatively moderate cost as compared to the rip-​offs on McKinney Ave.
APARTMENT
I had one of the larger one bedrooms with wall to wall windows in the living room. Gorgeous uptown views. All updates are top of the line and tastefully esthetic including wooden floors, carpets, glass windows, bathroom, kitchen, appliances etc No Washer/​Dryer (Seriously?) is a serious miss and no standing shower in the bathroom
MAINTENANCE STAFF
Good and responsive
OFFICE STAFF
Overly professional during sales process but OK later on. Usually depends on who is incharge in the manager office.
PARKING
Multiple floors. I see lot of people moaning about parking but an year ago (when I lived there), it was never an issue atleast for the residents who had their sticker on. The parking garaging navigation requires getting used to but you’ll find a spot.. On Fri & Sat nights guests let their gfs/​bfs in and you might have drive around the floors a bit but still ok.
NOISE
Pure concrete since its a high-​rise. Its completely insulated. I used to dribble my basketball indoors all the time. lol Once in a while you’ll get rowdy young crowd yelling on top of their lungs in the hallways but it subsides as soon as the door shuts. Church bells on sundays & train coming are charming. not a bother.
COMMUNITY POLICIES
Gables renewal policy is weird. They get you in at a reasonable price but at time of renewal, they pin you with a significant increase. I refused to pay more and moved out after an year.
THE GOOD
— Great quality apartments in the heart of downtown at a relatively reasonable price
— Proximity to all downtown attractions (very little left though)
— Right next to St Paul’s train Station
— Beautiful views
— Low electric bills
THE BAD
— No Washer-​Dryer (check out my review on the jokers who lease W/​D. its funny. lol)
— No sunlight in the apartment since there is probably some sort of reflective glass the building uses.
— No patios on apartments & can’t open windows. As per the new high-​rise law, you can’t open the windows more than 4 – 6 inches. So you’re pretty much locked indoors with windows open enough to let little air in though the little opening. I didn’t realize this when moving in but this along with hike in rent was a deal-​breaker for me at time of renewal.
— Guest parking & their entrance is a little tedious
— Elevators seem to be a frequent problem area and for some reason they just don’t seem to have a long term solution to it. However this was never a show-​stopper, just inconvenient to wait few mins extra sometimes when fewer elevators are functional
— Downtown doesn’t have as much offering as uptown does. Grocery stores & convenience stores etc is a drive. Nearest whole foods was near the mall on 75
— Terrace swimming pool is more like a fountain than a pool
— Shady characters roaming around at night, be careful when walking back drunk at night.
BOTTOMLINE
All in all good apartments if you like to live in nice apartment in a high-​rises with nice views. Living in downtowns & high-​rises have little things that need getting used to. So as long as you are ok with that, you’ll like this place. RECOMMENDED

I live here and I love it. The staff is nice, the apartment and view is amazing. The building is kept clean and they service requests are done usually within hours. I love pretty much everything about it. The only small thing that is annoying is that if your light bulb goes out and you put in a request, they charge you for the bulb. This is a bit silly considering the rent price but small issue with a fantastic apartment.

Background
As I write this, this will be my 2^nd to last month before I move out in October and I have been here 10 months. I’ve lived in the busy lively section of Houston and Dallas in a few different highrise luxury apartments before and I chose this one to be near my job/​company. I used to live in the Mosaic which was very loud and full of party filled tenants.
Cons
Parking Garage is a little tight going up and down the floors and people tend to drive a little rough.
Can be dangerous walking around downtown at night due to bums if you go a few blocks in the wrong direction but I already knew that moving in.
Pros
The building itself is made with good materials, well kept, clean, sturdy, modern, and quiet.
The tenants are friendly and have had no problems with loud neighbors or rude party type crowd in the elevators or hallways.
The office employees are professional, friendly, responsive, knowledgeable, reliable. They pick up your packages so you just have to swing by when you get off work.
Had problems with the AC once but they fixed it ASAP. Every service request I put in gets taken care of the same day if not the next day. Other than the AC, I’ve had problems with changing light bulb, refrigerator filter, and the sink shredder going out but they took care of it immediately.
The upstairs pool and bbq area is beautiful and the club house is a nice bonus.
I loved the gym the most… while it’s not your full blown gym but it has everything you need to workout every body part and its clean.
Key Fob to get in the building and garage which is nice for safety but can be annoying when you have guest over. You can rent guest fobs for free but half the time i tried they were all rented out.
Neutral
Lots and lots of pets in the elevators. almost everyone has a pet and only once or twice have their been an accident in there but they cleaned it up asap.
Overall I would highly recommend this property to you and if being in downtown and near uptown is a must, this property will not disappoint. The property is a bit pricey but much more reasonable compared to the other luxury properties around and if you go any cheaper than this one, be prepared to deal with the party rambunctious crowd where you will occasionally have people fall off the building to their death, crack heads… literally crack heads, people smoking weed in the elevators, and people running around naked in the middle of the night (i.e The Mosaic).

So I was a bit nervous about moving in based on some of the negative reviews. I’ve now been living there three months and really like it. The fit and finish of my apartment is high quality. Shelby remains helpful with day to day questions and the two service calls I had were handled within 48 hours. A couple of the elevators did go out yesterday, but they were fixed by today. There are many restaurants close and the building security is good. Five stars!

We moved into this building in February (about 2 months ago). We moved from out of state so I am writing this review to help anyone who is trying to do the same. Moving into a building with very little knowledge of the area is scary and comes with a lot of uncertainty. We were only able to make it out to see the building one time before needing to lease. It was a GREAT decision. Move in was drama free, as long as you let the leasing office know the date and the approximate time the movers will arrive they will reserve the service elevator and tell your movers where to park. We have not had any issues with elevators (other than waiting 5 minutes MAX for one to come to our floor) no issues with paying rent, fees, or anything else. Utilities so far have been very average. Its been cold in Dallas so our electric bill is averaging at 55 right now but will for sure go up in the summer. We have heard our neighbors playing loud music in the past but not as bad as other buildings I’ve lived in. Not every building can make the walls out of sound proof bionic materials (you’re going to hear your neighbors everywhere, it is minimal here) There are a lot of dogs in the building but none that have caused any issues. The apartments are beautiful either side has a great view. We are on the 25^th floor and can hear the sirens but not much honking. Neighbors are very friendly and understanding. The way the leasing office handles deliveries is AWESOME! If you are not home they will let the people in for you (this goes for maids, dog walkers, packages, whatever). Yes, the rent is higher than the average but it is worth it for the peace of mind of being in a safe area as well as the professionalism of the building and staff. One of the agents actually lives in the building. It is just far enough from main street where you cant hear any of that drama but can walk there in five minutes. If you can afford it then there is no reason this shouldn’t work for you!

Overall, LOVED the apartment itself – great views, very spacious and upscale. This may sound silly, but I do think the master bedroom was almost too spacious. It just ends up being a lot of space that isn’t really USED. And the master bathroom is huge but the shower itself is tiny! (??)
Great location next to the St. Paul station but don’t expect ANYTHING to be open on the weekend. All the lunch options are gone, Weekend Coffee at the Joule is stupidly overpriced (but their restaurant CBD and the cocktail lounge Midnight Rambler on the other hand… very nice). The eating options around here are, in fact, LIMITED. Walking up to Klyde Warren Park is nice, especially on Saturdays with the food trucks, but the powers that be at Klyde Warren never change up the trucks, so that gets old real fast.
Parking and elevators are a mess. If you come home before 4, you WILL struggle to park because they let people from the offices in the next building park on our floors, even though they say they don’t. It’s REAL obvious – walk around on a Saturday afternoon vs. a Tuesday afternoon. And if it’s raining and you try to come home during the day, lord have mercy, good luck with that parking.
The elevators were not a problem when we first moved in at the beginning of 2014 but have just really gone to hell. They are constantly down, constantly being worked on, and at least once a week I am in one when it decides it doesn’t want to go up, stops and hesitates indefinitely on one floor, or just takes you down to 1 for no reason. It has also happened to us that we have had to wait for 15 minutes (!!). After a grocery store trip, no less. Taking a 40 lb tub of cat litter up 30 flights of stairs really wasn’t an option. I realize the building may be 50+ years old or whatever, but isn’t it strange how the elevators on the COMMERCIAL side work like a charm? Hmm.
This place is also very $$$. Honestly I LOVED my apt but I cannot say it was worth the money overall. I also do not think the staff really go above and beyond given how $$$ it is. The call boxes probably worked about half the time for my visitors. And sometimes they would just conk out altogether and the office would have to notify us. (So I had to physically go downstairs if I wanted to let someone in the garage.) They also allegedly only have 3 visitor passes for parking? So even when I warned them ahead of time I’d need one for my house sitter, they said, «Um, yeah I don’t know. Just tell us the car details and we’ll tell the tow people not to tow it.» Which really DOESN’T inspire confidence.
Lastly, a couple months after moving in we had a huge leak from upstairs. We were on 27 and the leak apparently came from 29! I shudder to think what that apt on the 28^th floor went through. A huge area of our kitchen ceiling was soaked through, dripping on the counter, and they said they would «fix it» shortly. They never came back that day or ever again. Clearly «fix it» meant let it dry and then just paint over it. I asked about it again and no one got back to me. I really don’t like people in my apt when I’m not there, so we just lived with it. I shouldn’t HAVE to ask them to follow up, are you kidding? That was a huge disaster and they should have been on top of it.
Maintenance is ok. Several apts had AC problems throughout summer. Ours only went out 3 times and someone usually came within a few hours. Often they would say they’d be there in 30 minutes, only to arrive 2 hours later. (Once was when we got back from a late show after 11pm. Not okay.) Another time it took them 3 days to change a light bulb (really high ceilings, I swear I’m not THAT useless), despite their «24 hour» policy. They said it was because they were having so many AC issues in other apts. Wow, none of these things are great to hear.
And it’s not really anything the apt can control, but for what it’s worth the water here is VERY hard. The shower door is caked with mineral deposit after one use. And strangely, the water that comes from the bathroom sinks first thing in the morning REEEEEEKS of horrific-​ness. It goes away after 20 seconds or so, but damn is that a foul wake-​up smell.
Overall, I used to adore coming home to my apartment. Very sound-​proof and upscale with nice details like dimmers in the bathrooms for a more gentle wake-​up, non-​fluorescent lighting in the kitchen, stainless steel fridge, etc. But especially after you factor in electricity (which is allegedly a better rate because of the way they do it but we always had a horrifically high bill), it’s just too damn pricey. Great view but glad we’re spending way less on rent where we live now.

This is an absolutely terrifying building. Having worked here for three years it has become painfully evident that management simply doesn’t care about dangerous situations… namely the elevators.
As another reviewer mentioned, getting stuck on the elevators here is a routine proposition. At least once weekly, an elevator behaves oddly. Just today, on my way down to lunch, Car 16 slammed to a stop at the 4^th floor. We stood there for about 30 seconds until the elevator started up again and carried us down.
A more frightening occurrence happened last month. For some inexplicable reason, the elevators in the building… except for one… all shutdown promptly at 7pm. If you are in one when it shuts down, it carries you to the first floor and stops… without the doors opening. On this occasion i pressed the red emergency button and waited for response. No response came. I started beating on the doors and screaming until someone from security said they were working on getting me out. This is a terrifying position to be in. When i went to the management office the next day to report it, the blank stares from the staff were bewildering. They actually have the elevators programmed to shut down and trap you. Apparently, false imprisonment and risking your safety means nothing to these people.
Take your money to a building which cares more about the people in it.

Lived here for a year and enjoyed it!
So we moved in after getting a great move-​in special. We did not have to pay a security deposit or pay for parking for 2 cars yay! Great location next to the DART train and within walking distance to downtown parks, Main St, and lots of places to eat. We had never experienced high-​rise living before and definitely do not regret it.
However, not a fan of the parking garage because it is tight and spaces seemed limited because there were some cars that were covered and had been sitting parked for months. Elevators are fast and wasn’t an issue at first, but were very slow at times and seemed to get worse before we moved out.
This place is a little pricey but worth it if you have the $$$. Building is very-​well kept and views are awesome. Amenities are great too! I never had a real issue with management and in fact, Mia was my favorite! I also loved the custodial employee, Bonita. She was so sweet and will always speak to you and ask how you are doing. I liked my neighbors and the place really seemed soundproof. I work nights so I never had any trouble sleeping during the day and did not hear any downtown traffic or the train!
Oh and they have a great team that puts together resident events to get to know your neighbors and experience what’s happening downtown. They are Micheal and Hannah King and they are such a friendly couple. If we didn’t buy a house, I would have lived here until we did, probably could not live in another ordinary apartment complex again!!!

Long story short: terrible service, terrible staff, not recommended at all. In fact, I really discourage from leasing there.
I moved to Gables Republic Tower in late August 2012. In less than a week a fire drill on a holiday evening made us evacuate the building and the electricity was out for the next three days. On the first day I was supposed to start a new job which was the main reason I moved to Dallas. We were forced to stay at different hotels while the management didn’t even bother setting up the reservations. So I had to drive between different options to find a place I can stay for the night. They thought maybe paying for the hotel rooms is enough for them!
When I signed the contract, I was worried about the parking and shared that we the staff so she took me to the parking and said you have unlimited parking and as you see, there are many spots available. Less than one year ago, they came back and said that the contractor company for the parking that they share with the business tower has decided to put restrictions during the working hours and you can park only one car. Although it was a bad change that wasn’t allowing any of my guests to park, I didn’t say anything. In June 2013 my C class Mercedes was hit by another car in the rear side when they were pulling out their car in the tiny parking spots they have. It costed me $ 1200 to fix it before I sell it under price two months later in August. Contacting the management office who never shared the information of the parking management with me, they didn’t take any action and they were not worried about protecting my property.
After I bought the new car (a 2014 E class which costed $ 61k), since the car was wider, I had to park the car by taking some extra inches on the line from the next spot just to be able to open the door without hitting the wall or next car. I got two notices for this at two different times and immediately contacted the management office (David Roland was the new management at this point) and no action was taken.
A few weeks back I got a call in middle of a meeting at work that they’re trying to boot my car while I had taken my car to work. I said I’m not there and immediately sent an email to David Roland with my concerns about my property. I never heard back.
This morning I had my dog in my hands to put in my car and board for the day when I saw that my car is booted for being a few inches over the line. I had a very important meeting that I was about to miss and ran to the leasing office. As lazy as it can become, their hours start at 10 on Tuesdays and I saw two staff over there and knocked on the door. The first one waived her hand in a way that implied ignoring me saying that we’re not working now (pay attention to customer service in this emergency). Knocking more, they opened the door immediately and called the cops (Mia Murphy) like they’ve seen somebody with a gun who wants to kill them. Realizing the situation, they corrected their behavior and gave me the contact info for the parking company and said I have to talk to them directly (they had never given me their info up to this point as it was all about collecting my money). I walked there and found the manager of the parking company very upset. When I started talking, he said we don’t have anything to talk because he has seen my email and I have to pay $ 100 to release the car. Finding that this has become a personal situation, I walked back to the office when I faced with two cops. Luckily, the staff had realized how stupid their action was and talked cops to leave after taking my name and a note, but when I asked for an explanation of why my email is forwarded to a third party company without my permission, they panicked out, called David Roland, and asked the company to release the car.
Now this begs the question: if they don’t have any control on the parking, why do they charge a fat amount of money? I’m paying more than $ 1800 a month for a so-​called luxury apartment and continuously have elevator problems and I got in trouble with that twice. If they have any control on the company that allows them to release my car without paying any penalty, why didn’t they take an action earlier to prevent this terrible situation for a customer? Why they got the money and didn’t put me in contact with the company but when they’re in trouble, they ask me to solve it directly with a low level staff at a company that normally I don’t talk to in my daily life. More importantly, why did they share my email with a third party to cause a personal situation and cause all the troubles. I have a clean history and never dealt with cops and for the first time, I had to face with this terrible situation first thing in the morning on a busy day that caused me miss an extremely important meeting.
It’s a very bad idea to lease with Gables properties. These are clear examples of company practices to release my personal info and not respect me in an emergency. Just don’t do that.

Gables management at this location was pretty horrible in the time that I lived there. The rental agents didn’t seem to care about any of the building’s issues (maintenance, security, or otherwise), and furthermore I’ve seen some pretty unprofessional behavior on the part of the leasing agents and other staff (concierge for example used to spend hours on the roof shooting the shit rather than manning the front door so resident guests/​delivery drivers would be left with no way to get in). They do rotate the staff around between this building and the other Gables communities every 6 months or so, which I guess could be considered a good or a bad thing. It means you don’t have any continuity of staff, reducing building community with the folks who you’re effectively paying to help make your living situation habitable, but it also means that the employees who are drug users/​dealers (you’d be surprised) and make out inappropriately in the hallways (yeah, that used to happen here all the time too) aren’t in your realm of experience for very long.
For the excessive price of rent (lowest I’ve seen a 1 bedroom ~800sqft unit was $ 1360, and then there’s an extra $ 75 if you want to use the garage), I fail to understand how Gables upper management wouldn’t want to hire more professional individuals to staff their pricier buildings (2 bedrooms go for over $ 2100/​month). Sure the units are nice enough, and the walls are pretty thick, but if the office staff are incompetent and unprofessional and the neighborhood is teeming with hobos, why on earth would you pay so much to live here? Yes, the DART stop is right there, and there are some restaurants downtown that are open at night now (used to be fewer than 10 of them a year ago), but DART goes to a bunch of other apartments that are cheaper with better management (and much better restaurants) all over Dallas. If they fix the management problems and more businesses move to downtown (pushing the hobos out), it’d be a fine place to live.

Update: power out all day yesterday, and my apartment will be entered again today for an inspection of some kind.

The apartments themselves and the lobby are amazing and I would think that there is way more space than I need. They have a great office area and the staff is very friendly, but all of that won’t make me rent there.
Here’s why I was turned off:
— They charge these fake administrative fees and application fees. WTF?
— No washer/​dryer included but you can rent it. That’s utter BS for such an expensive apartment ($ 1000+) and NO utilities included
It makes the matter even worse that you don’t have a laundry room in the building itself in the basement somewhere.
— The price is prohibitive, considering that you can stay in apartment hotels and get a lot more bang for your buck.
Honestly, I’d pass and find another building unless you have money to burn or someone else is paying.

I’ve lived in various Dallas’ apartments for the past 5 years, each year trying out a new one with a new «view». I moved here from the Glass House which is a great apartment complex in Uptown, but wanted to try downtown living. This is the first apartment I’m renewing the lease on for a second year which, for me, says a lot.
The team members of management which were maligned in an earlier review are the greatest I’ve come across. They are always so pleasant and accommodating and immediately address concerns. Being a historic building I guess you take some of the old technology with the new, so we expect some slowdowns of elevators, but personally we haven’t seen anything but slow go once in a while. Downtown isn’t green grass and picket fences (although Thanksgiving Square is across the street), but everything (including Stephan Pyles, the museums, and the theater district) is within easy walking distance.
Quality of the construction, limited noise through the walls (they’re cement), downtown views and a unique art theme throughout the common areas makes this a great place to check out.
I would highly recommend the Gables Republic Tower, if you know or think downtown living is for you. A great community, rooftop wading pool and cabanas but most of all great neighbors and management in my opinion.

UPDATE* I have moved from GRT. I’ve noticed that the management has replied to my concerns. What I failed to mention is one of the instances I experienced with these elevators. A few months ago, I was walking two dogs and the elevator dropped 2 floors. (Do you remember this management?) The lights went out and I waited 45 minutes before anyone came to speak with me. Once there, I over heard them speaking about how I was stuck between floors and they didn’t know how they were going to get me out. Being that the dogs had not been to the bathroom, they had to go in the elevator. So I was stuck in a pitch dark elevator with two scared dogs standing in piss. After 1 hour and 20 minutes passed, I was told that I would be «extracted» from the elevator. They opened the roof and I and the dogs were taken from the top of the elevator. After climbing under the oily cables and mechanisms, I waled out and was greeted by no less than 7 firemen, all the staff and a few curious neighbors. It was terrifying. I went outside and there were 3 parked firetrucks on the street. (Management states that the elevators are original and one of the characters of the building. Is this the character you want to portray?) The very next day, I noticed that elevator 3 was once again running. I couldn’t see how this was possible. I waited a few days before I got on it again. It dropped once again. I was stuck in it for another 10 minutes. (luckily). After this happened again. I noticed they put the elevator out of commission for about a month due to some «missing parts». This place is a nightmare, and based on the managements response, it looks like they don’t seem to think its a big deal. *
Wow. Can’t believe I’m the first. OKay so, I live here and inevitably, I’m going to be way more critical then most. But I’m giving you my honest experiences since moving in.
Pros– Amazing views
Great Roof Top Deck
Direct Access to the Underground
Across from Thanksgiving Square
Beautifully laid out apartments and hallways.
Clean! Very Clean
Cons — (this is just my opinion on my experiences
Some management. Actually one in particular is unhelpful and not very informed
My apartment is halfway up the building and has knocking in the walls from the wind swaying the building. Management chose not to do anything about this and the second bedroom is basically useless in the fact you can’t sleep in there
Elevators — Constantly broken and/​or in use. When moving, they’re very fast. But due to the fact they’re always broken, I have concerns on how safe they actually are.
Fire Alarm testing. Has been going on the entire year I’ve been here on a weekly basis. It shuts down the elevators so you are stuck in the lobby if you’re downstairs.
Security Staff — There are generally two different security guard. The tall skinny one is always extremely friendly. The shorter chubby one never says hello and hardly takes his eyes off whatever he’s looking at on the internet for me to feel safe.
MAJOR ISSUE* Despite all the negative reviews, this is the one that concerns me the most. The lease agreement states that all residents are subject to a background criminal check. About a month ago I received a notification that a «High Risk Sex Offender» moved in. I advised the office of this who stated they were unaware. They said they were going to take care of it, but later they told a neighbor of mine that there was nothing they could do about it at this time and tried to say it wasn’t a major issue. I’m all about reform, but what holds true for me should hold true for everyone. As stated in the lease «no resident or permanent occupant can have a felony conviction due to a sexual offense.