Allegro At Jack London Square

Catherine makes staying at the Allegro pleasant. That’s not to say the other representatives and the community aren’t great by themselves, but Catherine really embodies true customer service and hospitality, far more than we have experienced at any other apartment.
The application was stress free, the move in was smooth, the surrounding area is great and the community is awesome. It’s also convenient to have a gym and business center within walking distance.

I’ve been living at Jack London Allegro since early January 2016, and overall I give them a B+. I’m generally very satisfied with the location — it’s very close to the SF ferry and the Lake Merritt Bart. There are a ton of awesome restaurants in Jack London up to Lake Merritt. The downside is that the closest grocery store is about a 1.5 away, so you need a car for that. I have a cat, and there is a pet store around the corner, which is nice.
I think that the staff is friendly, but they lack in following up on matters with you on maintenance requests. I’ve been waiting since my move-​in for someone to look at my loose tub faucet. I’ve reached out to Allegro’s staff twice about this, but they have not yet followed up with me on this.
I’m also really unhappy with the fact that, after two or three requests, the staff or maintenance (whomever is responsible) still have not filled the soap, sanitizer, hand towels, or toilet paper in the gym!!! I go in there a few times a week and it grosses me out that they can’t do this.

My boyfriend and I moved into Allegro about a month ago and could not be more happy with our choice!
The service is outstanding from the leasing office, especially Crystal who has gone above and beyond for us. The maintenance is so timely and professional thanks to Dan the man :) We have awesome neighbors who have made us feel so welcome and the overall Jack London area is the place to be! Bars, food, and blue bottle, what more could you ask for.
If you’re looking for upscale affordable apartments, great community, animal friendly and a cool area to live, come to Allegro at Jack London. We couldn’t be happier!

Been here for four months, definitely wouldn’t stay unless we moved to a top floor apartment.
Pros
— They’ll hold your packages for you and are genuinely pleasant to interact with.
— Maintenance is prompt and super nice people.
— All payments can be handled easily online.
Negatives
— Number one reason I wouldn’t live here — floors are super thin, I can hear the drawers being opened from the tenant above. If you have a heavy footed tenant above you you will hear heavy every foot step as a heavy thud, you will feel the vibrations and the apartment will shake. No amount of earplugs or noise cancelling headphones will help the thuds pierce through. It’s like having an elephant living above you. This will drive you insane. You have to experience it to really understand just how obnoxious it is. We’re particularly unlucky as the tenant doesn’t seem to ever leave the house so the noise is constant making it impossible to ever work from home during the week or quietly read a book on a Sunday afternoon.
— Number two reason — this is a dog friendly building. The dog above us will bark and cry for up to an hour and jump up and down on the floor and run across the floor which you can hear in detail. It’s absolutely insane.
— One of the reasons we chose an apartment instead of a house was we thought management would be able to resolve issues better than a regular landlord. This hasn’t happened. I’ve complained three times about the noise from above constant barking and thuds in the middle of the night that wake you up and there has been no resolution other than to suggest that we resolve it amongst ourselves. To be fair they have made courtesy calls but nothing is enforced and the problem continues. No advice is given, they don’t seem to have any process to resolve it, their approach is essentially fix it yourself. I’m of the view that we pay a fairly decent rent for a product
— Every few days of the week you’ll smell weed in the hallways and in your kitchen and on occasion your bathroom.
— Our kitchen is pretty tiny but not a big deal and we expected that.
— Leaving/​entering the apartment expect to meet strong stench of dog urine.
Really if the noise/​thin floors/​loud tenant was dealt with I’d be giving them a much more positive review but it was something we didn’t expect especially as they have carpet and nobody mentioned it when we came to look at the place. If you come to check it out ask them to show you a unit where the apartment above is empty and test out just how much noise you can hear…
It makes living here intolerable.

Don’t let the 5 star reviews fool you, these are people who are friends with the front office staff — notice how they keep mentioning their names? Most likely they’ve been hooked up with free movie tickets or some other nonsense as an incentive to write positive reviews.
The only pros that I can think of for this place is the location and the highly responsive maintenance staff. Otherwise you can do better for the price, unless you are specifically looking for a short term lease. The elevators are incredibly slow and usually reserved for move ins, the staircase is all the way on the other side of the building and very inconvenient, cars are broken into and bikes stolen from the garage regularly, and there is the occasional dog crap in the elevator.
Oh and tack on about $ 80/​month to the rent because water/​sewage/​trash costs are passed on to the tenant. Most landlords factor this cost into the rent but Allegro is the Spirit Airlines of apartments and every little thing will cost you extra. In addition, know that you’ll never see your security deposit again. They deducted over $ 200 for «cleaning» and the front office staff admitted that everyone gets charged this amount regardless of the state of the apartment since they need to get the unit ready for the next tenant. Essentially you get to pay Allegro the cost of prepping the apartment for the person after you.
TL;DR — it’s a convenient place to live as long as you don’t mind getting screwed.

5 stars, indeed! This review is well overdue! From day one Crystal has made living here extremely pleasant! Crystal is Allegro’s jewel! Extremely professional, helpful and friendly! Her smile brings you piece of mind! Angela! She’s amazing! She’s extremely techY! She went out of her way to assist me with something that had nothing to do with her day to day routines! AAAAmazing, that girl! And Catherine is a sweetheart! Oh but lets not forget about Aliah, she’s fun and easy to talk to! The entire office staff is excellent! I’ve also met the maintenance team! Alex and Ubaldo are both professional, helpful, respectful, friendly and get things done right away! Thanks to them the building is always clean! Gracias! Allegro’s staff is a great team to go to when something comes up. Neighbors are friendly… how do I know? Well, besides the fact that they acknowledge you in the hallways and elevator… Allegro has events at least once a quarter! The events are so much fun! You get to meet your neighbors and get to see the staff! Gotta admit that my favorite thing about living in Allegro is that is a pet friendly community! I love the fact that they provide dog bags near the entrance doors and doggy trash cans outside the building. Business Center and Gym, always clean and available to use when you need it. Unfortunately, the only thing that does not get a 5 from me is… THE ELEVATOR!!! Slow! Slow! Slow! Yet, little by little it takes you to your floor! Overall, its a very homie place! The fact that you have freeways a minute away is a plus! Bart a few blocks, another plus! And well, a short little walk to Jack London Square another plus! Great times living at Allegro! Thank you team! You Rock!

Been here two years and I might sign a new lease for the following reasons:
Aliah, Crystal, and everyone else on the Allegro team
Quiet, clean apartments
Nice neighbors
Keep in mind: They increase rent 10−12% each year and a current one bedroom goes for $ 2300. So it’s not all rosy.

When I sat down to write this review I thought it would be mostly positive, but as I put my thoughts together I realized I had more complaints than anything:
The rent. My god, $ 2,500/mo for a one bedroom in Oakland? And from what I am hearing, they are asking for even more now. Water and trash are about $ 80/​mo extra. You do get parking included, nice perk I guess.
The noise. I mean, you can’t blame Allegro for this one. You’ll get used to the train station after awhile, but it never stops being annoying. What is really unfortunate though is the constant stream of traffic on 880 makes it difficult to sleep with windows open. And these places really warm up in the summer… The walls also are relatively thin, so you’ll hear your neighbor’s music, their conversations, their late night activities. And your neighbors are also morons who will constantly be setting off the building fire alarms. That gets old fast…
Getting back to that monthly cost for trash (and the additional $ 25/​mo «service fee» to have their maintenance guy drag the dumpsters out to the street once a week in his little motorized cart), the complex is near a recycling center so some interesting characters come through in the morning and «sort» through the dumpsters and leave trash scattered all over the ground. Don’t throw away sensitive documents without shredding them.
The security patrol the complex rents is a joke. I more than once caught the night patrol guy sleeping or sitting in his car playing on his phone. So it’s not really a surprise cars or apartments get broken into from time to time.
The leasing office has high turnover. The crew when I moved in was great, never got to know the current folks. Honestly besides picking up my packages at the office (which is a nice service if you can make it during their 9a-​6p hours), I didn’t interact with them much. The few times I had a maintenance request, it was fixed within a day or two. No complaints about that.
Some other nice things: having a washer/​dryer in-​unit is nice. They’re small apartment-​sized versions, so it takes a few loads extra and sometimes a few more cycles through the dryer to get the job done. Beats having to go to a laundromat though. The fitness center is great, except it’s right off the street in a giant glass space and more than a few times some homeless dudes would stand outside at night and watch the women inside run on the treadmill. That’s a little creepy.
Finally, this place is dog friendly. Which is awesome and is why I got a dog. They have a pet shop in one of the buildings and the owner is incredibly friendly and helpful, they host all sorts of little events that are very fun. Your neighbors though are lazy and will let their pets make messes all over the sidewalks and elevators and not clean it up. That can be a little frustrating.
I’d suggest this place as a great short term rental, but on a 6-​mo lease you might be paying $ 3,500 for a one bedroom… so I guess I don’t know who I would suggest this place to.

No real complaints, everything was a pleasant experience.
Pros:
Office staff are all very friendly
Super fast, friendly & helpful maintenance
Not haunted (as far as I know)
Mostly friendly/​considerate neighbors
Quick walk to BART (& Lake Merritt & Jack London Square)
A washer/​dryer! It’s small but I can wash my clothes all the time.
Bathtub is really great (I had an older apartment, not sure about the newer tubs).
Really close to Amtrak. This is a con for some people I guess but I love living near trains because I like that they sing me the song of their people.
It’s a quick walk to the Oakland Museum w/​Off The Grid on Friday nights.
The walk to the BART doesn’t seem safe walking under a highway and all, but if you check out the crime map (google oakland crime map), this area is really safe compared to other places I’ve lived. I never felt unsafe walking to and from work.
It’s easy to pay rent online through the web portal. No mailing checks.
Cons:
I wish there was a grocery store within a closer walking distance.
Sometimes I got packages a day after they’re delivered & the notification system can be confusing sometimes. But at my last apartment they were stolen off of my stoop so it’s still an upgrade.
If you don’t like dogs, this is not a great place for you because there are all the dogs. My neighbor’s dogs scream/​shriek for hours every morning. Not even barking, like this long unholy wailing for an hour or more. And outside smells like dogs.
Don’t use Consolidated Smart Systems for internet. I don’t even want to explain what’s wrong with them, just don’t use them.

For $ 2400 rent a month I would expect this complex to have the windows washed at least once during the existence of the building. But no, they spend the excess profit made off of charging people astronomical amounts in rent on movie and sports event tickets for a small handful of lucky tenants.
I attempted to clean my windows myself because the black soot that covered the windows in a thick layer was making it difficult to breathe and effecting my allergies.
I dangled out of a third story window to scrub away the soot. Although in hindsight it was pretty stupid and doing so definitely made me a nominee of the Darwin Awards, I assure you that this was the only way.
The management of this building gives zero fucks about maintaining a hygienic living space for its tenants, be it the dirty windows or the mounds of dog shit on the sidewalks.
Anything over 1500/​mo in rent at this shit hole is too much.

I left a review previously for the Allegro early in my lease, but, as it is coming to an end, I feel like I can again share my experiences here. In short, this place is ideal if you work in SF and can BART to your job. Plus:
+ It’s only around 12 or 15 years old. So, newer than a lot in the area.
+ Pet friendly.
+ Great maintenance staff.
However, there are some issues.
— Marginally friendly management. The enthusiasm for service does dip after signing the lease. The folks are here to sell.
— Be sure you get a renovated unit. As leases come up, units are being renovated. I have an older unit whose W&D couldn’t be more worse (hello wrinkles) and the kitchen and counters are far from as nice as they should be for the exorbitant (for Oakland) rent.
— If you work a 9 to 5, good luck getting your packages from the leasing office as they are open from 10 AM — 6 PM at the most. There’s nothing more frustrating than arriving a few minutes late to pick up a package and being totally ignored. I suppose I don’t blame them, but it’s salt in the wound. Also, packages somewhat randomly arrive in the lobbies of the buildings, sometimes not taken to the leasing office. So annoying.
— Expect a healthy 5%-10% raise in your rent on lease renewal.
— The one time I called the security officer regarding a security concern, he couldn’t understand my English nor I his unintelligible, well, not so English-​y English
— Neighbor next door has had their car broken into six times during their stay here. YMMV — my car was fine here.
— Throw some artificial turf on the right of way/​sidewalk median so the dog pee can at least be a bit obscured.
— No response regarding a noisy neighbor; I guess I should have complained about it multiple times and more annoyingly.
— Management announced a $ 25 monthly fee on lease renewal for maintenance to take the trashcans to the curb… $ 25/​MONTH. Apparently the guy wheeling trash to the curb’ll be making $ 1,000s a month to do so. Would prefer transparency on why exactly this fee is being assessed.
— People dig through the dumpsters set outside /​every/​week.

There’s a funny thing about Unilocal reviews in that you generally only see them if something went wrong with your experience.
Well consider this a break from that trend. I’ve lived here for several months now and have been very satisfied with my experience.
Pros: Extremely helpful management (leaking refrigerator was fixed quickly and maintenance worked very hard to make sure the problem was fully resolved; the office stayed open late to let me pick up packages after hours).
Great location (8 minute walk to Lake Merrit BART; Love the Jack London Square weekend and evening life even if it is a little quiet at times; very close to 880 freeway)
Fairly nice apartments (clean, relatively quiet)
Nice amenities (love the gym space and work space)
Cons: Expensive (but where isn’t in the Bay I’m afraid) but not more so than a lot of comparable spaces.
I’ve also heard that there was a break-​in a few months ago. I haven’t noticed anything sketchy around my apartment thus far but it definitely surprised me to hear about this.
So here’s my ultimate point: This may be one of the better buildings I’ve ever lived in. You’ll need to make decisions yourself about cost vs. commute time vs. nightlife but I’ve been very satisfied with my decision to live here thus far.

BEWARE.
Aside from being located in a rather convenient location for those who work in or near the City, this place has NOTHING to offer worth the prices they are asking.
First, it smells like piss all around the buildings. Perhaps if you want to advertise as a ‘pet-​friendly’ community you should utilize the pet fees to keep the place clean! This is only a minor annoyance compared to others.
Second, as others have explained security is pretty much non-​existent. The automatic gates were not working at least 8 times while I lived there a whole 9 months. Security guards usually sitting on a corner or on the phone. Countless break ins in the ‘secured’ parking lot. Not to mention an apartment was burglarized!
Third, management is unfriendly and not helpful. There is high turnover within the leasing office which says a lot about how the place is operated. As a result the community is operated by poorly trained staff. I had packages unaccounted for numerous times while I lived here. Oh! and poor coordination of the third party utility billing we had to dispute late charges four times because of «problems processing payments» when bills were always paid on time.
BUT THE NUMBER ONE REASON YOU SHOULD NOT LIVE HERE:
Management does not hesitate to take you for whatever they can get out of you. With outrageously high prices for mediocre units and service they are scandalously overcharging. I was warned from people after moving in to be weary upon moving out as they will try to bill you for everything under the sun.
Sure enough, even though I took time to completely clean the apartment before I left, including appliances and windows, they still had their nerve to charge me for cleaning and carpet cleaning services. Please, I was barely there. Not to mention, the amount the rent would have been increased should I had chosen to extend the lease — the lowest option was a 12-​month lease at a $ 600.00 increase.
ALLEGRO AT JACK LONDON IS A NIGHTMARE.

Things have been heading downhill at Allegro in the last few months. The office staff do really care and try their best but the management just does not care about its tenants beyond the dollar signs. It’s unfortunate that the building staff have to be the in the middle between us and the owners; I honestly believe it has to suck for them trying to tow the company line while being aware of how screwed we are living here. Rents have been rising steadily over the years without any improvements in service or anything that affects your own apartment. They sure did a really cool remodel of the leasing office though! In the last year the management moved over to a new waste and water billing service and suddenly the bills went up about 25% for no apparent reason. Just last month we noticed a new «Valet Trash» service fee added that increased the price yet again. «Valet Trash»? No one comes to valet my trash for me. Our waste and water fees are now double what they were when we moved in while we have not been generating more trash and have been using less water since the drought. It’s just another way Windsor is jacking our money. We see good people who have lived here for years moving out as their rents go crazy and new people who will likely stay short term fill their spots. We really enjoyed living here once but see that our time here is coming to an end soon. There are other places in the neighborhood and it’s a great neighborhood, look around before you settle for a Windsor property.

Used to be friendly and efficient. Now rental office personnel comprised of drones. Prior management actually ATTENDED the funeral of a resident. Now we have robots who can’t bother to keep up the attempt to inject a spirit of community (while simultaneously emptying your wallet) as did previous management. While this aspect of apartment living may not be significant to some, the issue of SECURITY might be eye-​opening.
Security? One mentally undeveloped or addicted guard patrolling the complex. Security? Same guard playing with cell phone in car at night.
Result: Last week a significant burglary in broad daylight. This burglary comes in the wake of car thefts and other crime.
THE ALLEGRO HAS NO SECURITY CAMERAS IN THE ENTIRE COMPLEX, yet the complex has no problem jacking up rents to buy same in the increasingly hot Oakland market.
So if you feel comfortable moving in or living in a complex that has little regard for your safety but has no problem in jacking up your rent (length of residency and paying the various monthly charges on time notwithstanding), come on in – the water is fine – but there is no pool or spa.

This is a great place for the working professional in Oakland. Easy access to the city, minutes from gorgeous hiking and nature. It’s great. The staff at Allegro are so nice an accommodating, it has truly been a great year. I’ve never experienced such great service from a landlord, I’m sad to leave here.

My primary reason for writing this review is to encourage you to move to Jack London Square… we need you! The Allegro Apartments are the most affordable luxury-​style apartments in Oakland. For that reason alone they get four stars.
But, I love my apartment! Yes, I’m so close to the train station that I can hear the boarding announcements and the rumbles. But my apartment is large, airy, light, and comfortable. The amenities are modern, I love the little gym, and I’ve even used the business center when I was waiting for my Internet service.
Biggest con is not Allegro’s fault — it’s a transitional neighborhood. It’s been headed in the positive direction for many years, but we still don’t have a grocery or drug store. And, we don’t have real cable — Come on, Comcast!
But, this is Oakland living in so many wonderful ways. Walk to BART or Lake Merritt with ease. Dine in fantastic new hip eateries. Drink at one of 11 wineries or one of two (at least) fine beer brewing establishments. And smell the roasting coffee from three wonderful coffee makers.

We’ve lived here nearly ten years, believe it or not. We were looking for a house to buy while renting here, then decided to postpone that project and keep on renting. Also, we’ve been comfortable enough here, not to mention too lazy to move.
Pros:
Friendly and helpful staff
Maintenance issues are fixed quickly.
Gym is surprisingly good, unless you’re very persnickety. You don’t need another gym pass.
Fairly close to Lake Merritt BART.
Spacious and at least the corner apartments full of light.
Very quiet neighbor wise, I cannot complain about any big disturbances during my time here.
Mostly friendly tenants who say Hi to you.
Jack London Square with its restaurants, farmers market and walking paths along the water.
Couple of very nice neighborhood restaurants.
Cons:
They really ought to upgrade the washing machines, which don’t clean your clothes thoroughly enough — the problem is actually the lukewarm water, and the machines which don’t heat it up.) As a European (not to mention gay) I’m used to super clean laundry done by top notch washing machines…
NOISE. You’ve been warned. I’ve never gotten used to the noise and polluting trains.
Soot. Prepare to clean up your apartment often.
Lack of a decent grocery store in the vicinity. Closest one is at Lake Merritt.
The slooooooow elevator. Slow. I mean it. I really do. And the volume of move ins and move outs, mostly during the weekends, during which time the slow elevator is not readily available for existing tenants.
There were a series or burglaries a couple of years ago, including us, but looks like the current management has gotten that under control.
Summa sumarum, i’ve been a satisfied customer all these years. But now it really is time to move out and look for something more peaceful with a quicker elevator in case it is going to be a condo…

I lived at Allegro for one year and just moved out last month. Overall it was a great experience. My apartment was nice and clean. The washer/​dryer/​dishwasher were adequate and worked well. Noise insulation was pretty good — I almost never heard my neighbors, and as far as I know they couldn’t hear me or my loud TV either. Appreciated that the staff signed for deliveries for residents. Plus I liked the little events and things they’d do for residents — free carwash day, free Sunday brunch at a local restaurant, etc.
The shared gym is equipped with pretty good quality equipment and TVs, and there’s also a little business center with computers and a printer (always out of ink). In my building, there’s a big private deck area with tables, seating, and free gas grills, which was under-​utilized by the residents.
As for the neighborhood — highly recommended. Crime is pretty low and although there is some, I would regularly walk around at night and feel safe. There is a good food scene, with new restaurants seemingly popping up all the time, all within a short stroll. 5 minute walk to BART or Amtrak, free bus to uptown, easy on/​off freeway access… actually closer to San Francisco than most of San Francisco.
There were a few negatives. In my building there was 1 elevator, the slowest elevator I’ve ever used, and it would go out of service a lot which was very annoying. The rent was going up a lot, but so is every other place around here … still it doesn’t seem fair to charge cat /​dog rent, in an area where there is apparently no cat or dog employment available (or so my cat tells me).
On move out, I was given a somewhat optimistic estimate of the cost of having the apartment cleaned and paint touched up, in other words I was charged more than the manager said at first. But the cost was still reasonable, no full carpet replacements or made-​up repairs etc, and the check was sent on time.
[edit] Note if it matters to you, cell phone signal is poor throughout the building and there are also limited broadband/​TV options. Personally I skipped the TV and got DSL, which I found was extremely reliable and just barely fast enough to watch HD streaming TV; my TMobile cell phone worked adequately via the WiFi Calling feature.

I have lived here for 11 months and have already given my notice to vacate at the end of my one year lease term. Here is what is wish I had known …
The Pros…
Low move in costs, relatively friendly management, convenient location, large apartments. You actually do get used to the noise of the train and my apartment is literally next to the tracks. (Although the soot/​dust is pretty gross). The apartments are pretty quiet for a complex and I do feel secure inside my apartment.
The Cons …
The one elevator in the building is ridiculously slow and if people are moving in or out it is almost a guarantee the elevator will be out of use/​broken that entire day. This seems trivial until you live on the 6^th floor and have hands full of groceries etc. and is happening every weekend.
Security is an issue. It is Oakland but … Cars parked in the garage (one spot is $ 150/​month) were both broken into and stolen. The outside door to our building’s stairwell has been broken often; management responded to this by placing a sign on the OUTSIDE of the door (i.e. the street side) about how the door was broken but will be fixed soon. Quite an invitation to enter. I have found a homeless person sleeping next to the elevator on my floor at 6am on my way to work twice now. Also, anything you throw away is thoroughly searched by people on the street before the dumpsters are emptied. (I know this isn’t an Allegro issue but one should be aware of this).
I am a dog owner and there aren’t a lot of places to take the dog out, I mean it is city living so it is expected. However, several tenants in my building have small dogs who constantly bark and mess the hallways, elevators, and other common areas. No one cleans up these messes and it can get pretty disgusting in an elevator/​hallway with dog throw up etc. Signs have been put up asking to clean up after pets but were taken down that same day.
I would have to say that the worst con is the classic bait and switch that goes on here. Low move in costs, semi-​reasonable rent the first year, then they send a letter increasing your rent by 15%, car spot rent by 25%. This increase is not only unreasonable but illegal; the law in Oakland is a 3% increase only. This is for another 12 month lease, a month to month is a $ 1000 increase per month over what we currently pay.
Living here hasn’t been great by any means but also not terrible. In any apartment complex there are both pros and cons. I had planned on looking around to see what was out the at the end of my lease but the proposed increase cost per month for rent turned looking into definitely moving.