Koi Apartments

Koi has felt like home from the moment I moved in. New management has taken over earlier this year and they have done a stellar job making it a seamless transaction for tenants and all involved. I have been here for ²¹⁄₂ years and I absoulutly love my apartment. I have floor to ceiling windows, I am on the top floor corner unit. I get such beautiful light in my home, it’s amazing (for all those dark and dreary Seattle days one needs as much light as can be)! Not only are the amenties, courtyard, rooftop amazing the service here, Matt is the manager in the leasing office and is just great. Handles everything with a very professional, yet chill touch! Super approachable and amazing staff with human touch. Then there is Katie, love her! Super great and responsive on any last detail! Great maintance staff too, Ed and Eric are just great. Always following thru and checking in to make sure you were happy with any maintainance request or what not. If you are looking for an amazing alternative to condo’s and single family home. Want to be completely taken care in a resort style setting Koi is your place. Love this place and proud to call this my home!

The staff was great — very helpful and responsive. I’d stay here but for the noise (is near a a busy street — probably true for many new apartments in Seattle) and I’m looking to get more space for my money (and a shorter commute).

I have just signed my second year’s lease at Koi and my apartment is truly feeling like «home». Before moving here, I had made a 3 month search of the Seattle area for a modern apartment at a competitive price and was delighted when I finally discovered Koi on the east end of Market Street, several blocks from the center of Ballard.
Those not familiar with Koi are in for a very pleasant surprise. The two buildings, separated by a large landscaped garden, are well maintained and represent state-​of-​the-​art construction. The individual apartments are beautifully appointed and are complemented by a large and comfortable clubroom which, along with two outdoor terraces, can be reserved for private parties and events. (I can attest to how enjoyable these areas are for entertaining having hosted two family celebrations during the summer months). I should also mention that one of the community areas is on the rooftop and offers a very special 360 degree view including the Olympic mountains.
Koi is «pet friendly» and at first I admit this gave me pause since I no longer have a dog or cat. But after living here for over a year I have gotten to know quite a few dogs by sight and admit to having two or three favorites. I realized over time that having pets around makes the community seem more friendly and for an elder like myself adds something a little special!
I would be remiss if I did not mention the Koi management and maintenance team who make every effort to operate and manage the facility with a level of competence that merits the above rating!
Looking for a special apartment? Drop in and see for yourself!
Bob George
Koi Resident

The place is like a kennel that also is nice enough to accept human tenants. Common areas, esp. the elevators are coated with animal hair, the plantings outside are wilting from urine-​burn. Woof woof.
If you are on the Market St. side, expect loads of noise. The 54^th side faces a manufacturing plant which makes constant rumble/​hiss/​vent noises, and truck noises from 6:15 AM. It also does plastic molding, so there’s a toxic fume ambience much of the time. Mmmm, I love the smell of polystyrene in the morning. The Koi buildings are super-​well insulated, never need to ever run the heat, but rather must keep windows open unless it’s subfreezing outside. Summer is absolutely roasting– was tough to get my room temp below 80 °F at night with windows wide open & a decent fan running.
Kitchen/​bath are ample, nice cabinets, sinks & countertops. Dishwasher & refrigerator are cheapo contractor-​quality Whirlpool, really noisy. Washer-​dryer OK. Roof-​deck is quite nice, probably the single outstanding feature of the place. Trash/​recycling very convenient.
The sudden management takeover was jarring, still hard to deal with the new régime, the MegaCorp Riverstone is not known for general customer-​focus. Shop carefully, and recognize that it’s no longer a landlord’s market. You can, and should, negotiate a better rent deal.

Final update. I lived here pretty much from the opening of the building until last April, about 2 years total. It changed ownership twice in that time, and changed management once. After the management change things were a bit questionable for about 2 months. That was when I wrote my old review below.
However, once they got the hang of things it went back to being a great place to live.
Pros:
–Management is great, very friendly and helpful.
–The apartments are very nice, mid range appliances, but probably mid-​high for apartments.
–The location is good, far enough away from the fire station and 15^th that it is pretty quiet, but close enough to walk anywhere downtown ballard.
–The common areas are really nice and great for hosting parties.
–The park next door is a great place to spend some time
Cons:
–The floors are a very obviously fake wood. It looks quite tacky.
–speaking of floors, they are not sound proof at all (or I had someone living above me that exclusively jumped to get around their apartment)
–The gym is pretty terrible, for the price of the apartment I don’t want to have to also pay for a gym membership.
–There are some extremely loud dogs here. There used to be one (didn’t hear it for maybe the last 2 months or so) that sounded like it was roughly the size of an elephant.

The leasing agent was nice but she tried too hard to push a more expensive 1 bedroom when I really just wanted a studio.
Their pricing is on par with their competitors, based on the amenities I think they were asking too much.
All in all, it was a nice tour, and seems like a decent place to live. But, to be honest I would only rent from them as a last resort. Plus I didn’t like the placement of their courtyard. Didn’t give you a real feel of privacy.

The new management company took a while to iron out the kinks, but I feel like Koi is now awesome again. Everything is online, and I think the new interface is actually better than the old one. You can book community rooms, pay rent, get package notifications, and see posts from other tenants in the building. Definitely a step up from before.
The elevator cleanliness could improve, but I think living in a dog-​friendly building has a lot to do with it.
The fancy cappuccino/​coffee/​hot chocolate machine in the community room is great, and bottled waters in the gym is also a nice perk.
There are a lot of young couples in the building — mostly working professionals. Everyone I’ve run into seems really nice. We just renewed our lease for another year, and are excited to stay.

Old review:
This property has been sold, and its new name is simply KOI.
My review would have been 4 ½ stars, BUT we received notice our NEW management company receives the LOWEST rating I’ve ever seen on Unilocal!One star!
Their name is RIVERSTONE RESIDENTIAL COMPANY.
So if you’ve considered moving here, the lovely treatment we’ve received from Alliance is OVER. You may wish to consider this when making plans.
First Update:
So far so good for the first 3 weeks. They’re mostly not here. Small things are not attended to, but nothing really bad, other than overflowing recycle bins on the floors.
It takes them 2 weeks to cash rent checks. We’ll wait and see.
Second UPDATE:
No one’s done anything awful so far, so I’m upping my rating. Things seem pretty OK.
I think they may be improving Riverstone Management? We’ll hope so. Everybody here has been pretty nice, once they got up and running (phew).

Ivone was so incredibly helpful and wonderful to work with as we faced moving from across the country. Very flexible with move in and upfront with costs, unlike other complexes where we can’t know anything about a June move in until May 11^th! Still very sad we won’t be living at Broadstone Koi but it is just too far of a commute for us upon further research. Love the free parking, great storage options, LEED certification. Searching high and low and can’t find anywhere as helpful or well built.

We loved living here. It was truly an awesome apartment complex. The view was spectacular from our place and everything was very new and clean. The staff working at this facility were really on top of things and really enjoyable to talk to, especially Yvonne (don’t know what her last name was but she had blond hair). She was always very cheerful and nice. The common space was especially nice because they had a rooftop that has a 360 degree view of Ballard. It was absolutely gorgeous sitting out there at the deck during the summer. I love working out at the gym because it was never too crowded and again, the facilities was very clean. They had a common space near the leasing office that was super nice. You could reserve the room if you had a large party.
The one negative thing about living here was that our downstairs neighbor was super sensitive to noise. I don’t know if it was the way the building was designed but you can hear a slight echo of foot steps walking. It wasn’t bad at all for us because we hardly noticed the noise. Anyways, our neighbor would come up to our unit at midnight and complain that we were walking too loudly. The only irony of it all was that during the times she complained, my husband was sitting down in our bedroom and I was reading in our living room. I felt that she blamed us for all the noise that she heard from the surrounding apartments. I tried courteously telling her that we were both sitting down but she continued to complain that we were stomping around in the apartment. It got so bad that my husband and I became super conscious to sound and felt that we couldn’t be ourselves and simply LIVE normally in our own home. We resorted to gliding around the apartment to placate her. Eventually, our neighbor started to use something to pound on the ceiling to get our attention. I finally got fed up that she was doing this especially since we had accommodated to her by changing our lifestyles in terms of the way we walked that I marched down to talk to her. She eventually stopped banging on the walls. My husband and I also heard her screaming off the balcony, cussing at a van for doing garbage/​pick up. She also got into a verbal altercation with the guy/​girl below her for smoking. She was cussing and yelling threats around 10 pm. It was really nuts.
Lastly, if you’re going to move out of your apartment, don’t take the sublease option. We decided to move out because of personal reasons and also because we couldn’t stand gliding around to accommodate to our crazy neighbor. We subleased our apartment to this guy who seemed very pleasant. Our new housing situation was delayed so we asked him if he wouldn’t mind moving in at a later date. He said it was fine with it and happy to do so because he didn’t want to pay for two places. Well, he changed his mind over the weekend, went behind our backs and complained to Broadstone. This guy later threatened to sue us. We told him that we would be homeless and would have to pack all our things into a Uhaul. He didn’t seem to care because he HAD to move in that monday. Suffice it to say, it was a really unpleasant situation. Broadstone tried to be neutral but sided with the new tenant. I don’t blame them, he was going to live there so they shouldn’t break relations with him. But I thought the guy we subleased to was really messed up. Rather than try to work something out with us, he threatened a lawsuit. Sad that we live in such a litigious society void of human kindness.
I don’t think any of these situations were Broadstone Koi’s fault so I’m not going to blame them for this out of the ordinary situations. I was so glad we moved out. Now, we could walk however we please without being blamed walking normally on our floors. Having a crazy neighbor is not so fun…

I’ve lived here since August and so far, I LOVE it. The staff is great – very friendly and always smiling, the maintenance guy rocks – is quick, efficient, and very nice. You can submit maintenance requests online, and after it’s completed, the management company sends you a survey (e.g. they’re always looking for ways to improve, although I’ve never had a bad experience). I have one of the live/​work lofts and I’ve never heard so much as a peep from any neighbors through the walls or ceilings. They also let me put a little doggie fence out front so my dog has outdoor access. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing accessory, but I’m so glad they’re Ok with it because he loves sitting out there, watching the world go by.
Koi is a boutique-​ish complex; the courtyard is beautiful with bright flowers, thoughtful landscaping, grills, and a fire pit; design in the common areas is very contemporary, and even the apartments themselves (I have stairs in mine that are made from thick natural wood) look high end with granite and stainless steel.
So far, the best place I’ve lived in Seattle – and since I move every year, that’s out of about six places.

In February I took my car to Ballard Firestone for some repairs and instead of studying like I should have been doing-​I procrastinated and saw that Broadstone Koi next door was leasing the apartments that just opened. Now, I LOVE going around town pretending I have far more money than I actually have just to see what the interior of my dream houses/​apartments/​etc look like, and to get an idea for my taste AND prices around town.
I went into Broadstone and was greeted by Yvonne S. and asked about the costs for the apartments. She was super helpful and knowledgable and started showing me around the complex. The more I was seeing the building the more I was falling in LOVE with it. The large courtyard, push button fireplace, rooftop deck with INSANELY beautiful views of Ballard, the bbq’s EVERYWHERE and the (small-​but size doesn’t matter to this personal trainer!) gym near the indoor kitchenette and common room with free internet SOLD ME. I realized that I did in fact need to find a place for September, and although I hadn’t even seen the apartments yet-​I was intrigued.
Yvonne showed me apartments; Studios and one bedrooms (they have crazy beautiful lofts and two bedroom apartments too). I fell in LOVE with the one bedroom, but was still curious about the cost-​this IS Ballard after all and these new buildings are super hefty-​especially a green building like this I was anticipating to walk back to my car saying to myself ‘huh…if only I could win the lottery, or marry a rich man, or perhaps rob a bank…’ But Yvonne told me the different prices and my heart skipped a beat-​I CAN AFFORD THiS PLACE??? DEAL! I am a newly (ish) single girl in a big city and wanted to splurge and spoil myself for once. SO that being said, Yvonne was such a doll and held the apartment for me until my June 1^st move in date, and I cant tell you how flippen happy I am. The people that work here are phenomenal neighbors, everyone else who lives here are just so lovely and sweet.
Have you ever heard of an apartment hopping? Its when you meet your awesome neighbors, drink one of their bottles of wine with them, then go to another neighbors place with some oers devours and see their cool layout and pets (YES THIS PLACE ACCEPTS PETS! MY CAT LOVES IT TOO!) then, as you slowly accumulate more and more people you end at your apartment and crack open a bag of chips and are making dip, listening to Justin Timberlake Via record and its an amazing evening.
This place rocks.
And if you are wondering, yes, I HAVE checked out the other places around Ballard-​but the location is perfect, so what if the price is an extra buck or two-​ITS WORTH IT TO TREAT YOURSELF TO THIS HIDDEN PARADISE WITHIN THE CITY. I work in Ballard so walking is not an issue, plus I LOVE being near a grocery store. Free parking on the streets is the best too.
All in all, I have no complaints. This place is super fun to live in and big enough to have privacy when I want it. I hope this helps and good luck on your search!

Moving into Broadstone Koi was one of the best decisions I have made! I was never able to come to Broadstone Koi for a tour before moving in since I was living in a different state but, Tasha made me feel right at home when she sent me personalized videos of the units and kept in contact with me consistently! If I ever had any questions Tasha and the staff were always there to help. They made the process of finding an apartment online and through the phone a piece of cake! I couldn’t have asked for the process to go any smoother.
Since moving in this past week I have been nothing but impressed! The amenities they offer are fantastic! The rooftop deck and the gym would have to be my favorite!
My apartment has everything I need and it looks amazing! The finishes on the appliances look incredible and add a nice touch.
I don’t think I could have been any luckier when choosing an apartment! The Ballard neighborhood has so much to offer and it’s all within walking distance of the apartment complex! I would highly recommend Broadstone Koi.

If you need a place to live that is beautiful, this place will work for you!
I had a fantastic tour from Tasha, who knew all the sizes, rates, availability dates, and ended the tour by giving me a thumb drive full of pictures.
This is a beautifully designed building and has totally improved the neighborhood. Tasha is fantastic.

I am happy to say that choosing Broadstone Koi was one of the happiest days of my life. I have lived here 2 months now, and keep finding reasons I love it.
1. Every single leasing agent/​community manager is amazing. And by amazing I mean they went above and beyond to make sure I had all the information I needed before I moved in. They have taken care of me and and my son. I absolutely love them. They even had a BBQ for us (the residents) one Saturday. It was really well done.
2. The rooftop deck is a –mazing! Also the shared community space is great too. I have already booked it for an upcoming babyshower I am hosting for a friend.
3. My apartment finishes and everything are the best I have ever had. I really feel like I scored. The light is amazing, and my king size bed fits in the master bedroom!
4. Super Star points for being pet friendly. They love my dog and she loves them.
5. The layout overall is really smart. I have been in other 2 bedroom apartments that were not so well thought out. This one makes me feel like I have PLENTY of usable space. At the same time it feels cozy.
6. My furniture looks amazing in it.
7. Location is great, Safeway and Ballard Market are nearby and there is a park close-​by.
8. Compared to other apartments in Ballard there is plenty of storage. I came from a not-​so-​nice apartment that had way too much storage. The cabinetry and the pantry are perfect in my new apartment and the closets in each of the bedroom plus the entry closet are more than enough to take care of my storage needs.
9. Every unit has a patio. Unlike some other Ballard apartments, everyone has a patio. The patio is HUGE! I haven’t put plants out yet (that is my project in June.) but I am really excited to do so.
10. Most importantly, I have not in my life had such an awesome experience with moving into an apartment. I would absolutely recommend it.
BONUS: Oh and the gym is perfect. (for me at least.) The equipment is great, there are kettlebells, free-​weights, medicine balls. I have been able to do my own crossfit workouts down there. I don’t know whether the lady in the other review was expecting an LA Fitness in the apartment complex, but I think there is a nice balance of shared community spaces and really well thought out gym equipment.

I wanted to go ahead and leave a review because one is not-​so-​good and the other is a first and only review so maybe not too reliable.
I am moving from California to Seattle for a new job teaching at UW. I wanted to decrease the anxiety a bit by arranging a nice place to live within bicycle distance and near the BG trail to work so I could sell my car and enjoy an urban lifestyle. I am an anxious guy and I have owned my homes since I was 18 so I am nervous about the process.
I contacted KOI slightly over a month before I was scheduled to move and was please to find a very friendly gentleman responsible for handling the property, William. Even if the other review is fake it is true… William (the leasing agent) is incredibly helpful and the location is perfect. I have exchanged many emails and phone calls with him and even got yelled at by my husband for renting a small place and William put me at ease letting me know we could choose a larger place if we got there and didn’t like the one we had reserved.
He went ABOVE and BEYOND by going into the unit, giving us measurements, taking pictures, and addressing every single concern I could have possibly had. He has kep contact with me by adding me to the community emails and changed my lease twice to accomodate my fluctuating moving schedule.
I will update this review once I have lived there for a while but I also would encourage you to visit as my experience has been great. Below is a comparison of the various apartment complexes in the Ballard area and why I chose KOI.
LEVA– Older, bad Unilocal reviews, appears to be cheap laminate easy to damage, same prices, higher deposits and admin fees, across 15^th (busy street) from the grocery stores. Has some 1 bdrm units that are cheaper but with much worse finishes. Further from park (for my dogs).
AVA– Zero concessions and no discounts for being a UW employee. The only complex to be charging full rent and parking and deposits etc right off the bat. Seems crazy considering within a mile there are 4 – 5 brand new buildings with availability. Nicer gym, nicer roof, interesting but unconventional floor plan concept. Reminds me of a college dorm. If they had some concessions I probably would have chosen this place.
Ballard on the Park– All carpet = not good for pets. So wasn’t for me.
NOBA– New, appears nice, but out of the way, good prices for the looks of the apartments.
Belay– Same company as NOBA, had very little luck getting in contact with them. red flag.
Hope this helps. I’ll update once I move in.
UPDATE: Ok, I moved in. The process went well and I was able to meet some other leasing staff and I agree with others, they are amazing. The community areas are beautiful and the apartment complex is smaller so the smaller gym is perfect. AVA is HUGE and so the larger gym will probably end up being harder to use than KOI’s smaller gym. Ballard is AMAZING, exactly the semi-​urban environment I was looking for with anything and everything near by. The two grocery stores nearby make daily living easy and everything else remains within a walkable distance. When I got here I realized the place I had reserved was way too small so the agent quickly showed us 4 more places for us to pick from. Our current place is a bit expensive ($ 1940/​mth) but has all of the finishes of a beautiful condo that would cost more and is a pretty hip little loft style that I’ve always wanted to live in. It also only takes me about 30 seconds to get to the park next door to walk my dogs.
I feel safe (and I’ve been robbed at gunpoint so thats no easy task) and although it feels like home the amenities and lifestyle also makes me feel like I am living in a hotel and on vacation. Now, I just hope my job turns out as nice as my new home.
To be fair, there are a couple of negatives that I think simply come with living in an urban environment. 1. The street noise is a bit annoying, if you don’t have pets or want a view an inward facing apartment would likely be much quieter. 2. There are some things that were incorrectly installed in my apt (but they quickly fixed them and didn’t even know someone was moving into this apt until the day I moved in to be fair). 3. Weird, but there is ZERO storage in the bathrooms so a trip to ikea, fred meyer, or something will be in order when you move in and you will likely find yourself spending $ 100 – 200 to fix the lack of vanity space and towel storage.
Phew, ok. thats enough of a review I think. :-) Hope it helps.

My fiancée and I toured these units recently as we are preparing to move to Ballard in the summer. Unfortunately, we were not very impressed with the Koi building. The units are gorgeous with hardwood, laminate floors, and stainless steel appliances. They feel rather spacious, but cost about $ 100 more than similar units in the area.
The outdoor patio area is amazing. It looked like a great place to host a party. The lounge room that you can rent for parties though is awkwardly placed. It sits next to the rental offices and mailboxes. I could easily see myself throwing a party in which other residents were constantly walking through it to get to their units.
The gym is also a small cramped little space. The machines are all very close together. There is not room for floor workouts to be done safely. The gym honestly looked like an afterthought. A gym is a big make/​break point for me and this one was very unimpressive.
I feel like for the price there are other buildings in the area that offer a lot more than the Koi building. I really encourage anyone considering it to make sure you shop around.