Sovereign Apartments

I’ve lived here about 6 months now and I am a fan! The manager, Gary, seems to try to run a tight ship and make it pleasant for the tenants. For instance: 2 repeat quiet hours violators were just evicted. Small incident of graffiti on the elevator door and EVERYTHING got repainted within 2 days so it would be covered. Those are the only 2 problems I’ve had. Can’t expect flawless neighbors, apartment life or not, until you live in a retirement community. But problems are rectified swiftly.
I feel very safe here. Access in and out is restricted. I have not had anyone enter my apartment without notice and permission. Have never seen shady characters about. I run in the early a.m. and walk late at night and have never seen or heard anything to make me think I shouldn’t. Everything you could want is walkable, from good groceries to bars/​food to Pike Place Market.
It’s also SO CLOSE to Capitol Hill, WITHOUT all the noise (which is why Gary directed me here in the first place). One note: VM hospital is almost within spitting distance. Occasionally, an ambulance goes by late and forgets to turn off its siren. That’s the worst of it.
Parking: not nearly as bad as I’d expected for downtown Seattle. It’s packed, I get home after 5 p.m. and leave at 7 a.m. and have had to park 3 blocks away on only a handful of occasions.
Converted hotel from the 19teens which survived the Seattle fires. Yes, it’s old. I think for its age it is well-​kept (and kind of neat). Things are a bit worn, but nothing is in disrepair, and it is CLEAN. When I had one maintenance issue it was resolved within 48 hours. The elevator is old as shit and has been out of order once since my residence began, but seems to work fine.
Price: Probably Sovereigns biggest selling point. You will just not find an apartment this size, this quality, in this area for these low prices, hands down. When I’ve asked my neighbors, it is one of the reasons they have stayed so long. Note: coin laundry is LAME, but what do you do? We’re in Seattle!
Other notes: my neighbors are awesome and also mind quiet hours. My big, hairy mutt is more than welcome here. There is a dog park 2 blocks down the street. I have had packages delivered to my front door without worry of theft. I’ve also picked up packages being held in the manager’s office, no fee, no hassle (except they do close at 5 p.m. like any normal business). Not sure how it was int he past, but seems to be no problem now.
Overall: some cosmetic dings, some ambulances, some coin laundry. But I will live here until I purchase a home.

Here’s the truth and the scoop. It’s okay. Great location, clean, but it does have problems. Staff going into your apartment when your not there has happened more than once or twice. AND not just one person. They fired one kid for going in and stealing, but others go in when your not there.
The won’t accept packages for you no matter what they say to your face, exorbitant fee’s, mail theft is an issue, it’s not very pretty or new or even newish. I think it has had the same carpet since the 40’s.
It’s quite and safe.
I never saw needles anywhere on the property or homeless people so ignore those reviews out there. The garage is also safe despite what other have said. Maybe I was just lucky where I was there that no cars where broken into.
Add on a few hundred to the advertised rent and you’ll have an accurate picture of what you’ll be paying. Gary is a good guy (the manager) working with what he’s got. It’s also great for dogs no matter the size.
Wasn’t the right fit for me but you might have a better experience if you’re new to Seattle.

The apartments themselves are cute and charming, if a little rundown — and that’s where the positives end.
The management company, Metropolitan Management, is truly the most lazy and incompetent company I’ve encountered or heard of in Seattle. I lived in the apartments for 9 months, starting in August 2010. For the entire 9 months there was a list of things in my apartment that needed to be repaired and I called and emailed and contacted both Garry and his boss Michelle repeatedly — with little to no response. Every single issue became a major headache with them; constant lies and promises that they’d fix things with NO RESULTS. Garry was very unresponsive and I had to email or call him multiple times and then call and email Michelle to get either of them to respond.
I looked at another apartment that happened to be managed by Metropolitan Management and the manager from that building clearly didn’t know what she was doing either, was late, and she showed me an apartment that hadn’t been cleaned or checked.
The common areas are a mess, mail gets stolen, and the laundry room door has been broken off and laundry gets stolen.
There was NOBODY in management available after hours (unlike the previous managers who, unfortunately, left right after I signed a lease with them), so when things went wrong at night, like an emergency exit alarm going off for hours, there was nobody to deal with it. I called the emergency after hours number, and it was the maintenance company who basically said we just had to deal with it until Garry showed up.
Shortly before I moved out, the apartment above me had a leak that ended up coming through my ceiling and into my bathtub. The hole in the ceiling got bigger, maintenance taped a garbage bag over it. When I did my final walkthrough with Garry (which took forever to schedule because he was barely available during his posted hours) he told me the new tenants were moving in the next day without having seen the place.

I’ve lived here the entire time I’ve lived in Seattle, just under a year… I’m still really on the fence about renewing my lease and have been agonizing over it for a month or so…
Pros:
— The building is in an awesome location. Close to everything without living right on top of everything… I can walk to lots of restaurants and bars without having to hear them after I come home ;) It’s close to I-​5 and bus stops and a 10 minute walk to Pike’s Place or Cap Hill.
— My apartment is very cute and the perfect size for me and my cats. It’s got a cute old building charm, and the rent is really affordable by Seattle standards. I even get to park in a garage!
Cons:
— I honestly think the company that manages this building (Metropolitan Management) doesn’t care about it much. The common spaces look like they’ve seen way better days. There have been 3 building managers since I moved in. The current guy, Garry, seems like he does a really good job with the building next door that he manages and wants to do one here too, but I’m assuming he’s not getting the support of his superiors at MM. We’re supposed to be getting more security cameras and more secure parking and some common-​area deep cleaning, and none of it has materialized.
— Some of the other tenants here are completely disrespectful DBs. They steal mail (which is um, a FELONY), break into cars, steal laundry, and vandalize the elevator, and leave furniture and boxes in the hallways, and keep the garage door propped open which trips the breaker, and don’t clean up after their pets, and… etc. This is where I’ve been most impressed with Garry — if he finds the culprit, he evicts them. But seriously, who wants to live in a building full of grown adults who apparently don’t know how to behave or be respectful of anyone or anything?!
I have to decide whether my cute affordable apartment is worth all the negative stuff, and thankfully, my specific car hasn’t been broken into or my personal mail stolen… but do I want to wait around until that happens? I’m not unhappy that I’ve been living here, but I almost wish I’d found a little more expensive place that was loved a little more by both its management and its tenants… If I stay, it’s because I love my neighborhood, my apartment and my cheap rent and have obtained my own PO box downtown (and maybe a car security system for good measure.) Or maybe I’ll move next door… Lease is up in a month: /

So, we’re now on our fourth building manager in 6 months. I miss R&L :(
The elevator finally works again, but my boyfriend was told by the new manager that she got stuck in the elevator for 10 minutes — and apparently, the call box doesn’t work. Excellent, right?
In the 6 months my boyfriend and I have been here, we’ve found heroin needles in the elevator twice (along with a bunch of other sketchy stuff), cars have been broken into, someone has been bashing holes in the walls of the stairwell, and that’s not even everything. On the plus side, the new manager was able to give us the copy of our lease we’ve been asking about since we moved in.
The heat works. In fact, we don’t usually have ours on because the building is warm anyway (this could be because we’re on the 5^th floor). I guess that’s pretty much the nicest thing I can say about this building. Oh, my laundry hasn’t been stolen, there’s another nice thing.
I can’t wait till our lease is up.

–R & L are gone for undisclosed reasons :(I assume it’s because they were too much of a strong advocate for the tenants while corporate poo poo were tired of hearing their demands for a safe housing
–Our car along with other cars got broken into (with nothing stolen except some candy) by a bunch of punks who I think live in the building
— the elevator that I thought wouldn’t break down. broke down… and has been broken down for about 2 weeks already. I normally would be okay with it, but I live on the 5^th floor. and I gotta walk my dog several time a day… and what about laundry and garbage?! Crap!
–I found a heroin/​crack/​meth whatever needle by the mailboxes. apparently it was the second one found. WTF. No way. Hands down, I am writing a damn review and deducting a star.
I understand that I am now in a city and need to grow some cahones, but I think I’m not asking for much to live in a safe environment, where heaters and elevators work and where heroin needles are hidden within your OWN apartment. DAMN!
Needless to say… it’s a nice… um. wait. it’s convenient. yeah, thats about it. Shame on you, corporate!

My husband and I lived here for about one year when we first moved to Seattle around 2000 or the late 1990s (?). The manager at the time, a big-​boned red-​headed woman whose name escapes me now, stole a portion of our deposit. (We only learned this when the building was sold, she had already left the position, and luckily it was only a hundred bucks, but still it was the principle and idea that their bookwork was so shoddy it could happen.) The apt was incredibly small, and it was hard to have two people, muchless two people and a two cats in the galley kitchen, but it had been recently remodeled and freshly painted when we moved in. I got stuck in the elevator once for about 5 minutes, and the cigarette smoke from our downstairs neighbor would waft up into our apt, but the laundry room was always tidy and had a great selection of Poz magazines to read. Perfect location if you like the downtown area and the neighbors appeared to be fairly decent folk, except for the crazy garbage Nazi nun… if she still lives there because she was too nutso to live with the rest of her nun crew, you’re screwed. She’s a total psycho wack job who would scream her head off if you didn’t recycle or caught you putting garbage on the «wrong side» of the dumpster after she had «organized» it.

For the condition and quality of the aparments I would give this place a three. I have lived here for about 5 years. Whoa! 5 years?! Anyways, now that I am moving out I feel the need to rate my stay at Sovereign.
I give Sovereign a 4 because of the manager Bruce. If you are thinking of moving there make sure Bruce is there. He is the best manager I have ever dealt with. Very professional, kind and understanding guy. He is not the typical manager that gives you hard time for no reason. When there is a problem, he is always very responsive and gets it done with a smile. I have never felt the need to move out of this place because Bruce is an extremely cool manager.
Other than that it’s a mediocre spot. Old hotel converted into apartments. Gives out that classic and cozy vibe. If you are a city person, it is the best place to live because you only have to go couple blocks to get to downtown. This was one of my favorite aspect of this place.