The Blairs

I have been living here for about 9 months now. They charge you a premium to live in decent apartments — this is *not* luxury living. I moved here because it is really nice to be able to walk to metro — really easy work commute for me, but that’s pretty much where the good aspects end.
The move in was awful first off. There is no loading area to park your moving vehicle. We were stopped by security because we couldn’t go into the garage — which is the only place to move furniture in through. So we had to park on the outside of the garage and carry all the furniture through the garage, inside, down the hallway to the elevators, and then up to our floor. Basically, there is absolutely no easy way to move in/​out.
The air is really dry — there is a ton of static electricity… without socks.
The shelving inside the fridge is really odd. My Brita won’t fit on any of the shelves — I have to put it on the door (same with milk, juices, bottled beer, etc.)
Ladybugs. Even with the windows shut they manage to find a way in. So during the fall season when the weather starts getting cold — get ready!
The elevators are CONSTANTLY broken, as are the laundry machines.
They recently upgraded the laundry machines because the dryers kept braking… a week later one of the dryers on my floor was broken. Great upgrade.
Parking costs $ 90/​month ($ 120 for a covered space) … in ADDITION to your overpriced apartment.
Then, this was the final thing that really put the nail in the coffin for me… they are now charging you $ 5 PER DAY for a guest to park in the guest parking. I personally don’t want to be punished for having a friend visit. Especially when I’m already paying so much to live there.
I was happy to pay the amount I agreed to, to live here. However, I am only happy to pay the agreed amount when the amenities actually WORK. I really want to like this apartment, but I can’t help feeling inconvenienced and nickel and dimed. If all you’re looking for is a place without roaches, then you’ve found your place. If you’re hoping to live in a place with working amenities, where you don’t feel taken advantage of, I would continue your apartment search.

Rodents that management is unwilling to address, repeated fire alarms in the early hours of the morning for electrical issues, front office staff is incompetent and will tow your car from a spot you have paid for and been assigned due to lags in their system updates.
The location is great, and the apartments are spacious. But there are some very serious draw backs, even without taking into account the price (high and increasing) the bare bones amenities (laundry per floor constantly out of order, machines will only take cards — and the machines that authorize the cards are also constantly out of order).
That said, everyone is very friendly — even as they do absolutely nothing to address problems.

I have been living here for two months with my husband and his best friend. We have 1200sf two-​bedroom, two-​bathroom apartment and we really like it.
Pros: Location (3 minute walk to metro, Giant, CVS. 10 minutes to Downtown Silver Spring; rent (reasonable for size of apartment compared to newer buildings). Maintenance, leasing, and the concierge are awesome! I have had no problems with any of the aforementioned groups thus far. In fact, each of those groups have answered my questions or had solutions to my problems in a timely fashion. Elicia was a great leasing agent. Unlike at some other complexes, she didn’t act like she was doing us a favor by showing us the apartments. She was cheerful and relaxed. We felt no pressure to apply for the apartment at all. In fact, we didn’t apply until a few days later, after Elicia called us to give us the good news that therent had dropped. The apartment itself is pretty nice. The kitchens and bathrooms are nicely updated. Each room has its own thermostat and I was very happy about that.
Cons: The building is old so there are a few issues. There is no freight elevator so moving in is kind of a disaster. They will let you reserve a regular elevator but it’s a short time frame. Speaking of elevators, most of the time it’s fine, but sometimes it’s a pain in the butt to have to wait for 10 – 15 minutes for an elevator. I live on the 14^th floor so walking is not an option. For a 2B/​2B the refrigerator is kind of small, but the kitchen is updated and everything is granite and stainless steel. The carpet is a little cheap, it looks nice but you can feel the nails (?) in the subfloor or whatever is underneath it at certain spots. It’s not unbearable though.
Overall we really like living here and just hope the horror stories about crazy rent increases are untrue. Otherwise, we might have to start our apartment search all over again.

It’s an amazing place to be. I am a resident of blair east and me and my roomate just moved in last month. We looked at a couple of places around silver spring downtown and setteled for blairs. The main reason being the location. Elicia the super agent helped us find a good place here and did make sure that the apartment was perfect. For the first one month she made sure that our every request was taken care of to give us a great experience.
I have already recommended this place and have 2 friends moving in to blair house soon.

I have lived here for several years and cannot recommend moving here.
Pro: Location is great close to Metro and shopping.
Con: Non-​responsive staff. I have emailed the management multiple times with no reply.
Tenants who are clearly stoned often passed out in the lobby. Front desk people cannot or will not do anything. When you call to complain of smoking in the apartment, which is a violation of the lease, they claim they cannot smell it. Really? The whole floor can smell it but security cannot. Do not inform tenants of armed robberies. Fights on the property between tenants police called people arrested but nothing communicated to the tenants and the fighting tenants not evicted. Services were pretty good when we moved in now the services are gone but the rent keeps increasing. Changed front desk personnel and now they are non-​existent on break all the time. I emailed the lifestyles address and the property manager multiple times in August. It is the second week of September still waiting for a response. Cockroaches in the building. Security is non-​existent, access doors are not always locked especially in the garages. Large garage doors left open so anyone can enter the building. Guest parking impossible to get because tenants use guest parking as their own instead of paying for parking. Many, many dogs but not enough trash cans for the dog poop nor are dog owners reprimanded when their dogs bark ²⁴⁄₇.
Do not move here. It is not safe, not clean and overpriced.

Lovely and safe place to live by! Nice staff and community! Always have social events going on, keep residents connected and friendly! The senior property manager Min is extremely nice and helpful! She cares a lot to the existing and potential residents, and always being super kind to us. Really appreciate her a lot!!!

My wife and I have lived in Blair House since February, 2014. Overall, we’ve been very happy here. –We pay $ 1970 for a 1,100 sq ft 2 BR. As others have noted, their prices shift frequently and are variable based on the term of the lease. It’s true that sometimes they become cheaper than our current lease, but not by much. Parking is $ 90, which has us strongly considering getting rid of our car.
What we like:
–Excellent location. 5 min walk from Giant, coffee shops (Bump and Grind is our favorite), dry cleaning, restaurants (Oriental East is some of the best dim sum in the DMV. 10 min walk from AFI, downtown silver spring.
–Courteous and helpful staff at the concierge (especially Raphael, Carlene, and Cheryl)
–Quick maintenance response to problems in our apartment. They have gone the extra mile, too. I once knocked something behind the stove and they retrieved it for me.
–Good custodial service. The trash and recycling room is cleaned 3x a day and rarely smells
–The building is older and built solidly – we rarely hear our neighbors
–The gym is in good condition. I wish there were more free weight options, but that’s typically the case for most small gyms.
–The club room and outdoor area is well maintained and nice. It helps build a community atmosphere.
–We have the ecopad, which is nice. Overall, their environmental and conservation values match mine (100% renewables, composting on site, etc.). They also have nice bicycle maintenance stations, which I appreciate as a cyclist commuter.
–We have a garden plot ($ 50 a year), which is a great amenity. It’s small, but it gives us fresh vegetables within 2 – 3 minutes of our doorstep. They should let tenants garden year round though.
What we don’t like:
I’m deducting a star because their business office can be unresponsive and difficult at times. One 2 – 3 occasions they did respond to my voicemails (first trying to get the new code for the garden, second to follow up on a letter they sent me); often the concierges are unable to help on certain issues, which then become the domain of the business office. But their protocols on responding to guests need improvement. And the customer service that prevails throughout the rest of the Blairs can be a bit lacking. I’m not calling them rude, but perhaps they need better protocols or more staff.
We also use to have a great marketplace feature on the Blairs website, but they did away with that when they revamped the website. Now it’s just a useless forum, where it used to be a very convenient and effective place to sell or give away things you didn’t need. They should bring that back.
But overall, I see us staying here until we are ready to buy a house.

It’s been three more years since my last review and we are back where we started. We are now in the process of moving out because we have grown tired of the lies from the Property Manager.
Staff: The front desk staff in the building is great for the most part. Some of the weekend staff really are clueless. The Business Office staff though are largely unresponsive and will lie to you. First, in 2012, I complained that the pet policy required that those with cats must have them declawed, which is incredibly inhumane (it is like cutting your own finger off at the first knuckle). I was promised the policy would be changed and that no one should be forced to do that. I got a copy of the policy in 2014 and it was still in there. No change made at all. My apartment has an incomplete and non-​working sprinkler system in it. I called the office several times about it, including most recently in March 2015 about it. I was promised it would be fixed. It is now the end of June and no one has come by to even see it. When I received my rent increase I decided to fight it because of the sprinkler system, the fact that the similar apartments (which are updated/​upgraded) are listed cheaper on the website and some other things I will get to. We were able to agree on a reasonable amount and I was promised that the new notice would be sent out the next day. That was 4 weeks ago, so we are submitting our notice to vacate.
Location: You really can’t beat the location. The building is in walking distance of Silver Spring Metro Station (Red Line) Behind the building is a shopping plaza with a grocery store (Giant w/​Starbucks), a 24 hour CVS, 3 restaurants, a nail salon, barber shop, dry cleaner and a Peet’s Coffee. This is all great to have in quick walking distance, however, part of the Master Plan for this area is to eliminate all the shops within the next 5 years or so.
Amenities: Blair East is one of the better buildings. They have recently done a TON of work on the building. They have redone the lobby (for the 4^th time since we moved in) but it looks modern and sleek. They built a club room, which has a wall of TVs, iMacs, pool tables, and such. They also added an outside patio which has grills for residents to use and a great fire pit. There is even a small patch of grass with some lounge chairs. You can’t imagine how much you will miss running your feet through grass when you live in an apartment for years in an urban area. The fitness center was also redone recently and the equipment isn’t great, but it spares me from paying more money to big name gyms in downtown. There is a laundry room on every floor, however, most of the time the machines aren’t working so I ended up shipping my laundry out. The pool and play ground were removed without input from residents.
Costs: The costs of the Blairs are well… about the same as the much newer places around it. The apartment is bigger compared to equally priced apartments in the other building nearby (we know, we looked). Second, the utilities aren’t horribly expensive. We pay less than $ 60 a month for utilities, and we don’t really try and conserve energy. Third, paid parking means you get a reserved spot. Though note you can only have one car parked at the Blairs, you need to find an alternative spot for a second car. I will warn you that once you move into the Blairs your rent will go up every year and usually more than fair market value. My old unit is now costing me more than the listing price of a newer unit in the same building… as well as more expensive then the newly built 1200 E West Hwy building.
Apartment: The apartment is a good size. We have a one-​bedroom apartment and probably too much stuff, but it doesn’t feel cramped at all. Most of the apartments they have been upgraded to «ecopads» which are more energy efficient and have more sustainable materials. However, since we have been here since 2007, our apartment hasn’t really been upgraded. You can tell the building was built a while ago, but the common areas don’t look that way (see above).
On edit: We gave our notice and our 1 bedroom which we pay $ 1900 for a month is listed as $ 1700 on their site, with all the updates and upgrades. Congratulations Blairs you will now get less from someone else.

I’ve lived in the Blairs for 4 years (2 years in the Towers, 2 years in Blair East). You cannot beat the location; close to metro, grocery store and CVS is right downstairs, metro bus stops super close as well.
The apartments have always been clean and I appreciate that they completely strip apartments after each tenant (rip out carpet, paint walls, etc). Repairs are always handled in a timely manner. Blair East is solid, I barely hear the people above me. I never hear the people next to me. I think Bc of the price you get more families and professionals which keeps the building quiet and safe. Concierge is ALWAYS super friendly.
The management is okay. They’re not the nicest or most accommodating.
Leasing agents are nice. You have more bargaining power than you think.
Overall, the Blairs (Blair East specifically) is a great place to live. I would recommend it if it’s in your budget. Summit Hills is the only other apartment in Silver Spring I would consider living in. All of the other apartments are too pricey for what they offer.

I recently just moved to Blair East in May 2015 and I love it so far! 5 stars! I was so amazed by the polite and helpful staff at the leasing office and concierge upon first checking out the complex during my apartment search (I found it by driving by). The facilities were all so clean and modern, and our leasing agent Jessica was great — she sold us on the Blairs instantly! Even weeks after moving in, the leasing staff still remembers my name and I continue to keep in touch with Jessica.
The move-​in process was incredibly easy — had my bed delivered on a weekday and it took no less than a few minutes having the trucks drive around to the loading dock. My building, floor, and all the facilities (laundry, gym, study lab, apartment club lounge) are very quiet too — haven’t had any experience with noise and all the neighbors I’ve met so far have been very polite and respectful.
Not to mention, the stores within walking distance of the complex are so convenient! There’s a Giant supermarket/​CVS/​Pizzeria/​Bank/​Chinese/​Drycleaning/​Nail salon all connected to my building within walking distance and does not make the complex too loud or hectic.
Absolutely would recommend this complex to everyone and anyone.

Let’s see… I have lived here for 2 years. The first year, this place was great! They did lots of amazing things for their tenants like throw parties, throw appreciation events, breakfast on the go once a month, they had a lifestyles program with gatherings where the tenants could all meet somewhere for happy hour and get to know each other… Then, about 6 months ago, I guess they weren’t making enough money, so they fired all their staff (Even the ones that had been working there 40 years), got rid of the pool, hired the lifestyles staff (so no more parties, no more appreciation events, no more gatherings to get to know each other). They started construction and demolished 3 of the buildings, so now there is only their Townhouses, Blair East, Blair House, and Blair Plaza. Everything pretty much went downhill and we no longer feel like we are welcome here.
The good things about this place is the location-​walking distance from the metro and walking distance from the grocery store, a 24 hour CVS, and a number of restaurants. The concierge is also great for picking up your packages because they can sign for you and they are there ²⁴⁄₇.
The biggest reason we are choosing to leave is the attitude towards their long standing tenants. They refused to work with us on the pricing of our apartment, but not only that, they did it with an attitude. They didn’t seem to care we paid on time every time and were good tenants. They made us feel unappreciated. :(

Do yourself a favor and RUN IN THE OTHER DIRECTION. I’m typing this right now with ear plugs in. I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on ear plus since I moved here. This is the second time our building’s fire alarm has gone off this week because of paint fumes… that’s right. PAINT FUMES. It happens all the time, sometimes in the wee hours of the morning. God forbid it actually catches fire. They’re going to have a lot of explaining to do for the hundreds of charred bodies who never bothered to evacuate because this thing happens practically every other day.
I’ve lived in some of the seediest apartments in Florida, but NOTHING compares to this prison. The entire building smells like weed, so you can guarantee you’re going to get a notice on your door every day telling you not to smoke weed, even though you never have in your life.
And get ready for the construction. The NEVER-​ENDING construction that begins at 8 am Monday and commences at 6 pm Friday. I live on the 17^th floor. I can hear work being done ON THE SECOND FLOOR.
The Blairs buildings are made out of cardboard. Oh and good luck getting them to fix anything in your apartment. They don’t like coming over when your home, but they lovvvvve comin’ in when you’re not! God forbid you hop in the shower and forget to chain the door! Happened to me twice.
The Blairs will slowly drive you insane. I’m tired all the time, I’m irrationally angry. I feel like a prisoner and I have no way of escape. I’ve been here for 2 years. I know some people who have been here more than 4 and they’re like zombies. I met a man last night who has been living with his girlfriend for the last 3 months, just waiting out his lease because he can’t take it anymore.
Good luck trying to break your lease though. Apparently, daily fire alarms and evacuations, and breaking and entering aren’t a good enough reason. BLAIRS PERSONNEL ARE BULLIES.
I can’t stress this enough. If you enjoy your sanity, your freedom and your quality of life… RUN AWAY. There have to be better options out there for you. I really hope this gets through to someone. I wouldn’t wish this experience on anyone.

Be aware, they rise the rent ridiculously for existing tenants but lower it a lot once you move out! We pay 2300 $ for two br but the same room is now listing as $ 1800 with same leasing period !!! I couldn’t understand their strategy at all.

My fiancée and I showed up to check out the 2 bedroom apartments. The immediate red flag and deal breaker was the really nasty attitude from the receptionist, who acted inconvenienced by our presence. I assumed that she was probably in a bad mood that she had to be at work after the holiday, but was pretty put off from her stank demeanor. On top of this, we had to wait an hour and a half to see an apartment, even though we were told the wait was 45 minutes to an hour. During our wait we were wondering if it was even worth it, considering our experience with the receptionist. When we visited the apartments, we decided, no, definitely not worth it.

I’ve lived in the Blairs for 2 years+ and even though we are leaving, we have been pretty satisfied with our experience. I have to say that I don’t really understand all the 1 star reviews — maybe folks have unrealistic expectations? I’ve lived in a garden-​style complex in Bethesda before, and in Boston in some pretty average amenity-​less buildings, so maybe my expectations aren’t that high. I liked living here and would probably stay if I could afford to sans roommate. I do have to say that it’s been VERY frustrating to have the pool not open this summer — so for this summer, and for that reason, I am giving the Blairs only 3 stars. Otherwise, for the overall experience they would get 4.
The pros —
Very convenient, short walk to the Metro, short walk to downtown, and next door to the biggest supermarket in the area (the Giant), a pizza place, a chinese place, nails place, dry cleaners, cute sushi place across the street, etc.
Nice to have a concierge who picks up packages! Recently all the folks at the front desk have been nothing but sweethearts. There have been some who were unresponsive and claimed to know nothing and did nothing, but thankfully, I haven’t spotted them in the last 6 months +.
You get an email when you get a package.
Management has been pretty accommodating and they are generally pretty quick at fixing any issues you have in your unit. They even fixed the grills outside (they were in a sorry shape) and have replaced them with new ones.
*generally* (not always) — we’ve been able to work our issues out with them.
The apartments are nice and spacious– we live in one of the «ecopads» with lovely granite countertops and fresh cabinets. There’s also very little noise.
Pet friendly. Cheap utilities (under $ 40 every month for LARGE 2 bed).
The Cons —
Prices have gone up — expensive: We were looking to switch from sharing with a roommate (we had a BIG 2 bed for about $ 2200) and could not find a 1 bedroom in our price range. Every year rent goes up a little. Sometimes they have specials such as waiving the application fee, or a month free, but you have to be here to sign the lease just at the right time. This time when we went to the leasing office we were told the special «just ended» even though it was still on the website. Call and make sure!
There was a span of time when the elevators were being renovated for a few months that alarms were going off every few days for WEEKS. Luckily, that’s over. But it was surprisingly traumatic — these are the loudest alarms I’ve heard in my life, and I thought I was having a heart attack when I heard them. I guess if there’s ever a real fire, you’ll definitely wake up.
The construction/​alarms/​etc noise will affect those who work the night shift or work from home the most. If you work regular hours, you’ll likely miss these.
Parking is $ 75 bucks a month for the open air lot, and $ 95 bucks a month for a garage spot. If you don’t have a car, they knocked $ 25 bucks off our rent the first year, it wasn’t available after that.
The pool is closed indefinitely. It’s not clear why they wouldn’t open it this summer (the construction was delayed and no contract was put in place to clean it/​open it) other than management being difficult. Pay a little extra and open the pool! C’mon.

I can’t believe they haven’t turned on the AC yet. It is 78 degrees inside our apartment and the only option we have is heat… If you’re considering moving here, make sure they show you an apartment on an upper floor, where it’s really hot right now.

You can do better. And you can definitely do better for your 1700 — 2500 budget than these «renovated» apartments in SILVER SPRING. The pricing is kind of ridiculous, and they will inevitably raise it for the next year.
Here’s what I love about the Blairs: After the apartment two floors up flooded their toilet — so much so that it flooded OUR bathroom (just imagine the delicious smells coming out of that place)… we had to FIGHT the Blairs for them to even come help clean up.
After this incident, the same thing happened AGAIN months later. We were so annoyed and felt the apartment was not even sanitary for living until they resolved the issue — but they were unaccommodating and offered to move us to a more expensive unit only if we signed a year lease and found a sublet for our waste-​filled apartment. Now that’s service, people!
Overall, the staff was slow to respond to most concerns and very uncaring about issues that had to do with their building. Our gated key entry was never fixed in the year we were there, despite bringing it to their attention nearly every week. With this type of service and price, why not just live some place nicer?

In December I signed another lease to stay here for another year. My first year here was great!!! Nice pool (although crowded) great facilities for dogs (the reason I moved here in the first place) and my utilities where included for not much more than I was paying at a (much newer) apartment building across the street (the veridian). Sounds fantastic right? Well sometime in August they announced the pool would close and not re open due to construction… OK I can live with that… I resign my renewal notice in December and I agree to pay about 100 $ more per month for the same deal… Average rent increase for this area I suppose event though my amenities are now cut back because of no pool… In late January (less than 30 days after I re sign) a note is put on my door saying they are now charging for utilities… It’s approx 50 $ per month… Now my rent has gone up $ 150 … If this has been disclosed to me during my new agreement I wouldn’t have been upset and would still have resigned my lease but I think sneaking it in less than 30 days after signing my lease is shady and bad business! When I called to discuss I was told I should have read the fine print… From the contact I signed over a year ago not the renewal agreement. Next… You can clearly see they are cutting back everywhere!!! The shared laundry machines have mold growing in the soap dispensers. The elevators are constantly breaking down, water stains on the walls in the hallway from leaks… And so much more. The only reason I give it 2 stars is because the maintenance staff is so nice and they work very hard but it’s clear they aren’t getting any help to take care of the buildings or being provided with quality tools and products to fix things with. I write this review today because the last of the three reason’s for me moving here (the dog park) is currently being torn up and taken apart! They «replacement» dog park is constructed of a nasty pet un-​friendly concrete pad less than a quarter the size of the original one on the opposite side of the parking lot next to a busy road. It reminds Me of the solitary confinement exercise yard in prison movies and that’s what I am now supposed to use and «enjoy» with my dog… It’s definitely time to move!

I’ve lived in The Blairs for a little over a year and I’m pretty happy here. When I was apartment hunting, I relied a lot on reviews like this so I figured I’d go ahead and give back.
I found that a lot of people didn’t give pricing when doing their reviews, and this was important to me while apartment hunting so I’ll give you the low down. I have a 588 sq foot studio in Blair East and I signed on for $ 1675 a month. Now that I just passed the year mark, my rent got raised to $ 1715 a month. Parking is $ 75 bucks a month for the open air lot, and $ 95 bucks a month for a garage spot. If you don’t have a car, they’ll knock $ 25 bucks off your rent (I think). Apparently, all utilities are included in every building but East. In Blair East, we pay partial electric. (All of the buildings will eventually move toward paying partial electric if I recall correctly). My electric bill has been anywhere from 8 bucks to 22 bucks a month. So yes, this apartment is pricey, but you’re paying for the proximity to the metro and the fancy amenities.
There are 3 washers and 3 dryers on every floor, and they’re card operated. It’s $ 1.75 to wash and $ 1.75 to dry. They’re the really nice, super-​fancy front loading high efficiency washers.
If you’re looking to live close to the metro, this is about as close to the metro as you’ll ever get. It’s super convenient. Also, the grocery store (Giant) is next to the complex, as well as CVS and a few places to eat. Also, downtown Silver Spring is a close walk (maybe 10 min?), and that’s a nice area for things to do and places to eat.
One of the reviewers said they’re always doing work/​construction. Honestly, I work a normal 40 hour a week job, so I’m never home when all the major work is going on so I don’t notice a thing.
These apartments are pet-​friendly, but I don’t own a pet, so I can’t speak to what it’s like to have an animal here.
Just to let you know though, the pool is closed at least for next year, if not for a few years… they’re doing some major construction on a building near the pool so they’re shutting the pool down.
My apartment itself is very nice. I have a large walk in closet, the kitchen is really big for a studio (with granite countertops!), and the space is absolutely perfect. Also, this building was built in the 50’s or something (when they actually built buildings right) and so there’s actually concrete between the walls, and I can’t hear my neighbors at all. I’m pretty happy that the walls are not paper-​thin.
I’ve never had any problems with any of the staff. The front desk staff are nice. Also, whenever I put in a maintenance request, it always gets taken care of within 24 hours.
So, here’s my overall review:
pros: nice apartment, close to the metro, close to the grocery store, good management
cons: expensive, pool closed for a while

I parked my car in three parking lot for 15 min to shop and got towed. This is indicative of how evil the management is at this location. I caution anyone that shops or reside at The Blairs