Apartment Review for Meridian At Braddock Station - Alexandria, VA

Quick Summary- Pros: Nice apartment, large for the price, convenient location. Cons: Lots of outside noise at all hours of the day, current tenants ripped off in favor of new tenants, amenities on the low end of the standard for this price and 'luxury apartment.' Analysis- Positive Points: The building location is a 7 minute walk to/from the Braddock Road Metro Station (Blue and Yellow lines). Reagan National Airport is located one Metro stop away. The apartment size is very roomy for the price. The square footage per dollar beats out other apartment complexes in the Rosslyn, Crystal City, Courthouse, and Ballston area. It is a secured apartment complex accessible via a key fob, which is used to enter through any main entry and the parking garage. Stairwell exits can t be re-entered through. Although the apartment says soliciting is not allowed, you ll take pleasure in coming home to ads, fliers, and takeout menus crammed into your doorway or slid into your apartment from the gap between the door and floor. Cars in the parking garage have been broken into for GPS devices and other expensive looking items left in plain view. Don t forget to have your key fob with you when you go to the fenced in barb-q area, because you ll need it to get in and out, which is very inconvenient especially when your hands are full of meat, charcoal, beverage, and grilling utensils. The complex is approximately 6 walking Blocks from Giant, 10 walking blocks from Trader Joes, and 9 walking blocks from King Street plus another 12 blocks to King Street s waterfront. It s a little over a mile and half to Target and Shoppers, but this is not a very convenient or nice walk along Route 1. Neutral Points: The mail arrives around 5-6pm, so if you come home during that time or before you ll have to make another trip to the lobby to pick it up. Packages and other items too big for your mailbox are left with the concierge. The night concierge will tape a note to your mailbox notifying you of this, when they get around to it. There is plenty of parking in the parking garage. Some spaces are tighter than others, and expect your car to get dusty quicker than normal. There is an area to wash your vehicle, but don t expect to have a nozzle on the hose. Also there is a vacuum cleaner at the washing area, but cost around .75 per minute. Big ass trucks will take up two spaces, stick out, or park outside blocking sidewalk areas. There is an Astroturf putting green located in the fenced in barb-q area mentioned previously. Negatives Points: Do not rent a North side (facing DC) apartment. There is a mechanic shop that works on Garbage trucks throughout the week from as early as 5:30am to 10pm. You ll enjoy the fantastic sounds of idling trucks, air horns, air brakes, squealing brakes, backup sound indicator, and much much more. Also on the North side of the building is where the dumpster is located so you ll hear the trash being picked up, and they ll bang the dumpster against the truck at least three times to get it all. If you don t plan on having your windows open, you ll still hear the sounds just a bit muffled. You can hear the Metro from the complex and the horn it blows for no passenger trains and when entering/exiting the tunnel. The Metro and VRE are actually much quieter than the garbage trucks. The City of Alexandria passed the zoning ordinance (NO. 4527) to establish the Braddock Gateway. So there WILL be construction from First Street to Route 1 to the Metro rail for probably a few years when they start. The good news it will take out the garbage truck mechanic shop. There is also Tony s Auto Mechanic shop on the East side of the building, perfect if you need your car worked on. Be forewarned that while, initially I was satisfied with the value of this apartment, rent will be raised significantly each year. The Meridian does not value good tenants. There have been no improvements to the building or my apartment since I moved in but rent has been raised around 8%. I was especially angry to see that this year, the Meridian was offering new tenants two months free rent while simultaneously raising my rent by 4%. Rental prices in this area have gone down and many buildings offered incentives, so you would think that the Meridian would want to reward good tenants. I do not appreciate having to subsidize rent incentives for new tenants. I attempted to negotiate a very fair deal with management that I would renew my lease with fewer incentives than new tenants were offered if rent did not increase but management was unwilling to work with me and uncooperative. If you are looking for a place to live for more than one year, you probably want to look elsewhere if you don t want ripped off. The neighborhood surrounding the apartment complex is low cost housing. Be prepared to walk through people congregating on the sidewalks and telling your girlfriend how cute she looks. The rooftop pool is barely bigger then a bathtub and REQUIRES a life guard to be on duty and NO Alcohol is allowed on the pool deck. The dimensions are approximately 4ft deep, 8 wide x 12 long. It is located on top of Phase 1 and closes around 9pm, so no late night swims under the stars because you may fall on your knees and drown. I ve been to a Super 8 motel with a nicer pool. The apartments are drafty. I called maintenance to weather strip my apartment door and all they did was put a door sweep at the bottom, sure it helps but it is still rather drafty. The sunroom windows are not well insulated at all, so expect cold air in the winter and hot glaring sun in the summer. To mitigate the cooling/heating effect to the rest of the apartment you can close the adjoining sliding glass doors to the living room from the sunroom, but that compounds the heat/cold air in the sunroom.