The Edge at Cottage Grove Commons

Hannah L.

2024-05

I moved into 1400 North Windsor Ave in May 2022 (I was the first to live in my unit). At the time, we were managed by Madison Property Management (MPM) and I will be leaving everything about their management and care of the property out of this review since the complex is now under different management.Starting with the building as a whole, the units are beautiful and offer storage that you don’t normally see in apartments. The appliances are nice and the patio is huge (and private). However, the complex was built with cheap materials and it shows. Living on the third floor, the apartment runs very hot and humid all year– without my air conditioning running in the middle of the winter, it stays at least 73 with a 60% (or higher) humidity; this also means that air conditioning has to be run on a high setting all summer. Normally, slight humidity is something you want during the winter months, but the humidity stays at unbelievably high levels all year which means you have to run the air conditioning or just be uncomfortable. You hear constant noise from the hallway throughout the entire apartment. Starting in the summer of 2023, the fire alarm started going off at random times with no predictability– ranging from noon to 4am and almost everything in between. Initially, Bruner (the current management company) tried blaming it on someone smoking, but after the 4th or 5th alarm, they changed that approach and said the cause was an undiagnosed mechanical issue that has still not been identified. The residents are loud and inconsiderate and it is clear that Bruner’s “offsite” management is never onsite because the garage, grounds, and hallways are messy, dirty, there dog waste being left in the garage and across the lawns, and there is frequently an overpowering marijuana smell in the entire building; Bruner has made multiple threats about the smoking but nothing has been done. Bruner frequently threatens fines for smoke, trash, and dog waste but has no way of enforcing it and has yet to follow through to maintain the grounds and buildings.The elevator breaks several times a month and if the outage occurs outside of business hours, Bruner will not put in a service request with Schindler until the next open of business day– this means if it goes out Friday evening, they aren’t making a call until 9:00 Monday morning. It is unbelievable that in a building that’s not even two years, the elevator breaks 3 times in a month. In the actual apartments, windows are not sealed correctly so the constant condensation build up leads to an endless battle of dealing with mold in all windows and the leases have been updated to say the tenants are responsible for mold management. The gym is nice, but can’t accommodate more than 3-4 people– yet it is a space to accommodate well over 200 tenants.Positives: the units in 1400 Windsor Ave include storage units (no cost outside of the base rent which was $1150 when I moved out in April 2024). When receiving my first lease renewal offer, the rent increased $0 which is rare to find in this rental market; the second year I was given a $25 increase. The snow removal during heavy winter storms was prompt. Cameras were added to some portions of the building beginning in the summer of 2023, though I’m not sure how often they are checked because someone frequently smokes marijuana in the garage door area right next to a camera. Maintenance was quick to resolve issues that came up (my microwave randomly stopped working & needed to be replaced, my bedroom window sill warped due to moisture moisture), and a crack developed up a wall.I would not recommend living at any of the Edge properties in the Madison area because of the corners cut during the build process and the lack of effective management. I understand that renting in the Madison area is expensive so it may be hard to find another option in this price range, but these are major living conditions prospective tenants should take into consideration and run away from if at all possible.

Terrell Harper

2024-02

Don't even know where to begin but I will start with:I thought about possibly moving here for work. I have some friends that live in one of the buildings and they have talked about and I have witnessed racism and dangerous intimidation towards the few people of color that live in the building. I'm talking taking things back to the 60's. When talking with the other neighbors of color there is a theme: they all have there vehicles tampered with, they have the locks to their homes tampered with, doors kicked in the middle of the night, gas can left directly in front of the door with gasoline in it. They tampered with mail as in they took important mail from the mailbox but left perceived junk mail and wrote return to sender do not forward. These are on licenses, checks, and other important information. The only 2 people who have access to mailboxes are the mailman and the building manager.... 🤔When confronted with these issues the manager literally says there is NOTHING they can do. The tenants asked for more security cameras in the building and was told that they are on there own. The theme is this is happening to most of not all tenants who are NOT white. In the rental agreement it does state that they would provide a safe secure place for families. But apparently that is not being practiced. As whoever it is doing these horrible things ramps up, someone will get hurt. If you've had any kind of similar experience please let it be known. And let this be a lesson that evil and racism runs free through those buildings. Keep your family safe and NOT go there.

Andrew Close

2023-05

Are you looking for a quiet place on the East side. Have you ever wanted to live on an active construction site to be woken up at 6am, loud noises occurring all day until 8pm, and occurring all 7 days a week? This is not the place for you if you are working remotely right now even just one day per week. If you use the covered parking, you will need to wash your car at a minimum once per week if you want it to stay clean. Your car will be covered in dust, dirt, and other particles from the construction. Wrappers, garbage, and loose nails are all over the parking ramp waiting to puncture your tire. The land in this area is all under development for the coming years even when construction does “finish” on The Edge. Condominiums and a replica apartment are going right next door, drive by to see for yourself.There’s no security for the building. All doors are unlocked and sometimes open 24/7 until construction is finished in the Spring. The contractors rushed this building together and did a poor job assembling the interior for a listed “luxury” apartment. There’s no central A/C, the wall units in each space make a vibrating noise every 30 seconds, windows leak noise pollution. Management took over 3 months to complete issues with the *brand new* apartment that we moved into that we addressed on during the first week per lease agreement. The issues took 20+ different visits and appointments from contractors to come and fix things wrong in the apartment to begin with. This all occurred during only work day hours and led to constant interruptions letting contractors in.If you can come do a in-person tour and you’ll see how different some things are compared to the pictures online. Hallways have walls that are titled and not even close to 90 degrees. Amenities construction has been paused and dragged out due to Covid. Don’t make the same mistake, there’s plenty of better options in the area. Try again here in a few years.

James Bates

2023-05

I can agree with everything the other reviews have stated.I will also give my own review…first the management company is a joke. They are not on site.They don’t care. They treat professional adults like college kids who rent most of their properties.They don’t know rental laws and twist them to justify entering your apartment. Customer service does not exit. But rudeness is something they are fluent in. They send emails saying they will enforce rules, but never enforce the rules. Instead of providing you with answers, they hide behind the lease document contents. Again, no customer service what so ever.The parking is a joke…honest people pay to park their cars inside. Most people don’t pay and let themselves into the garage without a FOB for the garage.The 2nd building on Limestone Pass doesn’t have a community room like Gaston Rd. The lobby “is the community room”. Buildings across the street have access to our building to use the workout room and roof area. But that also means they can let themselves into the parking ramp. I had high hopes for this place but has proven to be anything but luxury.The excuse of “supply chain issues” to get stuff fixed, built, or done is getting really old. As soon as Channel 27 news did a story on the pool that was a hole in the ground for a year without as much as a fence around it, supply chain suddenly produced a building and construction on the site. It’s clear the owner doesn’t care or is a cheapskate. Much like the management company they only produce results when they are pushed with legal knowledge or making issues public.I tell everyone don’t live here because of what is on the roof, because that will not make up for the management company, the poor construction, and the lack of true security in the building. Most of the roof items have broke this summer tables, chairs, and even the basketball backboard.Every time a concern is brought up (examples dog poop in the hallway, dogs peeing / pooping on the roof, reckless drivers in the ramps that nearly hit others) they tell you we will check the cameras, then they say “it didn’t happen in the camera view”.For the price you will, you should expect better service than you will receive.

Vash Gore

2023-05

I agree with every review on this page. And can confirm they’re 100% true. The base of My patio door collects water in the summer/winter. Sometimes it freezes, depending on how cold it is. The patio door also leaks when it rains. The outlet in the kitchen will shut off all electrical power if used, package room is the size of a pantry, management tries to intimidate you with 5 day eviction notices if you go against anything they say. I have an emotional support animal & I’ve provided them with the documentation that states everything upon move in back in 2020. When I renewed my lease for another year, 5 months into the new lease I receive an email from NAV K & AMY B stating “ I need an “updated” ESA letter. There’s no such thing as an “updated ESA letter” and asking for an update on the reason why someone has an Emotional Support animal is AGAINST THE LAW. So not only will they try to violate your rental rights, but they’ll also try to instill fear into you with “fake eviction notices” . They’ll also try to schedule 5 showings a week in your unit ( with strangers + while you’re present or gone) when you decline to renew your lease. They have a unit on the 1st floor, and a few other VACANT units to show future tenants, but they will try to find ways to annoy you since you’re ending your tenancy. I wouldn’t recommend moving here AT ALL! Never renting with MPM again! 😁Ps: i just saw a mouse in the parking ramp, since there’s tons of trash around the dumpsters. Let’s see how long they take to address that rising issue.

-scarletSnail-

2023-08

This is the least responsive apartment complex I’ve ever tried to rent from. I say “tried” to rent from because no one will ever get back to you for a showing so don’t bother. Judging by the reviews of this place I’m fortunate no one responded to me. Although, the reviews don’t surprise me. I work in sales. If the company doesn’t even care about the prospects why would they care about the current tenants.

Lilly Wolff

2023-05

DO NOT LIVE HERE!! Me and my husband lived in the Gaston rd complex for two years and had problems the whole two years. The only reason we stayed for as long as we did was because we were trying to buy a house. The management is horrendous and rude and will never actually fix issues. We were one of the first people to move into the Gaston rd complex and were well aware we would be living in construction for a while. We didn’t realize how bad and slow the process we be however. The contractors never picked up the parking garage and we would have nails in our tires we bought at least 4 new tires when we lived here. We had fire alarms going off almost once a week in the building for the first couple months. We have two cats and our younger is terrified of any loud noise now and has been traumatized from the amount of times the alarm would scare her. We also had a horrible smell in our unit for most of the time we lived there come to find out the ac units were leaking into the walls and the hvac closet behind attached to our unit was also having musty smells coming from it. Instead of actually fixing the problem however they just decided to put a dehumidifier in the unit and closet which did nothing. I am a respiratory therapist and would go to work and be asked if I smoked almost every day because our clothes would smell so musty it smelled like cigarettes. Not to mention that anything you owned that was plastic automatically smelled. We had to throw out most of our plastic water bottles when we moved because it would make the water taste bad. I can only imagine what we were breathing in on a daily basis. The management would constantly send out emails threatening to take away our amenities like we were children but would never take action on people that were actually causing the issues in the first place. The elevator also constantly smelt like dog pee and people never clean up after their animals. This place is hazardous to live in and would never recommend anyone live here for your own health and safety.

Richard Howard

2023-05

This is the most poorly built building I’ve ever seen in my life. Why would you place a workout room above a tenant's unit and then act surprised when that tenant complains about noise?? Now we can’t work out at certain times because of awful architecture. Next, the pool was supposed to be built last year yet there’s nothing but a hole in the yard that’s collecting dust, by the way, the pool is in the most mind-boggling area ever, right next to another tenant's patio door. You put 200+ tenants in one building with 6 trash cans & act shocked when there’s trash all over the floor. Lastly in the winter, your patio door base will collect puddles of condensation that will freeze and unfreeze depending on the temperature of your unit. And in the summer, your bedroom will have the worst smell of mildew since the windows aren’t properly sealed, they had to give each unit a dehumidifier since the humidity in the rooms gave off a terrible odor. Your refrigerator will need service every two-four months, your electricity will shut off frequently, and sometimes in certain rooms/outlets, it won’t even work! They rushed to open this building. Poor execution of capitalism. Will not be renewing my lease. And Amy B & Nav K are such disrespectful people. Worst leasing agents I’ve ever encountered.

Bradley Quinlan

2023-05

The deciding factor of why we choose this apartment, came down to the amenities . It would be safe to say the property management either exaggerated and or lied about the following: Dog parks(does not exist), Community Spaces(Cement roof with a couple rubber tiles and some home Depot chairs), Pool (Theres been a hole in the ground for 12+ months), and Outdoor track (Weeds/ uncut grass), "Safe" Key fob Entry (If I had a Dollar for every person who parked/ entered this apartment that should not have, I could justify living here). The one redeeming quality this location has are the residents. Most people living here are nice. Yet, after speaking with a good portion of them, they share similar frustrations.

Lisa Woerpel

2023-05

Former tenant. Day of move in found patio door and screen open, air on full blast and apartment full of bugs- it was October. Next day, water pouring down the wall from A/C in master bedroom. While I was at work, staff cut 5 holes in the LR ceiling, didn’t cover my furniture, left all the lights on and their dirty Covid masks on my dining room table. That was the first 48 hours. Building constructed as cheap as possible but billed as a “luxury” apartment. Nothing luxury about it.Garage door never worked, drywall coming apart within months of moving in, laminate laid short of covering entire floor, floors are not level, cheap wire racking instead of shelving, HVAC vents to parking garage—my car registered 138 degrees. Place is seriously a hot mess. Stay away.

Alexis Jade

2023-05

DON’T MOVE HERE. Agree 100% with all the previous reviews. Landlord is nowhere to be seen or heard from. MPM sends you straight to voicemail and doesn’t answer any emails. Fire alarms I swear go off every week. We’ve already had one real fire, one carbon monoxide leak, and multiple false alarms or system malfunctions. All the amenities that attracted us to move here are a joke/non existent. Pool(empty concrete hole for 1.5 years), dog park(doesn’t exist), gym(unfinished with 2 pieces of equipment), rooftop (concrete slab with dollar store quality chairs and plastic running track). Apartment is already falling apart and we’ve only lived here a year. And we were the first people to move in…. I agree with the previous review, only nice thing about the building is the people who live in it.

Samantha

2023-05

DO NOT MOVE HERE! The owners of this building care about nothing but money! I've had appliances broken for weeks on end because they don't want to fix them, instead they want to fix unoccupied apartments for new tenets to move in. They disables the fire alarm on the 4th floor because they didn't want to fix it but it continuesly went off causing evacuation. In the span of 2 weeks we have to evacuate 8 time for broken panels and once because the owners closed all the vents in the garage and let CO leak for over 8 hours. Amy, Kari, Nav and Cory are all completely useless! I tried to solve an issue i was having in the apartment and i was told to quit calling them bevause they werent going to do anytbing about it! HORRIBLE PLACE TO LIVE AND EXTREMELY UNSAFE!!

Mathena Page

2022-05

I am a teacher that lives in Milwaukee and I deliver packages to make extra money. I had to drive all the way out to Cottage Grove for my shift today. I was instructed to go to 100 W Limestone Pass and deliver the package in the secured mailroom. I was able to get into the unlocked outside door, but had to stop in the breezeway due to the second locked door. I called up to the customer I was delivering to multiple times, and no answer. I could see the mailroom but could not get in. Luckily, I saw two people walk into the room beyond the door. One woman that clearly worked there and a man that looked like he was receiving his keys to move in. I knocked on the door to see if they could open the door for me so I could put the package in the room, or at least have her take the package for me. Unfortunately when I knocked, I got no response. I knocked again, the man looked at me, then looked away. Again. Looked at me, looked away. The woman did not even turn around and acknowledge my presence. I was standing at the door for a good 10 minutes and not one interaction. Call me silly, but I feel like even if you’re busy with a potential resident, you could at least turn around and say, “I’ll be with you in one moment!” Wouldn’t that be the professional and courteous thing to do? I truly think that if I had a different skin color or looked a different way, this instance wouldn’t have happened. I felt insignificant and invisible. When I began crying while standing there, I plopped the package down and left. The Edge, please work on your process for receiving packages! And please please work on your customer service and professionalism skills.

Cole Bower

2023-05

DO NOT LIVE HERE!!! Everything all the others say is true AND they will show your apartment numerous times before you leave. They schedule blocks only 24 hours before which while legal is just rude. It’s like they try to punish you for leaving too!!! STAY AWAY ITS NOT WORTH IT!!!