Penrose Apartments

Great location, decent units, OK amenities. There's a lot to like about Penrose, but the rates are no competitive and the noise from upstairs neighbors can be unbearable. The floors let you hear just about everything that happens above you. If peace and quiet is important to you, look someplace else. The floors at Penrose are terrible. I suppose it's not a problem if you can score a fifth floor unit, just please be mindful of the people that live below you. Oh, and there are the midnight fire alarms... Just go someplace else.

My fiancé and I moved into Penrose a few months ago and I have nothing but good things to say about this community! The complex is clean and conveniently located next to everything we need. Giant is directly under the building making grocery shopping a breeze. There are also wonderful local restaurants located within walking distance to the apartment. Our apartment is clean, spacious and has a great balcony. The kitchen is huge with plenty of counter space, a bonus for someone who likes to cook. I've also enjoyed meeting and interacting with everyone in the leasing office and front desk. They have all been so welcoming and helpful with any questions I've had. Great place to live!

This apartment complex on the the face is nice. However, once you live here you see the down side. Neighbors are super loud at all times of day even in the middle of the night. Notices to management go unnoticed. Constant noise and fire alarms of residents are not uncommon.

Mice, mice, mice...if u like to live in a home with mice you can have a place at Penrose Square Apartments and your concern with that being well ignored..After being tenant in there for sometime, l decided to have this disgusting mice in and around the unit issue to be the last one and l broke my lease and turning the keys in today. Especially when your concern, your voice are not heard by the managment team you get sick, this is very sensitive for my family and l get to see mice crossing the room and its drops every where, really sicknen . And in return their unsuccesfull solution towards that does not help a bit. Everytime l had to chase and kill them and photograph them butnwho cares.. Anyway stood up this time and l wont take this anymore and broke the lease and now they are saying l am liable for the fees and penalties bla bla.. How dare.. as if we are under normal circumstances. As if they stated that we are renting you this unit but you have to live with mice and l said ok and not satisfied now.. come on .. who would want that.. if the situation and treatment bu the managment is normal l would act normal but l dont see that. So l will remember and remind this issue with Penrose Square Apartment where you pay prime rent for the home that comes with the mice..

Lovely building and community. They won't fix their fire alarms. They go off constantly, almost always in the middle of the night, and continue blaring away for up to an hour. Always a fake excuse the next day as to what happened. Move somewhere else.

Stay away from this building if you value your sleep. On the surface, Penrose Square is a nice building with a good location and amenities, but beneath the surface it's crippled by two fatal problems. First, the fire alarm goes off in the middle of the night at least every other month on average. In the two years I've lived here it's gone off - flashing lights, screeching sirens, and all - at least a dozen times. At first the management apologized for the repeated false alarms, but over time it's like they've given up; now you wake up the next morning exhausted, wondering how you'll get through work, only to find an email from the management admonishing you for not evacuating the building and warning you not to tamper with the malfunctioning sirens installed in your bedroom. Second, the building has a serious sound transfer problem, meaning you will hear everything your neighbors - next door, above, and below - say or do. If a good night's sleep is important to you, consider living elsewhere.

If you all value your sleep, which I do, please do not move here. The fire alarms go off at least once a week but there is never a fire. It's absurd. Either someone is setting them off or the property just malfunctions all the time. The property does not seem to be doing anything about it. It is obnoxious and unacceptable. Please look elsewhere before moving here!!

We have lived at Penrose Square for nearly a year and are preparing to renew our lease. While I agree with some of the negatives raised in other reviews, our experience has been primarily positive. The good: 1. The apartments themselves are very nice. High ceilings, good storage, and very quiet; especially considering the size of the building. 2. The staff does a great job of planning community events and giving residents a chance to meet their neighbors. 3. The neighborhood is a lot of fun without being a drunken mess every Friday and Saturday like other parts of the county. There is a good selection of bars and restaurants and their have been many new additions in the last several months. 4. The huge, brand new Giant grocery store on the main floor of the building is awesome! The convenience can't be beat and the staff is friendly and helpful. The bad: 1. Yes, there was a major issue with the fire alarm caused by the extreme cold temperatures this winter. However, Penrose has made efforts to upgrade the system and we have not had a false alarm since February. 2. The concierge position is a bit of a revolving door. Some have been better than others, but the current staff seems to have their act together. 3. A key fob is required for entry and to activate the elevators. This is great, as far as security goes, but a pain for guests and food delivery. Penrose has added a late-night desk attendant to let people into the building for residents, but this service is unreliable. It's usually easier just to go to the door yourself. Overall, we are happy living at Penrose and would recommend it to others.

Some of the staff is friendly and the apartment finishes are nice, but most are incompetent, lazy, or have zero credibility because they are constantly trying to cover their tracks for errors. The worst part is that the fire alarm goes off for about 45 minutes at least once a week. One of the managers sends out the same apologies and assurances that it will not happen again. I won't name names, but if you run into him, he will sell you a diamond and give you coal. All talk and no action is consistent with what you'll find living here. If you enjoy your sleep, have children, I advise you NOT to move in here. You will get woken up in the middle of the night. The place charges way too much, and does not deliver. Penrose has had ample amount of time to get it fixed and they have not!

This is a great location and a great place to live. The office organizes community events but I haven't seen a tremendously huge attendance. A lot of tenants have pets -- Boston Terriers seem to be the dog of choice. I hear my my upstairs neighbors A LOT. I believe they have a young child and I can hear their child running and stomping around -- often annoyingly so. My biggest frustration is actually with food delivery and guest arrival. In my old place, arriving guests or food delivery places could call me on the "intercom" and then I could use my phone to "buzz" the person in. Penrose doesn't have that. Instead, all visitors must go to the leasing office / concierge (which is open until 11pm) and concierge lets them in to the building. If you're ordering chinese or pizza, be prepared to have the delivery people call you and ask you to meet them at the concierge because by the time they have figured this process out... they are anxious to get out of their to stay on their delivery schedule. Honestly, it can be a pain. Penrose has tried to address this by partnering with Delivery.com; however, the actual delivery people are still confused. On top of that, most drivers go to 9th STREET (opposite side of Columbia Pike), versus 9th ROAD which is where the main entrance is located. Also, there is NO FREE PARKING for guests. So, if you're having a party and your guests will be staying longer than an hour (first hour is free), then your guests will have to pay when they leave. It's not expensive, but again, kind of a pain. I have friends who live at Halstead and they seem to like it there. Although, I looked at Halstead too and decided on Penrose simply because of the "friendlier" community exterior, grocery store (dancing water fountain, summer movie nights in the courtyard, etc). Also, the Halstead does not permit animals on their top floor. Which kind of made me feel that that the community wouldn't be as pet friendly overall.

As someone who recently relocated to the area, I wanted to contribute my experience at Penrose and initial impressions. Personally, I've had a very positive experience so far. I actually discovered Penrose just by seeing it from the occasional pass-by business trips to the area and thought it looked like a neat community. I actually rented my 2-bedroom apartment sight unseen and am NOT disappointed with what I got. I had to work via phone with the staff in the leasing office, who at times, were not as responsive as I would have liked but when I reached out to multiple individuals, they all came together and addressed my questions / needs. If you have school age children, you should know that the school district is Arlington Co and the high school is Wakefield (not Washington-Lee). I'm not sure about the division between tenants who have dogs and those who don't. I made it known upfront that I would be bringing my dog with me and at no time was I told that I could not get into a certain apartment because it was reserved for a "non pet" owner. In fact, in reviewing my apartment options, the leasing office suggested available apartments were all over the place -- not isolated to one particular part of the community or floor. As far as the interior... yes there are marks on the walls ... even dents and dings -- but nothing, IMHO, that detracts from the overall aesthetics of the place nor are they ones that make the halls look "grungy." Having come from another urban apartment community in Seattle, I actually found Penrose to be quite nice.. the halls are very wide and hotel-like. I don't think the halls smell bad either. Quite frankly, I've seen worse.. a LOT worse. As far as the noise level... being on the third floor, yes, I do hear my neighbor upstairs walking. Yes, I hear flushing toilets and water running through the pipes occasionally. Yes, I hear people walking through the halls or down on the street below. But to me, this is all part of urban living. Aside from when my upstairs neighbor walks excessively heavy, it doesn't really bother me at all. Maintenance: I entered three maintenance tickets and the maintenance department addressed two of them the next day. One is currently still outstanding because apparently it relies on an outside vendor. For a community that is only two years old, I'm not sure why the window seal is tearing away from the window frame nor why my bedroom window crank would be broken already. But then, I have no idea what the previous tenant might have done, and don't care, as long as the maintenance team fixes these issues for me expeditiously. Overall... I'm very happy with signing a lease with Penrose. I love that Giant is located on the first floor of the community. I also love the valet trash removal -- you simply place your trash can outside your door by 8PM and it gets emptied overnight. While not directly located by a metro station, Penrose does have a free daily shuttle service that will take you to Pentagon City Metro. Most of all, I love the urban feel that isn't over-populated by 20- or 30-somethings but that the Penrose demographic also seems to have families. More than anything, you cannot beat the location!

DO NOT MOVE HERE unless you can appreciate extremely unfriendly staff, smelly hallways, barking dogs, and many more nuances to name the least. The concierge service is quite poor as it is not 24 hours and they do not do much besides collect mail packages for you. This place is not guest friendly...as you yourself must let your guest up every time someone arrives. This requires you leaving your place, walking down a hallway and getting on an elevator. The thought that concierge service cannot let your guest up it outrageous. The walls remain dirty with white patches of paint for areas that they began attempts at repair (has been this way all the months I have been here). The odors in the hallway are utterly ridiculous. Before you sign a lease here, take a walk around (if you can get in) and speak with residents yourself. The leasing staff will NOT reveal to you everything you want and need to know at move-in so make sure you ask as many specific questions as possible. This place is a nightmare. But hey - the location to DC is great! That is one positive.