The Drake

Reasons you should NOT live at the Drake: - Expect no hot water in the showers for prolonged periods of time with no remediation. - Your utility bill will go up by $200 in the winter and stay that way for 5 months. - Your apartment will not be adequately heated though you paid $200. - Mice and roaches everywhere. - Water shutoffs. - Slow moving maintenance teams and work to be completed over and over because it wasn’t done right the first time. - Dirty laundry rooms and malfunctioning machines. - Broken elevators. - Unresponsive and rude management. Expect no one to solve issues in a timely manner. Most egregiously, in the days before my lease officially ended, they cleaned out my apartment of items that were still in there, and are still not able to find some of them. The responses to these reviews are pure fluff. Don’t expect anything to be done. This has probably been the worst rental experience of my life. If I can advise anyone to stay away - I hope this reaches you.

In general, the units themselves are good. However the manager is so incompetent! They don't answer your emails, they won't answer your calls. Are the telephones working?? When you go to the office, they are not helpful. --- I wanted to move to another unit within the Drake and the management office took more that a month to give me the lease to sign. I constantly followed up, but still took a month. When everything was done, the new lease was signed, on the move-in date I went to get the keys for my new apartment and realized that the new apartment is not ready and it took them two days to prepare the apartment. After the move, I paid the security deposit for the new unit and they said they will mail a check to return my security deposit of the previous unit (thousands of dollars). As of today (almost 60 days after I returned the keys and I provided will all required information), I am still waiting to get my check. This is clearly violating PA landlord-tenant law. ---- Maintenance issues get weeks to get resolved. I need to constantly follow-up on everything. The chute is clogged and it took them weeks to fix it. Some ACs in the hallway (and gym) do not work. I have to ask multiple times to for maintenance to fix small issues in the unit.

The Drake has a very bad mouse/rat infestation problem. Management does nothing about it. it is terrible. They do not respond to emails, the trash chute , elevators never work. I have had a mice problem for MONTHS and nothing is being done about it. Ive been living at the Drake for about 4yr. Just explore your options.

The leasing team at The Drake was incredibly helpful when my wife and I were looking at apartments in Center City. Jasmine, the manager, was compassionate and supportive when unexpected challenges arose from our end; Colleen graciously showed us multiple different units and patiently answered our many questions; and Tyler was friendly and accommodating every time we spoke with him by phone. We were treated with the utmost respect and care by the team at The Drake, and highly recommend them and the building to any prospective renters.

I had a great tour and really loved the building and unit and amenities.

Great experience at the Drake

Love living here. A few minuses: cell phone reception can be dicey, but on the plus side I suspect that's because of the thick walls, which keep things very quiet. Also, the building's original fire alarm system has false alarms about 3-4 times a year, which can be very disruptive when they happen. Units also have more modern ceiling smoke detectors, which work fine. But the pluses: location, convenience, views, friendliness of staff. A little bit of history isn't for everyone, but I like it.

A safe and comfortable, well=located place to live

Happy with our apartment, but common areas of Drake have deteriorated over the years. E.g., how long before filthy wooden patch in south elevator (not to mention disgusting flooring) is replaced? Two more years?

The location is great and the price is reasonable considering the location. The staff are nice and friendly. The maintenance team resolve any issues in a quick and timely manner. I definitely lucked out finding a place this great.

Overall, I love it here, only thing that is a challenge is very loud motorcycle noise late at night,early morning,city needs more feedback from the Drake.....to make offenders accountable!

No complaint overall.

One of the best places to live in center city

Move in very easy building very clean and secure maintenance fixed my only problem immediately friendly front desk and leasing office very helpful and professional

Terrific location, good amenities

Historical building, terrific location, centrally located, on a quiet street. Convenience of on-site laundry and gym

Overall the drake is the best for the least amount. With a raised bed I find more space in my studio so I’d recommend that. The pet policy is pretty substantial and only applies to dogs and cats so reptiles are allowed free! The laundry room is super hot but they only charge 2 dollars for washer and it s free drying. The staff tho at greets you are mostly great and notify you of packages you have. I like living there cos it’s very close to campus and it’s right next to a 24/7 CVS. All in all I believe it’s worth it.

Beautiful historical buildings with early nineties touch. Well maintained and clean. Apartments are specious with good ambient light.

Good value, location, and amenities. The apartment was mostly move-in ready, except for a few issues.

I had an appointment to tour 3 apartments at The Drake for Saturday at 11am. The leasing agent didn’t tell me until 15 minutes before the tour that both of the 1 bedrooms I had were unavailable to tour after I drove an hour and a half into the city just to see them - and had set the appointment TWO WEEKS in advance. When I tried to reschedule a time to see all three, the leasing agent directed me to contact the Brookfield properties call center. When I called the call center they told me to speak to the on-site leasing agent. Terrible service for a mediocre property.

Location is amazing, right in the center of everything! The staff here is so welcoming and helpful. I just moved in and am thoroughly satisfied thus far. Thank you!

Great building in a great location in Center City and a staff that is almost always reliable and care about the tenants. This is even more so now with the new Management. My limited experience with Amy where someone in Maintenance was not responsive, which is a rarity, was great. Amy was very professional and showed a concern with what occurred. I probably speak for a lot of tenants in that Matt Vargas is not missed. My rating has gone way up with his departure and new Management like Amy. The concierges, Jean and Cheryl who have been at the Drake for my entire time there have always been terrific. Same with Laura, who typically works overnight shifts.

The staff is super friendly and welcoming!

Everything has been amazing so far! The move in process was easy and the staff are great.

As in the previous question, my only minus is the building-wide fire alarm system, which goes off occasionally -- once in the middle of the night. (That's the sole reason for 4 stars, rather than 5.) But overall, I'm very happy to be here. My apartment is small but well-designed, the view is great, and I love living in a bit of history. (I found out the building is on the National Register of Historic Places.) The staff couldn't be nicer and more helpful, and were great during the height of the pandemic, which put a lot of stress on everyone. And I get a good vibe from most of the residents, who seem glad to be here, too.

Great value for the location.

The building has a friendly staff and a lot of character but be prepared for a lot of maintenance and quality of living issues. The hot water/water in general frequently goes out, fire alarms ring a lot, the walls are paper thin, and there have been two major, MAJOR floods in the building this year. When things go wrong, management doesn't do much to keep you informed. It has a decent location but a lot of problems.

The fire alarms in this building go off constantly and inconvenience offsets the price savings that you may get here. In the last year the alarms have gone off no less then 20 times and even worse, when I went to evacuate I found that one of the fire escapes had been blocked off meaning I had to run back into the potentially burning building to use another. If your schedule includes other things besides evacuating your apartment then I recommend you live elsewhere

Beautiful old building in a great location in Center City Philadelphia.