Toss the whole complex out and start over. Easy fix. I would absolutely NOT recommend living here. The negative reviews are factual. Outdated appliances, one trash compactor, horrendous office staff who never answers or returns calls, closet shelves come out of the walls, sewage back up on the regular and you have to wait forever for a simple maintenance request. The list goes on and on - it can't be made up. Folks, look elsewhere. read more

Our experience with the entire Ascend management team has been excellent. Brittany, Amanda, Vinny and Ron as well as the maintenance team are top notch. Plus, the grounds are beautiful and how about that pool. . I would recommend Ascend to anyone considering luxury apartment living. read more

Terrible Management and Constant Noise I feel the need to write another post to inform people who may be interested in moving here. In the last year of living here I have heard so many complaints from other tenants who have been here longer than me and how bad management is. I've lived here for a year, and my experience has been nothing short of frustrating. The management team is severely lacking in competence. For starters, the noise from the neighbors above is unbearable. It's a constant barrage of banging, pounding and kids screaming that makes it impossible to enjoy my own home. Management won't do anything and ignored several requests to come and inspect it firsthand. Other issue not addressed by mgmt - Despite multiple complaints from residents, the pool lights have never been fixed, leaving residents to swim in the dark at night. The fire pit area is often broken, and the lighting around it is never addressed. Some tenants come whipping around the corners into the oncoming lane on a daily basis. Appliances are 15 years old breaking often but mgmt is too cheap to actually replace. They also raise the rent every year despite them updating anything. Recently, I received a fine for pet waste on my own patio after my dog was injured and unable to go on walks, causing him only able to relieve himself on the patio. I placed the waste in a bag to be thrown out later where literally noone else could see but a person standing on my patio, but a maintenance guy spotted it as he attempted to climb over my patio rail without any prior communication (against lease rules). Meanwhile they ignore the smokers walking around the lake (against the lease rules) on a daily basis and don't give out fines for all the gas grills despite those being illegal too. To top it off, there are mice running around the food areas and patios, and when management finally came out, they only placed a sticky trap that filled with leaves by the end of the day. I regret moving here and can't recommend this place to anyone looking for a well-managed community. Save yourself the headache and rent somewhere else. read more

Stay away from this apartment complex! They will nickle and dime you every chance they get. As referenced in other reviews, management is terrible and communication is even worse. We should have known from the start how this would end as the application process was ridiculous! They start out by asking for proof of income of the normal 3x's rent, but then continue to ask for more and more documentation. They will not work with you if you have child support/alimony (which is against the law), but they get away with it somehow. Read the reviews and check out their BBB rating- it is terrible!! read more

Pros: Great area, close to everything, nice layout, scenic walking path around the pond and has a storage space on the patio. Cons: Outdated, replaces any broken items with cheap replacements, the blinds are cheap quality as well, but the complex claims these to be luxury apartments. They have renovated and luxury edition models, but the regular models should be called original. The Community manager doesn't even say Hi or acknowledge you if you see her. This has been on more than one occasion. There were many issues when I moved into my apartment and have had other issues, numerous things were overlooked that should have been taken care of before a tenant moved in and not once did I hear from a manager. My recommendation do not rent sight unseen. read more

At first I absolutely love living here, staff was just so nice and bent over backwards for the customers. Last 2 or 3 years management sucks and really all office staff. My air / heat goes out at least twice every season but never replaced. Office staff will do absolutely nothing even when the simplest request is made, you feel like a bother all the time. They charge 2000++++ for an outdated apartment they do no maintenance on. Speaking of maintenance they used to be awesome too and now the turnover is constant and no one knows what they're doing. Requests were always done same day (even painting) and now it can take weeks for a legit issue. Treat you like in your in subsidized housing and have no choice. Pretty sure they'll have a mass exodus when new, high end apartments open down the street for same price. read more

This place is terrible. Track meet above me every night and the pot smoker above me. The Greystar Management is awful and I would definitely stay away from renting from this management. Maintenance is terrible, I asked to get several things fixed and they "claimed they fixed" but they did not. My gutters still leaked water all over ny truck and left an ice rink on my truck and driveway. My kicthen sink flooded because of the gross neighbors above me that stuffed it with coffee grinds and potato skins and maintence tried to blame me. I had no sink for four days 12/22-12/26 over holiday. I had to cook using the bathroom. They claimed it wasnt an emergency. For the amount of money you pay, go down the street to the Springs - be better off. Too many dogs and they crap everywhere and owners are not cleaning up after their dogs. I have old appliances and to get those replaced or repaired- good luck with that. They will fight you on it. DO NOT RENT HERE! Go down the street. The office is shady and sneaky - renters Beware!~ read more

RENTERS BEWARE! You pay a lot of money for a place that your appliances dont work right. Dryers don't dry clothes, dishwashers don't dry dishes, refrigerators have to be kept at max cold just to keep what little bit of food you have cold, windows leak, can't even boil water without the fire alarm going off and the intercom does not work the way it should so people just let random people into the buildings because no one can know whose there, so they just buzzes people in. Parking is horrible! If your disabled, forget it! You will be walking a long way. They say they are getting another hadicap sign then give you some excuse as to why they can't get the sign after months of waiting. Then their solution is to put up a sign that says Reserved parking, violators will be towed yet NEVER bother to enforce it! If you want to move to a first or second floor with a garage so you can have a place to park, you will pay a huge fee to move within the community, restart your lease and pay more money for an apartment that is a LOT smaller. Maintenance guys are great, however, it looks like they are not allowed to replace appliances that dont work properly, they just keep putting a bandaid on the problem so you have to have them out all the time. If you have animals you have to keep them locked up so maintenance can come in. Since they are not allowed to replace things expect that 80% of the time, so your animals will be locked up while maintenance will be in your apartment. Most of these apartments are outdated. You pay a lot for very little! Plus you pay for the common areas which means they split the electric an gas from ALL the buildings common areas an you pay, problem with that is your paying for other buildings an who knows what they have plugged in in the common areas. I have watched these bills go up month after month for no reason! With less than adequate appliances and leaking windows you will be paying huge gas and electric bills. Your heat/air goes right out the leaking windows. They tell you to go buy plastic to put on your windows. So at your expense you have to put plastic on their windows and it doesn't even solve the problem. Not to mention in winter you can feel the huge drafts coming through the outlets! Renters beware, for this kind of money you can get a better place somewhere else. They say these are "luxury" apartment homes, the only luxuries you get are no place to park, faulty windows and outdated an barely working appliances. read more

If I could get this place zero stars I would where do I Begin? if you have pets be prepared to automatically pay for new carpet and a pet floor seal at the end of your lease when you move out, there's no if Ands or butts about it, you don't get a choice. It doesn't matter if the Pet had an accident or not. If you have a professional cleaner clean your apartment before turning in your keys you'll still get charged for cleaning ‍ explain that one. You get charged for the building electricity on top of your 2k a month rent even if your in a private entry. If you have a private entry with a wall heater you are not allowed to use it even though you pay for the electric, so your forced to use more of your private electric to heat the cold stairwell at your door. Also if you smoke better hope they don't find a cigarette butt on the ground in front of your apartment because you'll get charged for that too(even if it isn't yours). I proved to the manager it wasn't mine and yet still got charged. You can't ever get ahold of the office because there always hanging around talking to each other instead of working. The maintenance supervisor will bullshit you about everything. The manager is never in the office. Most of the appliances in the units are from 1999 and upgrading them isn't an option. RENTERS BEWARE. There's a lot better options in the area for the amount your paying. read more

During our two years at Ascend we enjoyed the spacious apartments, lots of sidewalks for walking, nice amenities, and great maintenance staff! However, the cons outweighed the pros as our time at Ascend came to an end. During our time there we had an AC unit that would frequently stop working and needed to be replaced. Management would not approve maintenance to purchase and install a new unit for us and instead put a bandaid on a bullet wound and gave us a window unit which was somehow expected to cool down our 3 bedroom apartment. We constantly reminded them that we had a toddler and newborn and it was unsafe for us to have such a hot apartment, but they refused to get us a new unit. The management team showed no grace or sympathy either when it came to moving out. We wanted to add 1-2 months on to our lease and they wanted to charge us over $5,000 for a month to month rate. Borderline unethical! On top of these issues there were also a variety of other issues we dealt with, mostly involving management who we continually found to be hard to work with, unreasonable, and inconsiderate. read more

This place used to be good but since Ascend took it over it has gone downhill. Management is lazy and incompetent and maintenance takes forever to fix anything and will regularly have to send multiple people to deal with something because some of the maintenance team don't know anything. and have no business being in the job. Also, management never answers calls at the office and they never return calls if you leave a message. Once I called and nobody picked up and then walked right into the office and the obese manager lady was sitting there doing nothing. Rent goes up every year despite no improvements to your apartment and now they are requiring people to pay for common areas too. Lots of loud dog barking that management refuses to address too like the other review said. And, tenants have to sort through everyone's mail to find their own mail which is routinely lost or misplaced. Too much money for too little. read more

I would caution anyone who is considering renting at Ascend based on all the good reviews to look carefully at the dates of those reviews. I have lived at Ascend for almost 5 years. When I moved in, the property was owned by AMLI. AMLI is a high-end, "executive" apartment management firm. However, this community was built in 1999 and by 2017 AMLI determined that it was no longer living up to their brand. Greystar purchased the property and rebranded it "Ascend St. Charles". None of this made any difference to me; it still had lovely grounds and a reasonably nice pool, and the maintenance staff were (and, to be fair, still are) quick to respond to any issues. However, the management that Ascend has put into place has a very different mindset concerning the nature of the community. Where AMLI management made it their mission to provide for the needs and whims of their tenants, Ascend management is providing for the needs and whims of Greystar. Coming out of the COVID lockdown in Illinois, pools were not legally allowed to open until July 1. Every other pool in town opened on July 1. It is now July 11 and our pool is still not open. We missed the long weekend completely, and the pool was supposed to open yesterday, but THEY NEVER EVEN GOT AROUND TO TAKING THE COVER OFF THE POOL UNTIL THE DAY BEFORE IT WAS TO OPEN. The water in the pool is BROWN. Every other year, they filled the pool WEEKS in advance, to allow time for water filtration, pH balancing, and heating. On opening day, management sent an email out pushing back opening day and blaming "an unforeseen issue with our pool vendor". There wasn't even an apology. Ascend is on their fourth property manager in the 32 months that Greystar has owned the property. Last fall, they literally fired every office staff member. Greystar has also been cutting back on cleaning staff, landscaping staff, and painting staff, instead choosing to keep piling more duties on the in-house maintenance team. The head of the maintenance team, who had been here 17 years, resigned only a couple of weeks ago. Landscaping has been a real victim of Greystar's indifference. In fact, the enormous weeping willow that was right outside my patio simply fell over this spring. The grass in front of my patio was damaged by a scissor lift in 2018 while they repainted the balconies. It has never been repaired and is now a muddy eyesore. I don't use the gym here, as Greystar "updated" it by making it half the size and removing any useful equipment. But a fellow resident told me that she routinely has to wait for staff to open it because they show up late to work. Tenants must provide proof of renter's insurance each year. Failure to do so results in an extra charge (~$35/month). When I renewed my insurance last year, it took FOUR trips to the office to get it properly entered into their system and have the erroneous charges removed from my rent. I have heard from two other tenants who had similar experiences. When this place was AMLI, there were many longtime residents. There were people here who had moved into their units in 1999! Nowadays, I don't recognize any of the faces I see on the path around the pond. The turnover rate of tenants here is very high, as is the vacancy rate. I believe the community is being mismanaged into the ground. My rent is actually HIGHER than it was under AMLI management, for a vastly lower level of service. It no longer provides value for the money and I intend to move across town to Prairie Winds when my lease is up. For a few extra hundred dollars, I will get 300 square feet more space, a garage, two pools, a really well equipped fitness center, and caring, attentive staff. read more

See all

I do not recommend these apartments at all. Neighbors dogs barked NON STOP. Notified management and they did nothing. The factory along that boarders the apartments omits a horrible smell that makes me gag. People do not clean up after their dogs. Then move out. I am told that the carpet is expected to last 60 months. They are charging me for a little stain that can easily be cleaned and for wear and tear!! They charged me an additional monthly amount to have a pet. And now they are charging me to replace the carpet too? What a rip off. Do not rent from this place!!! read more

Unfortunately I'm only allowed to rate 5 stars while this place really deserves 10. Like my new apartment, like their people and the friendly staffs who welcomes you from the moment you step in. The atmosphere is so clean and well maintained. read more

Have been here a year and love my first floor Apt. The office staff is great, friendly and helpful. The maintenance team is excellent and take care of things immediately with much knowledge and friendly attitutes. I would deffinately recommend this place, well maintained, nice pool and exercise rooms and club house being remodeled at this time. Love overlooking the pond and private entrance to my Apt. There are many plans to choose from. Close to shopping., restaurants and bike paths. read more

I love the girls in the office. Anna and Rubi are Amazing and they were so helpful. I LOVE my apartments, they are so bright and open with high ceilings. The property is beautiful and feels like we live in a resort! read more