The condo association is shady and dishonest. I would avoid buying here. I'm a bit stuck with my options right now, so I can't sell, but I will first chance I get. The association is horrible. They don't take care of anything, and they will blow money on ridiculous requests but not take care of basic needs. read more

Though the management is great the building is falling apart. Personally I would not buy here. HOA fees are high and the ever continuing lawsuit has no end in site. Special assessments will be coming up probably in 20 to 30 THOUSAND dollar range. The building needs a new facade and all new windows. A paint job is desperately needed and not on the plans. Good luck! read more

This place is a blight, a BLIGHT, I tell you, on the neighborhood. From the ugly red-yellow-blue color scheme (seriously!?! why not just paint it all blue, it would look so much better) to the shoddily constructed apartments it all needs to be re-thought. I had a chance to take a look at the interior of a few of the apartments and I think I know why they're not selling. They were condos, now are rentals . . . that tells you something. Bad finishes, crappy paint job, halls that look like hostels and a roof deck that is anything but pleasant. The doors don't slam . . . they flap. The paint looks smeared on, and the interiors just look . . . cheap. The noise from the Red line is pretty formidable, as well. Shoddy, shoddy work. Poorly done. The architect of this monstrosity needs to be neutered before he . . . erects again. read more

Rude, inept, condescending building management does not do their job. Elevators are broken on a regular basis, heat and air conditioning break more than once a season. Management picks and chooses to enforce rules that don't exist or have questionable verbiage for some units and not others. Renting is fine, but NEVER BUY here. The management company and building manager need to go, they are worthless. Update - the only two elevators in the buildings that go to the ground floor are both broken and management has decided to wait until Monday to address the issue. Handicapped residents are either homebound or will require assistance to get in or out of the building - but the building manager wants to wait to fix it. Absolutely unacceptable. read more

My partner and I love this building. Sure it's not perfect, but it's really wonderful. Great open spaces with hallways that aren't dank and dark - the glass walkways between each building make it bright and cheery. Way more space for your money than elsewhere in the city. As for the exterior, the building is juxtaposed beautifully against its surroundings. It beats the same brown, tan, and beige all around. As an opposite look to everything nearby, I think it looks good. And it helps the century old buildings around it look even better. Another great feature is that I can spot it by airplane when flying back into the city. Can you say that about your lovely home? We are working hard as a condo board (which I am a member) to create a healthy, vital, safe, viable, and enjoyable community in this 126 unit building. Plus, you should see our rooftop views!! read more

As a current resident of Catalpa Gardens I don't think I could have asked for a better place to live. Not only are the other residents friendly and accommodating, the architecture, in my opinion is great! My favorite aspect of the building is that the 3 mid-rises are connected by glass walk ways. That is a great perk, especially if you live on the east side of the building, and enjoy watching sunsets, all you have to do is step right out into the hallway and enjoy! The actual condo units themselves are amazing. Nice hard wood floors, gas fire place, GORGEOUS granite counter tops, and every unit has their own private balcony, to boot! The down side to the building, is also the upside! The CTA Redline is about a foot away (the tracks I mean) from the building, it can tend to be noisy at first. However, this is just something that you need to get used to by living in the city, it easily becomes white noise. The upside, is the Bryn Mawr stop is about a 2 minute walk from the lobby of Catalpa Gardens. The assessments are manageable, they include heat, air conditioning, gas, and water. I believe that the condos also come with their own storage unit which is conveniently located in the garage of the building. Bike racks are also placed throughout the building, and are secure. The rooftops are fabulous! Although they are still in transition stage, and need to be converted in to REAL roof top decks, I believe that given the association has just been turned over to the owners the decks on the roof should be coming shortly! All in all, this building, as "ugly" as it might seem on the outside holds real beauty on the inside. I love living in this building, and think that it's a great place for anyone to live. read more

My wife and I have rented a large 2bd 2bath on the 9th floor facing West of Catalpa Gardens since March, 2010. I accidentally ended up on this yelp review using Google places for directions home. I felt compelled to write a review to perspective renters/buyers because some of the nasty reviews are not true. Further, I think it's likely that the people writing nasty reviews live to the West in the historic Bryn Mawr neighborhood. Having had several encounters with those residence while walking our dog in their neighborhood, I now know many opposed the construction of Catalpa Gardens for a variety of reasons both real and imagined. Therefore, any review that wasn't written by a resident themselves, I would take with a grain of salt. Onto the building itself. No doubt, the painted cinder block exterior and cheap roof top covering don't lend themselves to feeling "high end" by any stretch. Despite some construction short cuts taken to finish the project without going bust, there are more positive features of the building than negative. The roof is easily accessed, expansive, clean, and has the best views of any building in the area. You truly feel "above" the city since there are no adjacent buildings nearly as tall in any direction. Having a dog myself, the dog run located on the North West corner of the roof is a welcome option in the middle of Winter. Of course it smells, but it is kept as clean as can be expected and is tucked into a corner so it doesn't detract from any of the rest of the roof deck. Another excellent feature of the rooftop is that there is no equipment noise from exposed air conditioning units or the like. All of the building's mechanics are held within closed cinder block pill boxes. All you hear is the wind and the passing trains. Regarding that pesky train. I swore I would never live close to the L. I absolutely HATE that noisy train. It's a blight on Chicago in my opinion. Yet, here I am practically living on top of it. But, for a good reason. I can't hear it whatsoever from my condo! I can't speak to the residence on the East side of the building, but from the 9th floor facing West, train noise is not an issue. Windows and deck door open, no problem. We hear it bouncing backwards off the huge church across the street to our West, but it just looses it's bite and blends into the background city noise. On the other hand, if you walk out the front door, or into the garage when a train is passing by, and it's a totally different story. Then, the noise can be defining! If you are going to live in Catalpa Gardens, make sure to stand quietly in your prospective unit until a fast train passes by. I think it's probably a 50/50 chance you will be fine. Back to the 11th floor. The party room and the gym are outstanding. The best I've ever seen in Chicago for the price point of the building. Flooded with sunlight, amazing views, clean, and new. I work out in that gym at least three times a week, and my wife hosted her baby shower in the party room. Our guests loved the venue. Although I really don't like choice of paint in the hall ways, or the carpets for that matter, the duel floor to ceiling windows between towers allow blinding amounts of sunshine into the halls. I will literally sit in the hallway against the exposed cement pillars with my dog after a morning walk with my coffee and soak up the sun. He begs me to lay there if I don't! In the Winter, it almost feels like a greenhouse. From the 9th floor hallway, you can look out the hall windows and see a sweeping view of the lake and park while you wait for the elevator. Onto our unit. Love it. Love it. Love it. We've lived in Lakeview, South Loop, Ukrainian Village, and always in new "condo" style construction. I love how open the living room/kitchen floor plan is. The sheer width of our unit from the master bedroom to the edge of the corner windowed living room must be at least 36 feet. It feels wider and more spacious than the one million dollar houses our friends own to the West in Old Irving Park. It really is a welcome change from the typical narrow Chicago lot. Our granite kitchen counter top is the largest I've ever seen in a condo. It's an island style that is anchored against a screen wall which creates a nice rectangular ring that I regularly chase our dog around at high speed. The deep double basin sink is also a nice feature. Another nice layout feature is that the two bedrooms are so far apart you have complete privacy with the doors closed. And with the second bathroom directly across from the second bedroom, we can comfortably host out of town guests on a regular basis without feeling inconvenienced. Also, we have our entertainment center setup in the second bedroom which allows for late night gaming or movie sessions to continue on through the night, while my wife sleeps undisturbed in the master. I'd write more, but I'm out of characters! Hope this review helps perspective renters/buyers get a better perspective. read more

Be warned, owners and renters! Leiberman Management, the property manager Andrea King, and the condo board will go after you HARD on fines. Unlike any other sane property who will give you a warning or at least call/email/knock on your door to tell you something you're doing wrong, Andrea King goes straight to the board, imposes a fine and then sends their sleazy attorneys after you with a nasty letter demanding money. No warnings. No welcome to the building. All you'll get is a surprise letter demanding payment. And you have no other choice but to pay it and then in turn sue them to get it back or you'll face eviction. Also, the building is slowly falling apart. A lawsuit was filed in September 2015 against the builder because of so many defects. My specific unit had major water damage to the wood floors because of leaking. And, they have a key fob system to enter the building...which you would think is pretty standard for most buildings - except you need a key fob to even call the elevator here. So every time you get a guest or delivery, you have to go down and manually let them in while your guest waits for you to get them and while you wait 5 minutes for the one lobby elevator to finally get to your floor after stopping on every floor going up and down. You can get fined if you let someone into the building without an escort. Lastly, because of the high turnover in this building and because of the distrust between residents/renters and the key fob system, no one there talks to anyone. There's maybe 2 or 3 community events a year that only a handful of people attend. In other words, no one likes anyone else in the building. Run...run far FAR away from this building!!! read more

I just wanted to take a moment to counter Shane W's experience with Andrea, the board, and fines. I've done a lot of renovation work to my unit, work that was probably not within the bounds of the condo rules. I remember one time I was demoing a wall during working hours and the neighbor downstairs complained (cheers Harry!). Andrea politely knocked on my door, asked what was up and how long the work would be going on. She then reminded me to stay within working hours and I never heard a word after that. In all honesty. It probably wasn't within the rules for me to be doing the work myself. But Andrea and the board are rather chill with such things. If you are respectful and can show you know what you are doing, you're fine. Another time I broke the rules by storing weights in the gym and locking them up. I didn't know it but that's against the rules for insurance and liability reasons. Andrea asked me to remove them and I did. No fine. no fuss. My guess is Shane was doing something really against the rules or got on the bad side of the board. The board and management have gone through great lengths to keep up with maintenance on the building. The roof on all three towers was completely replaced with no special assessment and the reserves are still at a healthy amount. read more

I am actually dying to find a place in this building! I love the color, I am so sick of the whole city being a crappy color brown. They have dog runs on the roof and the actual units from what I can tell are beautiful and unique like the rest of the building. I am really hoping that there will be a place for rent come July/August so I can get in there. I am surprised some people don't like such vibrant colors but I guess there will always be those who would rather go with boring over fun! read more

Just moved in and so far so good! I love that it is close to public transportation and the lake! Look forward to running and biking on the LSD path and goingn to the beach. So far, all the tenants I have met are great. Very very resonable compared to other Chicago buildings and because it is new, everything is in great condition. Due to the economy, prices are great for buyers too. I definitely got a steal on my unit! HOA fees are comparable to other buildings and all i have to pay is Electric. I'm very happy with my purchase! read more

The building is super awesome - I never thought I'd be happy in a condo in the city, but this building has it all. I love living in the most colorful building around! Most of the buildings in chicago are poopy brown or grey or the most drab color you can find. It's HUGE - and the glass windows in between each section are great. I've had so many visitors comment on the design. The roof is AMAZING! I shot a music video up there because the view is so spectacular. With the trains going by and a clear shot to the sears tower and every thing else - you just can't beat it. Dog Run, indoor parking, nice clean storage units, bike racks, oh and the workout room...We saw so many buildings where the "workout room" is some creepy dark room in the basement with machines that look like they are form the 1800s. The workout room at Catalpa Gardens is on the top floor overlooking the lake. Its beautiful. And the community room is the same thing -so many buildings that we looked at the "community room" was some gross icky stinky linoleum floored tacky room on the first floor. The community room here is opposite the workout room on the top floor with a beautiful view straight west with nothing blocking it. Outfitted with a full kitchen with stainless steel appliances and granite countertops, a dining room table - the works. Awesome. The units are very modern. Fireplaces, modern kitchens, super high ceilings so very lofty, lots of windows - my plants love it! The balconies are not huge, but on the west side - you see the most beautiful sunsets. And on the east side - a view of the lake - c'mon - I dream of summer days when i can make a tomato basil sandwich from my little veggie garden sit on my balcony, look at the lake, and see the fireworks from navy pier at night. Yeah that's right - Livin' the dream at Catalpa Gardens. read more

My wife and I only rented here (THANK GOD!) for a few months before we moved for a job out West. There are so many reasons NOT to buy or rent at this place! Let me start with the main reason I'm writing this complaint -- I parked in the parking garage and noticed in December that there was some sort of liquid leaking from the radiator device above the parking spot. I went to wash my car and found that the liquid had actually ruined the paint on the vehicle. When brought to the attention of the manager, it was ignored. When my wife brought photos in and shared with the manager, it was again ignored. Now I live 2000 miles away and recently went to get a paint job on my vehicle to cover the ruined spots. The job cost me nearly $350 and when I asked for reimbursement, guess what, it was ignored again! This is an issue because I had to spend $350 out of pocket and haven't even been acknowledged by anyone at Catalpa Gardens - they want to just believe this never happened. Next, the dog run on the roof is horrible. This I can't blame the manager entirely for - the residents just don't care to cleanup after their animal - it's too bad because the dog run is a nice idea. The "gym" has a few old treadmills and 1 or 2 other machines - not really a "gym". Overall, people in the building seem miserable - I guess I would be too if I spent $200k on a condo in that building! Take your business elsewhere!!!!! Not worth it at Catalpa Gardens. read more

I can only review the exterior, but for what it's worth, that alone would keep me away. (Far, far away.) It looks like the cheap cinder-block construction that it is. The balconies are tiny slabs of cement. The colors are as garish as they are uninspired. And the style makes the buildings clash horribly against the otherwise graceful neighborhood. No wonder only a few units have lights burning in them at night. It's hard to believe anyone let this shoddy monstrosity get built. read more