Only pro is the location. Cons: heavy theft, breakins, noise, smell of pee, smoke and weed, issues you see in a really old building, terrible and irresponsive management DO NOT ignore all the red flags in the comments - stay away from this so called apartment as fast as you can. I've lived in a few apartments so far and Church Corner is the worst. It's horrible. I gotta repeat - It's horrible. read more

Beware: high risk of theft. We've lost 10 figures worth of personal property living here. Don't place your bikes in the bike room that you pay an extra fee to get the access key to - even if you put individual locks on your bikes, the locks will be cut and bikes stolen. We lost 4. After this incident, the management has yet to warn other residents or ask them to check their bikes are still there. On top of that, when we asked for security footage, we were told they lost the password to the system; no mention of how they'd resolve that - like even an attempt to reset the password. We'd already asked about footage weeks ago when items were removed from our trunk in the parking garage (which you pay a fee to park in as well); they didn't address the inability to access the system then. Response from the building management team has been in large part "Oh I wish we could do something to help" rather than actioning. read more

Church Corner is decent, for an elevator building in Central Square, Cambridge but it's victim to the rent inflation that happens everywhere else in Cambridge. In fact, Church Corner may be slightly worse than other places b/c as the economy was bottoming out last year and Central Square was becoming a ghost town (and unemployment was on the rise) Church Corner and its parent company had the balls to actually RAISE rents! Yeah, can you believe it? Even as the building across the street (which actually has a doorman, a concept that Church Corner has never heard of) was lowering rents. Bottom line, it's a fine place to live. Not great, not horrible. The building suffers from unequal rehabilitation in units and from the fact that there are no staff here on the weekends, so the lobby gets trashed (sometimes literally) on every weekend and even worse on long weekends. Bottom line = if you're thinking about renting here, and, in particular if you're a young professional or grad student, take the extra time to look around....I guarantee that you will find something nicer and cheaper. read more

Don't rent an apartment here, period. I lived here for three unfortunate years, during which time I saw the building go from mediocre and somewhat overpriced to awful and almost comically overpriced. This building was no great shakes to begin with, and it's definitely on the decline. If you're enough of a sucker to rent an apartment here, as I was, here's a partial list of challenges in store for you: * A management office staffed by rude, lazy and unresponsive employees (of the incomparably awful Equity Residential); * Outrageous rent increases each year, completely disconnected from the reality of the economy and rental market; * Amateurish, cheap and quick fixes (more like non-fixes) to maintenance issues in your apartment (when you finally are able to get any response from management, that is); and * Continual neglect of the common areas, including laundry, elevators and garage. To make the above a bit more concrete, here are a couple choice experiences I was treated to while at Church Corner: * Every summer I had stagnant water sitting in my apartment walls as a result of broken central air, which caused my apartment to smell like a putrid, moldy pond. Not what you expect from a building that tries to pass itself off as a modern, luxury building. Instead of actually - gasp - fixing the problem, which would have cost money, the management office refused to do anything more than drain the sitting water out of my walls, which "fixed" the problem for all of about four days at a time. * The parking garage ceiling is literally falling down. Every time it rained any more than a mist, large chunks of plaster would inevitably find their way to the roof of my car - splat! Again, rather than fixing the problem, management (after first ignoring multiple complaints from me) finally reassigned me to another spot that was just out of reach of the falling ceiling. That didn't stop them from putting someone else in my old spot, though. Having the roof cave in on your car makes $150/month for a garage spot seem like less of a great deal. Do yourself a favor and find somewhere better and more reasonably priced to live. With the bar this place sets, it shouldn't be hard to do. Actually, based on my experience here, I wouldn't touch any other rental property managed by Equity Residential with a ten foot pole, either - and there are a lot in the Boston area. What a bunch of incompetent hacks. read more

RUN AWAY! The only 2 good things about this place are location (right in the middle of Central Square) and Manny, one of the maintenance guys who is awesome. Everything else is terrible. If you want things to actually work and you like having hot water in the middle of winter or AC when it's 95 degrees out, don't live here. I can't tell you how many times they had to shut off the water to fix the pipes. They barely gave any notice either - we'd just get an email saying the water was going to be shut off the next day. Umm really?? Because I was kind of planning to shower tomorrow, thanks for the notice. The AC also randomly stops working all the time and takes days to fix. Parking: they do have a covered garage, which is nice, but the location of the garage is a huge pain. You have to wait at a busy intersection to even pull into the garage, and 90% of the time, there's an MBTA truck blocking the way, making the turn almost impossible, especially if you have a large car. The spots are also tiny - I had to climb in through the passenger side multiple times to get into my car. Oh, and the garage ceiling is falling down (see photos). Other rants (I realize this is one long rant, but I want people to be aware of all the things I wish I had known before moving in): - The building is zoned to accommodate low-income housing, which they're "not allowed" to tell you when you move in. - The hallways smell like marijuana - The equipment in the gym breaks down all the time - I was contacted twice as a resident about potential lawsuits against the building. - Ridiculous rent increases on already overpriced apartments - They accept packages for you but half the time, they forget to deliver them to your apartment. - I had a bunch of items stolen from me as I was moving out read more

Living in this apartment was possibly one of the worst decisions I've ever made in my life. There are no positives except that the building has a good location, something that resembles a gym, an Amazon locker, and an attached parking garage (with falling ceilings that have damaged the car next to me). SO MANY issues - where do I begin? 1) The community manager Colleen is by far the worst part of this building. She was unresponsive to me and my roommate about issues we've had - such as a leaking roof that couldn't get fixed for a month and kept recurring because instead of renovating the roof, they just kept cheaply patching it up. Then the vendor they hired to re-paint the water damages indoors dropped paint all over the carpet in an area they weren't even supposed to be painting and dripped paint all over my things! I asked Colleen about this and I was patient in that she had to follow up with the vendor, but then she straight up ghosted me after telling me she'd have an answer for me by the next business day. I've been trying to contact her for over a month now and her associates keep telling me she'd get back to me. The vendor damaged $300 worth of stuff. All in all, Colleen is RUDE, unresponsive, and incompetent as a building manager. My friends in the building have had similar experiences. Colleen was the worst part of our living experience. 2) Part of my closet had a broken rod when I moved in. Instead of replacing it, maintenance put DUCT TAPE on the rod as a fix. WTF 3) Again, the ceiling is LITERALLY falling down. I lived right below their sundeck roof (if you can call it that), and I'd wake up to pieces of the disgusting white plastered ceiling on my face and my bed sheets. My clothes in the closet were constantly covered in white residue from the ceiling. THEY REALLY NEED TO REPLACE THAT ROOF/CEILING. Disgusting. 4) They will also try to charge you fees wherever possible.. they tried to charge me for a full month of June parking when my lease ended on June 1st. 5) The office's posted hours are a joke. It's never open, especially in the summer and fall months. Don't rely on the office being open to accept your packages. If you don't mind dealing with an incompetent building manager that allows vendors to damage your belongings and leaves your roof leaking for a month while slapping back with rude emails, be my guest. read more

Church Corners management somehow deleted my previous negative review, so ill keep this one brief. Live here if you enjoy: 1) Mice in your apt for 4 months 2) Bed bug scares 3) Lazy and rude management 4) Broken air conditioning 5) Bad plumbing 6) Neighbors who don't supervise their kids 7) Hidden fees And my personal favorite surprise to hear upon moving out from a fellow tenant who is currently suing the building ... 8) A BLACK MOLD INFESTATION! The water in the walls mentioned by another reviewer? Yeah, water + insulation = mold. Don't expect Church Corners management to ever admit to such a logical connection though. They're not bright. So in short, don't live here. read more

I have lived in Church Corner for the last two years and it has been a horrific experience for me and my roommates. I have gone through several different building managers and Colleen is by far the worst manager I have dealt with. Nicole and Linda were kind and helpful but unfortunately they were replaced with Colleen who I can only say was rude, unresponsive, and unhelpful. The only positive note from this building is it's location (very close walking distance to the T and shops around). If you are considering living in this building, you should be warned of the following. 1. WATER DAMAGE. Over the two years I have lived in my apartment, I have had water damage in our ceiling constantly on and off for several months at a time over the 2 years. There were water leaks in BOTH bedrooms and other parts of the apartment. The water leak in my room was directly above me and my bed and was woken up several times with water dripping on my face. It takes management FOREVER to solve any real issues for you and the only thing you can do is sit around and wait. The only thing you can hope for is that the apartment you move into won't have any major issues/damage. Management only knows how to patch up the problem and will refuse to make real fixes. The leaks in our apartment have been recurring and I can't tell you how long I have had to deal with sounds of water dripping into a pot keep me up in the middle of the night for months every time it rains. And their solution? simply hope the third party roofers they've contracted to fix the problem and simply paint over the water damage in your room. The ceiling was literally falling apart with bits of paint failing down everywhere on the carpet and furniture.The water damage itself was enough reason for me and my roommates to leave this building. 2. MISSING PACKAGES. Let me just point out that there is an Amazon Hub Locker that they have in the building (which is nice and convenient) but all packages have to go to the office first (and then either stay there or get put in the locker). Majority of the time the office is closed and packages get left outside of the door or in the lobby where ANYONE wandering around can easily pick up and steal. I have had multiple packages that have gone missing and stolen because of this. 3. SMELLS BAD. The hallways and apartments always smell like WEED. The apartment building doesn't enforce or do anything about it. Out of the two elevators, there is one elevator that always smells like PEE. Absolutely disgusting and makes me want to throw up every time. 4. GYM. Yes, the so called 'gym' is included in rent but it's a basically a random room in the garage. It's basically the size of a master bedroom that can't fit more than 2 people at a time (especially since there's only enough equipment for two people anyways) and equipment that is old and breaks down. Overall, I'd ignore any reviews you see prior to the last 3 years. The building management is horrible and do not care about your problems AT ALL. Colleen was probably the worst part of living here so be warned if you have any problems they either won't get resolved or it'll take a very long time with very little compensation given. read more

I would ignore the old reviews because I think the building has changed greatly since they were written. We have had no issues with our apt or the building. The management office is very friendly, helpful, professional and respond immediately to requests. The building is clean, well run and safe. And the location is hard to beat! Right by the Central Square T stop on the redline and walking distance to Harvard Square, MIT, the Charles River, etc. There are a ton of great reasonable cafes and restaurants just footsteps away from the building. Our kitchen and bathrooms are nice and modern and we have a lot of closet/storage space. I like having the laundry, parking, bike storage and small gym inside the building. No need to go outside for any of those things. Quite convenient. We also never hear our neighbors, which is amazing. Everyone seems friendly in the building - families, professionals, grad students, etc. I would definitely recommend living here. read more

Dream turned NIGHTMARE I had a great experience when I first moved in. Conor was the building manager. Rent felt expensive, but I felt safe. My second year, a man named David became the building manager. (1) I came back from vacation to an eviction notice outside of my apartment because I had not paid on the 1st of the month (umm, you legally had until the 10th of the month to pay). I lived in a co-op on Park Avenue in NYC before this, so this was a shocker. (2) Building management is literally out to lunch (3) Building management donated my bike that was in the bike garage and brought back the wrong bike when I noticed it was gone (4) The walls inside the building had graffiti on them at one point (5) Homeless bums from Central Square were found sleeping in the doorway, raising serious security concerns (6) Gym equipment was poorly maintained (the bike remains part broken) (7) My roommate's package worth $100 was lost I could go on and on. Don't live here. If you must, live in the Holmes Building next door instead. My friends there were MUCH happier. read more

I am a current resident at Church Corner, and I've been here for just under a year. Before moving in, I read a lot of reviews and heard a lot of positive feedback, so I thought it would be a good fit. Price wise, it was also a great deal for a 3 bedroom unit. However, since moving in, I have been faced with some problems that I would like to warn others about. Workout room-Has a water machine in it, but the water is often empty and rarely refilled. Also, the de-humidifier only seems to be emptied when I do it, it is always full (and hence humid in the room) when I get there. Elevators- These have been sporadic at best. One elevator was down for nearly two months, and it happened to be the only elevator that services the parking garage. Very annoying if you have a vehicle there. Also, problem was initially hid from residents, by placing the "moving in" sign in front of the elevator to try and mask it as a reserved elevator rather than broken. Also, the elevator which services the parking garage is not the default elevator for upper floors, which means you have to ride to the bottom and switch elevators to go back up to the garage. Furthermore, the inspection on the elevators expired in February 2007. Rooms- Very nice with good clean carpet. Although the outside can be noisy, with windows shut it isn't bad. Problem comes in the summer, as AC isn't turned on until June, and shuts off in September or October, leaving you uncomfortably hot or dealing with street noise from the club below, or sirens from the police department across the street. Rent- The rent was great for the first year, so we told management we wanted to extend for another year. After being told the price may raise slightly, we decided to find a new roommate. About 15 days before the deadline to accept the new lease, we were told the new rent price would be $325 dollars more, a 14% increase. This was a bit frustrating, as we don't have the funds set aside to afford it, and we only have two weeks to try and find a new place. Appliances- Our room is set up with old appliances, other rooms have new equipment which I expect is better. For us, our dishwasher does not do well at cleaning or drying dishes. The refrigerator broke, and was promptly replaced, but with a unit that had no shelves in the freezer. Management-Very friendly and helpful, truly tries to fix problems, but control has been removed from their hands. Very fast service requests, but problems still remain. Water pressure on upper floors is poor. All in all, I think the apartment is in a wonderful location, but it seems that in an effort to make more money, the renter is not seen as a "valued customer". We will likely extend our lease for convenience sake, but please think seriously and seek other input before joining in. read more

Ridiculous... when i first moved here, the management was different and pretty thoughtful. They cared about the tenants and were fair. By the time I moved out in 2011, the rent was being raised almost another 300 dollars and the management seemed to care only about how to get more money from you before you left. Because of the fine print of a notice given to us through a series of websites and links, more than half of our security deposit was taken from us even though we left our apartment in mint condition . We were only notified after the 60 day deadline had passed. (Management prior to this current team gave written notice straight to your door well before the 60 day move out notification deadline.) In addition to the security deposit issues which took almost all of our money, I must add a couple additional tiffs. Like the previous reviewer, I have to agree that the windows and walls are super thin. Somedays I could hear the VERY private matters of my neighbors CLEARLY through my vent and walls, and the street noise (even though I lived on one of the top floors) was as though the fight on the street was happening right next to my bed almost every night. I had to buy ear plugs to try to overcome the noise. In addition, during the heat wave when temperatures reached 98 degrees we were without air conditioning because they were "fixing" the a/c unit. When i hear "luxury apartment" the thought of no a/c does not even cross my mind. I just have to say, I am truly thankful I no longer live there. Bottom line: If you still choose to live at Church Corner after reading these reviews because you're stupid... then: 1. Buy ear plugs (unless you looove the feeling of people screaming the f word and a whole slew of other profanities in your ear) 2. Make sure you enjoy humid, morbidly hot days 3. Go to EVERY single link of EVERY single website that anyone on management alludes to and read ALL the fine print. 4. Make sure you're financially sound enough to not receive any of your security deposit back even if you take care of your apt. read more

Watch out, prospective tenants! Your starting rent will seem forbidding, but then you'll get hit with a series of increases. Our rent went up over 25% in the five years we lived there. Floorplans in the Holmes Building are smaller, but the rent is a substantially better deal, and (from friends' reports) seems to have remained steady over time. What they'll tell you at the Church Corners is that the Holmes doesn't have a gym, which is true, but the walls at Holmes are concrete, so you could be on a ski machine in there and no one would even notice. At Church Corners, by contrast, you'll get to know your neighbors' private lives much better than you ever wanted to. And be prepared for all that street noise (sirens, shouting people, church bells) that those flimsy Church Corners walls won't keep out. Ready yourselves for the regular renovation schedule as well -- you'll be forced to move everything out of your apartment just so they can fancy up the place. That's when we finally gave up on Church Corners. read more

I'll just say that the past four reviews were spot on. The location is great, but if you're willing to pay their inflated rent, you will find something better. The building is decent but the management as of March 2011 is awful, rude, and inefficient. They recently renovated a large number of units but with low quality materials that seem to break easily. read more

Seems much improved. I've found this building really professionally run. Minor issues when we moved in were fixed in days. Everything is clean and has recently been upgraded. Daily package delivery is reliable. Friendly people with a lot of MBAs and grad students. read more

I lived here for 4 years. I loved it for 3.99 years. I would've given them a 5 star but instead of keeping me happy they ruined my relationship with Equity Residental and the apt practice. the company changed leasing managers from a man named Connor to another guy. somewhere there was a mix up with our 60 day move out notice. I was told from the previous manager we were fine.... not so much with the new guy. I know its not really his fault. they are trained to pop every penny from tenants and take our security deposits. bottom line.. we gave just under a 60 day move out notice (with no warning) and got rocked with a massive fee around $2K. I'm just angry the company doesn't pre warn you about this or atleast send out an email notification - this way they'd atleast have documentation you've been notified... I hope the manager reads this. I know its menial logistics and such, but now ill give so many bad references about this place.. Another note - they constantly change office managers... I wonder what this says about the company. They should change SOP's and try to keep managers. The whole system is FUC%ed read more

I've ended up staying at Church Corner 2 additional years, despite my initial plan to move out. My job situation ended up allowing me to stay in the area, so I talked to the leasing office and ended up being able to move to a tenth floor apartment without rent increase. Furthermore, I just put in a service request to repair my sink/dishwasher/disposal, and maintenance came the following morning and took care of everything, cleaned up, and were on their way in less than thirty minutes. I still love it here, and I'm convinced any problems mentioned in other reviews must have been the fault of previous staff, policies, etc. because the two years I've lived here have been superb. read more

I resided at 10 Magazine Street from July 1987 - December 2007, and within the final 5 years, the place turned into a slum. My apartment became infested with bed bugs, kids were riding their bicycles through the hallways, and there was graffiti up and down the stair wells. read more