Alton Optimist Park Apartments

Apr. 23, 2025 - Half a year at the property.

Cons:
- Two separate events of stolen packages. Deliveries are left outside of mailrooms and boxes often. Residents steal from each other from mailrooms.
- Two separate events of vehicle break-ins inside gates
- Two separate events of broken gates, locked vehicles inside
- No privacy. Maintenance enters despite not having permission to enter without presence and fails to follow direction to set up time. Maintenance enters at will at random times... without your presence/consent for regular maintenance and fines you.
- No parking on ground floor. People visiting Optimist Park parks at ground floor to avoid parking cost. Parking not enforced and non-guests get away with parking over the weekends. Illegal parking at handicap parking.
- Loud. Sirens, trains, vehicle revs, live music from Substrate winebar on N Caldwell St, every Friday, Saturday until midnight
- Dirty. Trash chute room on 2nd floor for recycling dirty with organic waste spilled around, attracts pests. Avoid residency on lower floors. Dog park not cleaned regularly. When it rains, entire ground floor outside & inside reeks of fermented urine. Owners do not clean after their pets and rules not enforced. Elevator smells of urine 50% of the time. Hard to open windows to ventilate due to cigs/weed smokers at balcony and inside first floor parking garage
- Poor built quality. Joints, seams, air leaks during winter/summer, under-performing HVAC, high energy use and cost. Recommend window seals during winter to save energy cost. Dusty/dirty ducts. Difficult to cook due to poor ventilation. Cooking leaves apartment to smell for next 2-3 days, fire alarm goes off often.
- Flooring is cheap, uneven level, and tearing apart. Take photos, document to avoid fees.
- Maintenance charges for water filter replacement. Make sure water filter and HVAC filter is replaced prior to moving in. Check for good water flow from sinks and bathrooms and good drainage prior to moving in.
- No security - Easy to get inside the building without keys. Building accessed from the parking garage doors on every floor without keys. Only areas where keys are required are first floor to the main building community/lobby space. Your floor, hallways, the mailboxes, can be all publicly accessed.

Pros:
- Free EV charging
- Affordable
- Staffs try. Results may vary
- Gym is ok, but people don't clean up after themselves Read More

DO NOT LIVE HERE unless you’re willing to have damage to your car/items stolen from this garage. We’ve been here for less than a year and have had two separate instances of theft, right from the “locked” garage that is conveniently broken for weeks at a time. We moved in with the initial expectation that the property would be safely and securely maintained. After moving in, I realized this isn’t the case.
The garage system is very frequently broken, typically for weeks at a time. I was told by... the office that there is no liability for them to lock or close the gates, and that this time it was due to a delay in repairs (which has become a bi-monthly reoccurrence at this point-considering the garage is broken every other month and left open for weeks at a time) . If I had known that the lack of ownership/repairs would lead to such a gap in safety and security, i never would have moved in. There are multiple instances of doors/locks to the building being broken/left open, in addition to the garage doors being broken every other month- each time left unlocked for weeks while waiting for repair. The catalytic converter was literally SAWED OFF my car, while in the garage.
We also paid additional money to securely store our two mountain bikes in the locked bike storage area. Both were stolen, again, with no ownership from the property. I have to give credit to the front desk, because they were very helpful in reviewing footage and sharing it with the police for the report in both cases.
Any pro’s that could possibly exist from living here were immediately outweighed by the fact that we’ve had to pay almost an entire month’s rent from items being stolen out of their garage, with no support from the facility. Sharing in hopes of preventing this from happening to someone else.
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My roommate and I moved into this complex last October. We came here after living in South End for two years and have enjoyed every aspect of the move. The apartments themselves are well built and maintained. The amenities are all nice, and the staff is super kind and helpful too. Have already recommended two friends to move in who both did and enjoy it here as well. Lastly being able to walk to optimist hall in seconds is an amazing value.