Metropolitan Towers

The gym is big, with new equipment.
There's a doorman who'll sign for your packages if need be so you don't have to worry about missing the postman.
Perfect location.
Roomy.
Allows dogs.

The experiences in the building have been mixed, but overall more negative than positive.

The people at the leasing office are great! The people in the management office, not so much. They have their good days, which seem less often.

Pros: Very close to everything, starbucks, auto insurance, salon, grocery store, Granville entertainment district, etc etc. Building is nice, modern, with theater, gym. Parking is 90 a month (cheaper than other places). ClickFix service for repairs. 24 hour concierge (they can get packages for you)

Cons:

I lived in Tower B which is quite different from Tower A. For starters, there are only 2 elevators (Tower A has 3). When one elevator is in service, the wait could be up to 15 minutes. Tower A usually is cleaner and smells nicer.

The apartment building has been in constant repairs for the past few months. Very noisy and inconvenient. This is anticipated to go on for a while.

The apartments are VERY noisy in general even without the repairs. Its close to a fire station and Granville - lots of drunk people on the streets. Even though I was on a very high floor, I could hear them till 2-3 am in the morning.

You have to go to the management office to book theater (with a 200 dollar deposit, no online system to book) and the gym is 15 dollars a month. Machines are broken constantly, water cooler was broken and not repaired.

Management is moody. They can be rude when it comes to asking for something not handled by ClickFix.

Other cons: No pool, no trash chute (+ shared with nesters). Expensive!

Overall, with all the buildings in the area, probably better to look elsewhere.

Very helpful management team. They are quick to respond, and helpful with maintainence requests. They have come to plunge the toilet as well as unclog my drain (I just asked if I could use their supplies as it was late at night, but they came and did it themselves.- which I think is very generous). The security is friendly as well. In terms of the building, great ammenities - rennovated gym, barbeque space, social room, theater, business room.

We lived here for a year and loved it!

*The location is excellent* Right in the middle of downtown within walking distance from just about everything. Nesters is right downstairs and you can walk to all the restaurants & shops on Granville and Robson Streets. You're only a few blocks from Davie Street and a few blocks from Gastown. A quick walk to BC Place or Rogers Arena. It's really perfect.

*Layouts of the apartments are very efficient* Everything in Vancouver is small, but these apartments were well thought out. They have washer/dryers in the unit along with a huge storage closet within the unit and a storage locker downstairs. The open layouts worked well and we loved having the large windows throughout the apartment.

*Staff was always very friendly* and responsive to anything we needed. We lived in 1506B - facing Seymour Street which means that you could hear a lot of the noise from Granville Street when the windows were open, but it's just something you'll have to get used to. We ended up just using white noise and were fine. It's just a part of downtown living to us.

*Great value for what you pay for it* No, it doesn't include parking, but we found that you don't really need a car in Vancouver anyways. And, yes, you do have to pay $15/month for the gym - but it's worth it. It's the largest and nicest gym we came across while apartment hunting, so $15/month is worth it. There were rarely more than a couple people in there at a time.

Overall, I'd say there's no reason why I shouldn't give it 5 stars. If we hadn't moved away from Vancouver (down to California), we would likely still be living there.

My fiancé and I have lived in Metro Towers for over 2 years now. We started off facing Seymour in the AF floor plan. It could be very loud most nights and I had trouble sleeping. A smoker moved in beneath us and it was unbearable. Management did all they could, but it didn't stop so they helped us move to another apartment in the same building.

We are now in an AP floor plan facing Nelson and Richards. It's so much quieter and being in a corner suite gives us more windows and natural light.

Pros:
- location (Nesters, Viti's, Granville, 3 sky train stations close by, etc.)
- can have 2 cats or 1 small dog
- need repairs? Give them a call and they'll sort you out almost immediately
- noisy neighbors? Give them a call and they'll send up security
- 24-hour security guard, they sign for deliveries/parcels
- floor plans are great, most are open plan and have jack and jill bathroom, plus solariums/balconies that have two entrances.
- storage locker

Cons:
- no pool
- no BBQs allowed on balconies
- parking is additional
- dogs must be less than 25 pounds. No Chows for me :(

Management is fine if you pay on time and don't give them a reason to be upset with you. They aren't lenient, but they have to be tough to do their job. They manage two towers! Like, 300 apartments!

They are actually pretty funny people when you chat to them and will go out of their way when you need something within their means. They replaced our washing machine when it started playing up with a brand new front-loader. They helped us move to a new apartment with no hassles, they fixed our leaking toilet in the same day we called them. The lists goes on.

I don't care that the gym is $15 per month, you don't have to use it if you don't want to. Plenty more gyms around that are packed with people in peak times if you want to put up with crowds. You can join this gym and another at this price. It's also bigger than many on-site gyms I've seen in nearby apartment buildings.

The location and convenience, plus the buildings being pet-friendly are the big winners for me.

The day I moved in I came by after work to do our initial walk through, and I forgot the first rent check. My boyfriend was coming an hour later with our stuff. I asked if, instead of sitting around waiting for him, we can do the walk through now and they hand me the keys when he arrives with the check. That way we can start unloading right away.

I'm not sure if managing a rental office doesn't require much critical thinking, but this chick (Vesna) REFUSED to wrap her head around the idea. "We can't do anything without the check" she kept saying. Finally another lady in the rental office (lady with black hair that is actually an okay person) came in, and I explained the logic. She said "I can't see why we can't do that" and she told Vesna to go upstairs and do the walk through instead of making me sit there for an hour.

When we went up to do the walk through, I was asking questions about the suite and the amenities and every answer I got was "Yes, but first we need the check" I GET IT VESNA, YOU WILL GET YOUR FREAKING CHECK. This lady was so thick I prayed she never got around to reproducing.

Since then it's been nothing but issues. We've been here five months and have had over seven repairs: all four appliances break, one replaced, the sink fixed twice in the kitchen and once in the bathroom. I love the click fix and how fast they service the suite (the guys is really nice too) but when we go to the rental office to tell Vesna that something else is broken for the upteenth time, there is little empathy and it's met with a blank expression like there is nothing going on in her head.

The gym is great, but the trainers in there are a bit expensive. So when I emailed the management office to ask about bringing my own trainer in, they said it would cost me $5 a day. Well that's even cheaper than hiring the trainer in the building, so I asked if I could pre-pay for the month (three sessions a week) and she had the hardest time wrapping her head around the idea. She wanted my trainer to come into the office every day and sign a waiver and pay the $5 EVERY SINGLE TIME. The lack of ability to critically think blows my freaking mind.

The rental office is great, the management office could use a complete fire and re-hire.

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Just so I don't sound like a total negative nancy, I love the location, the suite is really nice and modern looking.

I lived on Metropolitan Towers (tower A) for a little over one year and it could not have been better!

Pros:
- Fantastic location, specially for newcomers to Vancouver/Canada. You can quickly buy anything you need for your new apartment on London Drugs, HomeSense, Staples, FutureShop, Apple Store, and many other places, all in walking distance. Sears closed down last week, but some department store will open on its place in one year or so. And, even better, you have Nesters Market in the building, where you can get your daily groceries. If you don't like it, there are at least two more supermarkets at waking distance.
- Still location related, it's really close to many parks and gardens where you can take a walk after work to relax and enjoy the view. Yaletown and waterfront, all in waking distance. Stanley park is a 10 minute bus ride away. Oh, did I mention you're really close to a huge number of bus stops and both SkyTrain lines?
- Very nice and professional management. They live in the building, so they know what's going on. They quickly fix anything you need, they help you, they're really nice people. Maintenance happens very frequently, the building is always in pristine condition.
- Apartments are well designed and they have a lot of light. Even if you're facing North, like I was, you'll have plenty of light when Vancouver weather allows it. The windows are huge, and they provide a great view of the city.
- I never heard any noise from the neighbours, aside from a few objects dropped on the floor above mine. I never heard conversations, music, or anything else coming from other apartments.
- Security is taken seriously. You have to use your key to enter the building, and then again to reach your floor in the elevators. I never had a single problem, never saw suspicious persons on the building. They have 24/7 security. Security will also sign and receive your packages, and send you a notification email when that happens.
- Appliances are great, and include washer/dryer in the apartment. Dishwasher is a bit noisy, but works well.
- They have an underground garage for residents and visitors. Never used it since I didn't have a car.

Cons:
- Although I never heard noise from the neighbours, a lot of noise comes from the street, specially fire trucks, ambulances and police cars. They're built to be heard, so there's not much you can do about it. It's downtown, after all.
- Most apartments have carpets that I personally hate, although I was told they are installing hard flooring in some apartments now.

All in all, it was great living in Metro towers. I worked from home most of the time, and loved to be there. I'm now living in California, and I only wished apartments here were half as good as Metropolitan Towers were.