Apartment Review for Riviera Parkway Apartments - Jacksonville, FL

I love the location, the complex is right on the river and is situated in a very nice neighborhood, surrounded by $500k houses. It's also close to the hospital, shopping, restaurants, and pretty much anything else you'd want or need. Parking is good, there are assigned spots by every building, and plenty of guest spots. The complex also has a pool and a long dock with benches, etc., out over the river. The property is, overall, extremely nice, and certainly much better than 90% of what is in the Riverside/Avondale market. The people complaining about the age of the buildings really aren't very familiar with the city, as this neighborhood is a historical preservation area, and all of the houses and apartments date back to the 1890 to 1930 range. Nothing around here is going to be a brand new structure with all the stickers still on the appliances, and that's just the nature of the neighborhood. If you want brand new pre-fab buildings, go over to the Gate parkway area, where you will probably have shirts older than your building. But if you do go over to Gate or Southside, then you will find yourself sitting in traffic for 2 hours a day, having to drive 30 minutes just to get to a restaurant that isn't an overpriced chain, and finding there is no shopping that isn't located in a strip mall. It definitely pays off to live in Riverside/Avondale/SanMarco, which are a set of fantastic 100 year old neighborhoods with great mom & pop restaurants, nice high-end retail, and without the congestion and overcrowding that you find in the newer areas. The buildings are older, but the huge difference in quality of life more than makes up for it. Anyway, getting down to the meat of the review, the bottom line is that, while the property is very nice, the management will leave you scratching your head. The property manager is prone to bouts of snottiness, even when she hasn't a leg to stand on. She is one of those who, rather than re-analyzing her position and trying to work through an issue politely when she meets resistance to her viewpoint, instead resorts to bossing you around in order to compensate for weaknesses in her side of the discussion. And her side normally is pretty weak, since this place loves to argue with you about the most inane stuff. I will get into more of that later. I honestly don't know where these people learned their customer service skills, but they sure need improvement. I can't imagine it ever changes the outcome of a situation in their favor either, since nobody's going to do (or not do) something just because "she says so", especially when they have a written lease agreement that says otherwise. She needs to take a chill pill, as that attitude has got to be making her job more difficult for her. In the end, they're just hurting their own business, as is clearly indicated by the fact that every single review posted on this site, even the positive ones, make note of their attitude. But if you give the manager some time to cool down, then she does eventually come back down to earth and resolve whatever problem you are having. So her attitude is really just a minor annoyance. The rest of the staff, however, are just bizarre. I don't know what planet they're from, and on top of their general weirdness, they are also complete idiots. I have had experience with two maintenance guys so far, out of which one is a "know it all" redneck, and the other is literally a crackhead. When something breaks, they first send the "know-it-all" out to argue with you about how whatever you said is broken isn't "really" broken, which I find to be an annoying waste of my time. It either works right or it doesn't, and if it doesn't, then it needs to be replaced. Seems logical enough to me. But somehow they always seem to find room for "discussion", and to try and see if they can talk you into just putting up with the problem. Then when that doesn't work, they send out the crackhead to try and fix it. On the 3rd or 4th try he usually manages to get it right, but he too argues with you about everything, and the whole process is just a hassle. You really get the impression that you're inconveniencing them by complaining about their 30-year old P.O.S. air conditioners. Like it's MY choice to keep running these friggin' antiques 20 years after they've been fully depreciated, and 15 years after they should already have been replaced . Note the other reviewers, who all complained about the A/C systems, because that really is a problem around here. In my case, the A/C couldn't cool the apartment below about 78 degrees, and I was getting $330 monthly electric bills. First they sent the "know-it-all" out, who spent 30 minutes arguing with me that it was "normal". Ya rite. Like I've never had air conditioning before, and don't know how it's supposed to work. Finally I had to go out to my truck and get my Infared thermometer to read the vent temps, which were 69 degrees. Then he finally admitted there was a problem, and sent the crackhead out to fix it. He also argued with me about it for an hour, but did finally wind up fixing it. So all in all, it's a mixed bag. The location and the grounds are charming, and the buildings are generally well maintained, but the management really seems to be dredging the bottom of the bargain barrel when it comes to their staff. They also have a bizarre fetish for resuscitating these 30-year old a/c units (and I'm not exaggerating, by the way, most of those things are literally older than I am) instead of replacing them as is clearly necessary. I walk past one every morning on the way to my car, and it's a Temptrol. That company stopped building residential a/c units in the early 80s, so do the math there. This complex really could be an air-conditioner museum, and I think they should start charging admission to see these dinosaurs. I bet they have the last operating examples of at least 20 different models of a/c's that haven't been produced since the 1970's. I will say that, when I first moved in, the other reviews were pretty accurate about describing the grounds. The management evidently was experimenting with bargain-basement lawn services and contractors, to round out their equally impressive collection of bargain-basement full time maintenance staff, and so the results were naturally predictable. But about a year ago, they really started trying to get things back into shape, re-doing the pool, hiring back the old landscapers, etc., and now the place looks nice again and seems to be staying that way. So, with all that said, the flip side of the coin is that it really is a nice place. Just bear in mind they are a bit quirky to deal with, but if you don't mind some entertainment at their expense, and you don't mind a little head-scratching from time to time over their approach to things, then the amenities and location certainly do make living here worthwhile. Their rates are also very fair, too, since you would have to pay more than what Riviera charges to rent a comparable apartment in this area, let alone one with a dock, pool, assigned off-street parking, and on-site laundry. It's definitely a nice deal, and I do recommend this complex, despite the minor annoyances you face when dealing with the staff.