Apartment Review for The Richmond Dairy Apartments - Richmond, VA

Positive: I lived in a 1-bdroom loft, and it was unbelievably spacious considering the location and price. They have off-street parking for free, although there aren't guaranteed spots. You can pay for access to their parking garage, and you'd have a guaranteed spot there. They have security key-card access after hours, I've always felt safe despite the neighborhood. The building directly across the street from one of the galleries featured in First Friday-- so you can walk right to the goings-ons, but there isn't much street parking those nights. In the garage there's a bike rack, so you don't need to worry about finding a place in your apartment for your bike. Maintenance has always been prompt and taken care of issues quickly, usually the same day-- that's one of the things I've really been impressed with living here. The office staff is friendly and very competent, so you know that if you have a problem or a question they'll take care of things for you. Negatives: The building has the slowest elevators that I've ever been on in my life, so I usually take the stairs. I'm on the 4th floor though, and occasionally people on my floor smoke in the stairwell instead of going downstairs and outside, so the stairs always smell a bit funky. It's pretty quiet to live because they don't allow full-time college students, but First Fridays can be a bit loud, and occasionally my neighbors would crank up their music. The neighborhood is fine as long as you're smart about it-- I'm a female and I wouldn't walk around by myself after midnight, but how much of that is common sense, really? Lots of sirens around, but that's part of living downtown. Everybody who lives in the building likes to know everybody else, and to me this was a negative because I didn't really care to get to know them, I just wanted to get from the parking lot to my apartment-- but for you this might go in the "positive" category :) In the neighborhood: if there's no parking left in the lot and you don't want to pay for the garage, I've always been able to find a spot within a block of the building. There's a Rite-Aid on the corner a few blocks away, so I walk to get milk. There are at least 2 restaurants within 2 blocks that you can walk to. It's right near VCU, I initially chose the location so I could walk to work, and it's a great 10-minute walk. Other: Most of the building is low-income housing, but it's fantastic low-income housing. The apartments themselves are clean and very well maintained, and quite spacious for your money. The walls are relatively thick (for an apartment building), the carpets are in good condition and the kitchens-- cabinets and appliances-- are in good condition as well. The apartments that are actually inside the milk bottles are part of the low-income housing, but if you're looking for a cheap and good place to live and make too much to be "low-income", the lofts are open to the general public and are an absolute joy to live in.