We picked B9 for its location mainly to be close to fellow graduate students. But now being in Durham, I think we could have benefitted from a cost perspective and space by exploring a few more options off the beaten path to have more space and pay less in rent. Overall, I enjoy the amenities at B9 (gym, pool) but have had issues with the bike storage (my back wheel went missing during a management movement of my bike and nothing has been done about it). The actual apartment, parking, amenities, etc, are awesome, and I love being so close to Harris Teeter, 9th Street, and Downtown, but the management has been rough.

Great place to live but there are a few problems

Living at B9. Very good overall. Decent value if coming from a big city pre-Fuqua like myself (NYC). A bit pricey for the Durham area, but again, not expensive compared to something like a NY, Bay Area, Boston, DC, etc. Nice building, good amenities. Close to all other Fuqua MBA's, Ninth St commercial district, and Duke bus lines to campus (you do NOT need a car, campus is a mile down the road and an easy walk and Duke buses are perfectly reliable and quick, carpooling is a very easy option too). Management of building can occasionally be a bit difficult to deal with, you just have to be firm with them and won't have any issues. Otherwise no complaints.

Great Apartment but with Thin Walls

Specific employees are nice, but the management of the building as a whole is poor. Undergrads and greek life have taken over the building, with garbage and spilled drinks all over the elevators. The garbage rooms are perpetually full and management will fine you for the slightest thing. The amenities are nice but are often broken.

The main advantage of living in Berkshire Ninth Street is the proximity to other students (in this building, Station Nine next door, Berkshire Main closeby, and 810 close by). It is a luxury building so the amenities are a perk and the apartment itself is nice. It is more expensive than other apartments and housing options you would find in Durham. There are places walking distance, but getting downtown is a longer walk or short drive. This year (due to COVID) more undergrads are living in the building so it's been noisier

When comparing the four buildings on/near 9th street, it is clear that B9 is the nicest. It is the newest (I think) and has the nicest finishes. The apartments themselves are very nice.

BUT...the management is nothing short of terrible. All of the Fuqua second years who live here have a groupme on this topic, and it is one of the most active groups I am in. Multiple of the employees in the office are rude and unhelpful to the point where I think their goal is to be unhelpful. My biggest complaint was when my downstairs neighbor was a chain smoker, smoking cigarettes every hour all summer. This rendered our balcony completely useless unless we wanted to breath in cigarette smoke. Even given the fact that we are in a global pandemic that attacks the respiratory system, the management did not help make our neighbor stop smoking. The lease is very clear that B9 is a non-smoking building, but they refused to help unless we got a photo or video of her smoking (they even suggested we try to gather such evidence ourselves, which btw is suggesting an invasion of privacy). Once they called our neighbor and told her two days in advance that they would be doing a walkthrough. This gave her plenty of time to clear out the evidence and then they told us they couldn't do anything. We had to wait for her to move out (at no requirement of B9 management).

Other more general complaints - office management is rude and often unresponsive. They once charged a trash fee to our account without any warning and then when we asked about it, just turned the computer screen around to show us a picture of a box outside of our apartment (passive aggressive much?). Amenities are nice when they work but are often out of order. The fire pit has been out this entire fall, which is so annoying since its COVID and we want to be outside. The ONLY elevator that goes to the fifth floor (where I live), has been out for long periods of time (2-3 weeks at a time), forcing us to climb 5 flights of stairs or take an extremely round about route to the parking garage. The security is terrible. There are no fob readers to get from the parking garage into the building, so if someone piggy backs a car getting into the garage they can have access to the whole building. During my time here there has been a homeless man sleeping in the mail room and one that gained entrance to an apartment and was found on the couch. I could go on and on. If you are going to email anyone at B9, be sure to CC the boss (Buddy) and if that doesn't work, the regional manager (Brooke).

Sure there are amenities and the apartments are nice, but my unit has a bug problem, and its definitely not worth the price differential between it and other apartments. I'd sooner go over to S9 or 810.

Pros = Great location - love being near everyone. Love being on Ninth St. Apartments are spacious. Nice amenities. Pet Friendly. Assuming your internship is in-person and not in Durham, you get 1 month free rent if you're away for the summer and your rent doesn't go up by more than 1.5% in year 2. Less "crazy"/ crowded compared to S9

Cons = impossible to get ahold of the front office (once you're moved in, only one person on the entire team responds to emails), the walls are VERY thin and I can hear every step my upstairs neighbors make - this is a common finding for anyone who lives on a non-top floor and, having lived in apartments for many years, uniquely loud. security doesn't answer the phone, community printer never works, buzzer system has been broken for months (particularly annoying for food deliveries or to let a guest in), weird black gunk comes out of faucets sometimes

good amenities, great location, terrible management