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Mid-Rise Apartment
Downtown West, 1520 Washington Ave | St. Louis
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Amenities

Top Amenities

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  •  Dog friendly
  •  Fitness Center
  •  Granite Countertops
  •  Hardwood Floors
  •  Minimum Lease Term  
  •  Private Balconies
  •  Private Decks
  •  Resident Lounge
  •  Stainless Steel Appliances
  •  Sun Deck
  •  Swimming Pool
  •  Washer/Dryer In Unit

User Rating

6.0
Average
1 Review

About this Location

Shop N Save
7 min via 99 (bus)
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
21 min walk
Lots of bars and
restaurants nearby
97 (bus) - 2 min
10 (bus) - 3 min

Pricing 

1 Bedroom, 1 Bath
$1,000+
2 Bedrooms, 1 Bath
$1,200+
2 Bedrooms, 2 Baths
$1,400+
  • Bedrooms

    •  Walk-in Closets
  • Building Related

    •  Elevators
  • Convenience

    •  Conference Rooms with A/V Capabilities
    •  Package Receiving
  • Entertainment

    •  Coffee Bar
    •  Grilling Station
    •  Recreation Room
    •  Resident Lounge
    •  Sun Deck
    •  Theater Room
  • Kitchen

    •  Dishwasher
    •  Garbage Disposal
    •  Granite Countertops
    •  Microwave
    •  Refrigerator
    •  Stainless Steel Appliances
  • Landscape

    •  Courtyard
  • Laundry

    •  Building Laundry Room
    •  Washer/Dryer In Unit
  • Lease Terms

    •  Furnished Units Available
    •  Minimum Lease Term  
  • Living Room

    •  Ceiling Fans
    •  Central A/C
    •  Hardwood Floors
    •  High Ceilings
    •  Skylights
    •  Vaulted Ceilings
  • Parking & Transportation

    •  Bike Storage
    •  Parking Garage  
  • Pet Terms & Amenities

    •  Cat fee  
    •  Cat friendly
    •  Dog fee  
    •  Dog friendly
    •  Max Pets Limit  
  • Security & Maintenance

    •  Controlled Access
    •  Gated Community
  • Sports & Fitness

    •  Fitness Center
    •  Swimming Pool
  • Storage

    •  Additional Storage Available
    •  Pantry Closet
  • View

    •  Amazing Views
    •  Private Balconies
    •  Private Decks
X

Overall rating 6.0/10, based on 1 renter review Write a review

7.0
Location
4.0
Amenities
5.0
Management
5.0
Value
6.0
Social
5.0
Safety
Excellent
0
Great
0
Good
1
Average
0
Terrible
0
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Overall score
Location
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Social
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Mixed Experiences, Overall Decent for Downtown.

I'm a SLU law student living in these lofts, so this based on solely my experience.

Building Location:

Good: The distance to campus is amazing; it's a 10 minute walk or a 5 minute drive. It's up the street from a Fields Foods, which is a St. Louis-based chain of fancier grocery stores, similar to a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods. The store is only 2 blocks away, so it's a very short walk. Their stock of groceries can be hit-or-miss, and prices tend to be a little more expensive than if you were to drive out to any of the suburbs. Almost anything that you need is within a 15 minute drive of Downtown.

Frustrating: My unit faces Washington Ave. & is on the 5th floor. I can hear everything happening outside on the ground level, even with the windows fully closed & music or TV playing at a moderate level in the loft. This is most likely because of the construction of the exterior-facing wall; the windows are the original ones from the early 1900s, and the wall itself is made of brick with little-to-no insulation.

Weeknights are fairly quiet, there are very loud cars that seem to enjoy making a lot of noise up & down Washington Ave. almost every night around midnight. I'm a deep sleeper, so once I'm asleep, it's not an issue. But, it can be an issue when trying to get to sleep.

Weekends are much more chaotic. The popular bars are up the street a few blocks, maybe closer to Tucker Blvd. & further east, so you don't get loud club music specifically. There is an event hall built onto the top of the apartments across the street, and there are often bright lights close to eye level. Occasionally, partygoers will step out onto its balcony and scream or cheer & you can hear it as if you were outside with them. Incidental to the clubs up the street, sometimes you can hear people get into altercations or screaming drunkenly later into the weekend evening hours (12am to 3am tends to be the worst of it).

The living room & master bedroom of my unit specifically are along the exterior-facing wall, so it's not great. I highly recommend melatonin or your sleeping supplement of choice.

Loft Unit:

It's a loft with the exposed air conditioning & various other tubes/pipes aesthetic. I'm happy with it, overall.

Original wood floors throughout the entire unit, original windows, but the unit has modern appliances & there's lots of storage. The wood floors do have some pretty big gashes & small chunks missing here & there. I was told that this is just the way it is & there's a strong resistance to fixing them because of their value as the original floors from the early 1900s. You can hear your neighbor's floors creaking into your own unit and it can be a little panic-inducing at first, because it definitely sounds like someone is in your apartment sometimes. To that end, the unit's door has two locks, a deadbolt & a click-y lock built into the door handle.

Complex & its Community:

The complex is about average for what you will find in St. Louis. Built in the early 1900s. Businesses might move into the first floor commercial space (separate from the lofts) in the future.

As far as the community itself, the people here are generally polite for the most part. The building's entries/exits can smell like & have dog excrement from time to time. I chalk it up to lazy/irresponsible pet owners in the building. I have had packages stolen out of the mail room before & management was unable to do much about it (but Amazon was willing to work with me to get it replaced). I recommend getting valuable items mailed to a 3rd-party locker or something of the sort. I have no experience with the building's management company other than the packages.

Amenities & Building Safety:

The building's front entrance (along Washington Ave.) is a set of two doors that only open with a fob or a code that is dialed on the exterior call box. You'll want to be quick getting through both doors, they lock kind of quickly. The building's rear entranc

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  • Couple
  • 2 beds / 2 baths

The Neighborhood

Signature Spots

dining 26 Recs

Blood & Sand
Las Palmas Mexican Restaurant
Rooster
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grocery 1 Rec

Shop N Save
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convenience 2 Recs

CVS Pharmacy
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fitness 4 Recs

Functional Fitness Stl
Fitness Factory
Rock Workout
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parks 3 Recs

Citygarden
Kiener Plaza
Ellen Park Sculpture Park
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coffee 7 Recs

Washington Avenue Post
Park Avenue Coffee - Downtown
Urban Eats Cafe Central
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About Downtown West

Downtown West is a bustling neighborhood offering a diverse range of housing choices, convenient transportation, and an array of amenities. The area boasts an eclectic mix of housing options from loft-style apartments in renovated warehouses to modern condominiums with beautiful city views, or beaut...
Median rents in Downtown West
Studio
$
760
1 Bedroom
$
1,300
2 Bedroom
$
1,750

Getting around Downtown West


Parking at Ely Walker

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Downtown West Reviews

41 reviews
There is very little to do in the surrounding area that I feel safe walking to from my apartment. While you are only steps away from the Blues stadium, Cardinals stadium and school, you often encounter situations walking to these venues that are unnerving. There also aren't as many grocery stores and affordable restaurants close by. Other areas of St. Louis provide a greater selection and are more amenable to students.
In terms of convenience for school - it's GREAT. Everything else is terrible. There are very limited food places around here. Most places span to 10-25 min drive depending on what you want. Same with grocery stores. The downtown and soulard bars are close which is nice. However, in the 3 years I have lived here, there have been 4 shootings on the street outside, my car has been broken into twice (in the connected parking garage), and I was harassed by a building janitor. It's not worth it.
I am used to living in cities and I tend to be able to turn a blind eye to random acts of violence because in any city it is tough to feel 100% safe. There are shootings down here as well as more petty crimes. People are desperate just as they are anywhere that packs people in but does not have enough well-paying jobs or mental health clinics to support the population. The neighborhood is getting better though, as I have seen many businesses pop up since moving here 8 months ago. These businesses have been primarily black-owned which is amazing to see and the diversity of the neighborhood is wonderful. I hope that it does not lose its charm as it becomes more popular.
Overall:

The streets in Downtown generally are somewhat clean. There are also many restaurants & coffee shops in downtown, and it is very walkable/bike-able during the daytime hours.
Safety: St. Louis' reputation for being unsafe precedes it, and is a bit exaggerated. But not entirely off-base, from my personal experience. From about sunrise to sunset, speaking as a man, I am comfortable walking outside. Foot traffic is generally very light and most streets have sufficient sidewalk space. Not to fearmonger, but I have personally erred on the side of caution when it comes to going out at night. I do go out to Bar Reviews and friends' house parties once a month or so. I tend to get home anywhere from midnight to 2am. I have never seen any violence, or concerning behavior, with my own eyes. Anecdotally, I have heard from another friend in Downtown that they have seen people cruising around in a car with guns on one occasion, very early in the morning/late at night. Gunshots are not rare, but also not frequent. My personal estimate is that I hear what could plausibly be gunshots once every two weeks or so. They occur most often in the midnight to 4am block of time. Car-break-ins were the second-most raised point about safety in Downtown. I have not been the victim of a break-in myself. However, I have seen cars parked in the same spot on the street all day go from having an intact window in the morning to a busted window by the end of the school day. I strongly recommend securing garage parking if you have a car, either in your own apartment complex or a nearby external garage. Downtown St. Louis has a homelessness problem, unfortunately similar to most other major cities in the US (Austin, TX and Los Angeles, CA come to mind). The homeless & city have a tragic cycle of homeless people occupying the parks near the law school & city hall, then being cleared out by city officials when a major event is being held at or near the parks, and drifting back in, days or weeks after the event. I have seen homeless people sleeping along the St. Charles St. side of the building, and further up the street. I have never been personally accosted by anyone, but it can contribute to feelings of overall decreased safety.
There’s not much nightlife, not a lot of walkable places, not super safe to walk alone at night. However, I’ve never felt unsafe in my building. It’s very worth it to live so close to the law school and live near other law students.
Downtown near the school on Washington Avenue. Busy at night, safe to walk home from school.
Gunshots every weekend and there is no grocery store close. I’m afraid to walk outside by myself, even during the day.
Great food options. Close to the highway. Everything I need is within a 15 minute drive.

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