Please please do not live in this apartment complex! You will regret it. There is mold growing within their AC units that they won’t clean as well as water leaving from pipes causing wall erosion. The management is not your friend. They also do not have any pest control in place so there are lots of issues with pests. There is a pool that was unusable because it was not clean. Their package room was a disaster. You had to hunt for your package in a room with hundreds of packages. I lost one or someone stole it and I never ordered a package again.

This is my third year living in this apartment. We got a new property manager last spring and they have made living here unbearable. Rent went up by 30%, maintenance is unresponsive, and they are engaging in loud and messy renovations all over the property. I would not recommend this property anymore.

Management has turned over three times since moving there in the summer 2020. I've had my room flood/water damage 2x. Maintenance is slow to respond and current management is terrible.

My roommate and I have been renting at Icon Downtown for a little over a year. Over this time, we've had three different management companies, which has created a lot of inconsistency and confusion for residents about basic matters like paying rent and getting repairs done.

The new management has prioritized cosmetic improvements (landscaping, exterior repainting) over critical repairs that are needed for residents (broken exterior doors, cockroach control). It feels like they are just using the rent increase they collected from us (+19% from year 1 to year 2) to fund cosmetic improvements to dupe prospective residents into signing leases. Unfortunately, the display apartments they show to prospective residents and the nice landscaping belie the below-average quality of the apartments we actually get placed in. Our bathtub is rusted out, the shower water runs erratically hot and cold, and, inexplicably, parts of the walls/floorboards have crumbled away, exposing the insides of the walls...

One thing the Icon Downtown website does accurately portray is the prime location, especially for Duke students. I'm grateful every day for how close Icon Downtown is to the university. I'm a 25 min walk from most of my classes, and two of the Duke Bus lines have stops nearby.

I haven't had any major issues with my apartment since living here. Maintenance is fairly quick to address issues. Parking is never an issue. Location wise, it's great because it's right near the SWS and within walking distance of downtown.

Very Old building

I like the apartment, it's a good size and has laundry and a dishwasher, everything is in good working order/condition, I have access to 2 gyms and 2 pools on the property, one of each on my side of the road (the newer buildings, not the historic buildings). They're not fancy but it's nice to have the option. The biggest issue is the new owners, the old management was much better and the new company is raising the rents by quite a bit. When I was looking, the smallest unit was listed for $600/month, and now they are starting at $1300. You could get something bigger/better for the same price. The location is really great though, 10-15 minute bike ride to campus, a mile to 9th street and a mile to downtown, right in the middle of all 3 areas.

Great location and price, old buildings

My apartment was affordable and spacious. It did lack a few things such as a dishwasher and microwave. It was also close (within 20 minutes) enough to Duke to walk and not far from the East/West or SWX bus routes. The area itself could have been nicer/safer. The property bordered an area that was unsafe and sometimes that would blow in. Management was not great either. I was charged heavily for what I would describe as next to no damage after I moved out. Despite keeping a neat and tidy apartment I would often find cockroaches as well, indicative of a wider pest problem in the building. It was however pet friendly and had plenty of parking.

You can't really beat the price of the rent, especially with a roommate. It's in a great location; both Duke and city buses pass by and stop at Duke. It's not super close to grocery stores, but there is a co-op down the street for emergency needs. Amenities are fine; there is a decent sized pool and a little gym. My big complaints are about management. They are very strict with subleasing or getting out of your lease if you need to, and you really have to pester them to take maintenance requests seriously. They really hate doing more expensive repairs, but the little stuff they're pretty quick about. I told them the ceiling was sagging and cracking for months, and they finally came to look at it after I called the regional manager. The day the contractor came in was the day the ceiling finally collapsed. Another friend of mine has had mold in their apartment for 4 months; maintenance keeps painting over it. My first year was quite safe here, but this year two shootings occurred in the immediate area, one right across the street from my window.