Pennsylvania Place

Pennsylvania Place is a 25-floor mixed use apartment complex with businesses taking up the second, third, and fourth floors. The entire building only has three elevators, and more often than not, at least one of them is down. There was a change in property management that took place two years ago that has caused some significant communication issues between the managers and tenants, but they have steadily been getting better. Fire alarms requiring building-wide evacuation are a common occurrence, going off approximately once a month, at least, and sometimes multiple times in a week. Communication regarding these alarms is non-existent, so there is never a way to know if there was a legitimate emergency or not. The walls and floors are thin, especially to the outside, making sirens and road work commonplace noises. The package room, equipped with a series of lockers for carriers to deliver packages, is often a disaster, with piles and piles of pacakges just left to sit in the open, and there have been recurring issues in the building with pacakge thieves - an issue that I have first-hand experience with.

That all being said, the location is hard to beat, being only three blocks away from the State Capitol Complex, where I work, and only one block away from the Harrisburg Amtrak Station. As someone who doesn't drive, being able to walk to work is a must. The rent is reasonable, but each new lease period they find a way to charge more in addition to an increase to the base rent (i.e. a water/sewage/trash reimbursement and a mandatory damage waiver separate from your own rental insurance).

The layout of the apartments is nothing special, with a small, tightly packed kitchen and a decent amount of space for the living room and bedrooms. Maintenance is timely, though the need for them is more frequent than I would like. In my five years of living in my apartment, I have had two pipes burst and leak through my ceiling, requiring significant work to repair, I have had my bathroom flood as the result of a broken toilet valve, and I have had my entire HVAC unit need to be replaced.

While this review certainly errs on the side of caution to communicate the negatives of living here, at the end of the day the rent is still reasonable and the cheapest that I have been able to find in the area, and its location is perfect if you need to work in or near the Capitol Complex. It is approximately a 15-25 minute drive to Widener University Commonwealth Law School's campus, depending on traffic, and there is ample availability of ride share drivers in the area. Downtown Harrisburg does have several very nice bars, coffee shops, and restaurants, and there are three or four local theaters to see live performances or films that are operated by a very supportive and welcoming community. Two blocks away is the UPMC Harrisbug Hospital, and there is a dentist office and an eye/ear doctor within a 15-20 minute walk, right near the Capitol Complex.