Pearl Properties

I've been very happy in 801 walnut. The building is updated with nice fixtures and appliances, beautiful tall ceilings and gorgeous, large windows. It's in a great area with tons of good lunch places and bars, and it's only a block from Washington Square park. Pearl Properties is a great management company that is responsive to any repairs, usually getting it done within the day. However, because Pearl owns so many buildings in Philadelphia, it is a pricier building, and they did raise our rent significantly each year. In addition, when I adopted a cat, they demanded I pay a large "non-refundable fee" in addition to a pet rent. We fought the fee, but I still find the pet rent a bit tacky.

I love my apartment at 1700 Chestnut and the building in general. It's in the renovated Bonwit Teller Department store building and has modern decor in the common space and entryway. The apartments are beautiful with hardwood floors, high ceilings and large windows. The management company is also wonderful and responds to any maintenance requests right away. My only issues are that my apartment faces the street (17th) which has lots of hotels so cabs and users get jammed up and frequently honk and make a ton of noise. Davios across the street is also extremely loud on weekends and sometimes wakes me up when it lets out at night. I also think that the windows aren't all that well insulated so right now my utilities are super high and its cold near the windows.

There's a 24/7 door person and package delivery service through luxer/ the door people. Pearl properties also does nice things every so often like have federal donuts and coffee in the lobby or happy hours at local bars for tenants.

The space is perfectly sized for me with no frills, which is accounted for in the price. Street noise can be a pain but otherwise the location is great. Overall great place to live for a single Wharton student.

Pros: The building is lovely and new and decorated well. The apartments are spacious, clean, and very new. Amenities include gym and movie room.

Cons: Front desk is very strict on letting people in and other rules. Good for security but taken too far - for example, nobody can leave anything at the front desk for you to pick up. Additionally, extreme rules exist for the common space - only 5 guests allowed before you have to pay a large deposit. At 6 guests, they will force you to leave. The common space can easily fit 50 people and this rule seems extremely unnecessary.

I really love this building. Beautiful, modern apartments with nice amenities. I love having access to a fully stocked gym, and common area to host events.I live on the 4th floor and you can hear a lot of noise coming from the streets, especially on the weekends. It also used to be free to ruse the common area now they charge $75 to reserve it, 25 guests max plus a refundable $150 cleaning fee.

Great place for MBA students!

far from campus and noisy street

Great apartment with excellent staff. Apartments are very solid, and the amenities area is outstanding. Maintenance requests get resolved asap. Only issue is if you have an apartment facing 17th street, it can get very loud on Thursday - Saturday night from 1-3 am.

Only other gripe I have with the units is that there is very limited kitchen storage and counter space.

Like: the location is great. All utilities except for electricity are included.
Dislike: the HVAC is loud. Some windows are thin and not doing well in noise-cancelling so many units have noise issues. The internet is slow. And it takes long for the management company to fix maintainance issues.
Overall, I do not recommend this building.

Like: location is good, utilities (expect for electricity) are included.
Dislike: HAVC is loud. Some windows are thin and not doing in well in noise-cancelling, so many of the units are noisy. It takes quite long for the management to fix issues. Internet is slow.
Overall, I do not recommend this building.

Great bang for your buck

Like: location is good, utilities (expect for electricity) are included.
Dislike: HAVC is loud. Some windows are thin and not doing in well in noise-cancelling, so many of the units are noisy. It takes quite long for the management to fix issues. Internet is slow.
Overall, I do not recommend this building.

The beacon is brand new and I would highly recommend it to wharton students. The apartments are beautiful and the amenities are some of the nicest that I've seen. Also, the landlord is wonderful and incredibly responsive if there are any issues.

Clean building. Respectful and nice security staff. Luxer in the building so very convenient for receiving packages. My studio was small but functional.

I live in a lovely modern studio that is well laid out. The building was recently renovated, so it is in great condition. Building shares amenities (except laundry) with 1700 Chestnut so social activity is minimal, which works out great for me as I prefer a quiet building :) The management is very responsive and I have not had any unresolved issues till date. The units run small though, so be mindful of that as you might need creative storage solutions. Location is great, in the shopping zone and in the center of the bar/restaurant scene.