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November 2024 by Lisa Smith
The apartments are nice and expensive for what they are. You have to pay for parking plus the rent and pay extra for the fob to get into the parking garage.
You would think it would all be included in the rent..
The gardens are kept up really well.
I'm not sure I would rent an apartment , because they are so expensive.
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October 2024 by Deborah Dodge
This is my 4th apartment at the Esplanade in San Jose California. I love it here!! Steven Watkins is an amazing Leasing Agent with the best customer service skills. He goes above and beyond for all the residents. In the past maintenance has been exceptional as well. Can’t wait to move back in!!
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August 2024 by Alexandre Soares da Silva
Update July 14, 2024:
- I increased the review stars from 2 to 4 because Essex (Landlord company) is very prompt to attend to requests to fix issues. They replaced the noisy AC with a new central unit.
Unfortunately, it's still not quiet enough in certain frequencies for a restful night in the bedroom. Thus we're permanently sleeping in the living room until we move to another place.
Update Jun 24 2024
- we’re sleeping in the living room for the time being. It sucks because we thought with this bigger space we’d be able to have people over, but with the bed there that’ll be a no-go.
June 14
just moved here to a ground floor 1b/1b.
TLDR: if you’re sensitive to LOUD ac noise from outside your window DO NOT move here.
Positives:
The apartment is very spacious and well thought out. Good cabinet space and the parking is very convenient, close to the apartment’s door.
Negatives:
NOISE. The AC units outside of our bedroom (patio) are LOUD. Yesterday I tracked 19.5k steps on my Apple watch while moving between properties, so I was exhausted. Sleeping should have been really easy. However, EVEN WITH EARPLUGS, there’s a constant symphony of ac running noise.
It’s unbearable, my wife and I are considering sleeping in the living room because can’t be sleep-deprived constantly. This is not great; who wants to invite friends over to entertain in their living room?
The noise made me a bit sleep-deprived. Sleep deprivation makes you sick and underperform in cognitive tasks. With more nights like this, I’m not going to be able to work at all. How can this not be talked about in other reviews? That’s how LOUD those units are.
I read online that there are many ways to make them quieter: newer units, better maintenance, noise-blocking fences around them, and making the door and windows more noise-isolating.
Furthermore, you can hear neighbors upstairs very well.
I’m guessing most people who leave reviews about this apt complex have lived here for very long or are not that sensitive to noise. However, if you have lived in a much newer unit, with proper noise insulation from outside and from above, this will be a day-and-night difference.
I hope moving here wasn’t a mistake; I was just trying to save about $150/month after moving costs.
Another smaller issue (but something I haven’t seen before, and I moved many times in the last 5 years due to work/school). The fobs (for both my wife and I) required to access our garage unit and other complex facilities were not placed in the unit the day we moved in. The maintenance guy let us borrow a fob for now, as it is impossible to use the garage without one, and I also because it takes days to get them ordered from the company that makes the fobs.
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July 2024 by Christine P.
Great location, apartments have a pretty nice layout, and they are dog friendly.
They raise the rent every. single. year.
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July 2024 by Rob Bellman
I absolutely loved living in this community. It was peaceful and quiet, maintenance and service requests were fulfilled in a timely and efficient manner, and the pools/amenities are great and accessible. Definitely a better price point for a 1BR that is spacious and cozier than those around, lots of natural light in my ground floor SW facing apartment, etc. Just a short walk to Japantown proper, there is access to groceries, restaurants, coffee, and shops.
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June 2024 by Donna Kuck
This is our second apartment at the Esplanade in Japan Town, San Jose, CA. We first checked them out in 2018 when we were moving from another Essex property downtown. Stephen Watkins was our contact and made the entire leasing experience enjoyable. In the ensuing 6 years we changed apartments 3 years ago - moving to a larger unit in The Esplanade, and once again were expertly guided by Stephen Watkins. This has been a pleasant place to live. Our maintenance requests are handled quickly, efficiently and expertly by the talented maintenance crew. I love being able to walk a few blocks to Japan Town restaurants and through the beautiful surrounding neighborhoods. Overall, I have really loved my residence here.
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June 2024 by Damon DeSilva
I cannot say how thrilled I am that Stephen Watkins went the extra mile to support me in my lease renewal. He is always supportive and tries to do the best he can for his fellow neighbors.
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May 2024 by Phyllis Jeffers
We have been at Esplanade since 2010. It was suppose to be a 2 year stay and then we would move on, but we got so comfortable with the apartment and the staff, that we made it our home. It is now 2024 and my family is relocating to Concord. I only have praise to say about the Esplanade team. They are courteous and friendly and the maintenance team is right on top of things for something simple as changing a light bulb or changing out the air filters. It has truly been a pleasure making our home Esplanade for the last 14 years. Walking distance to Japantown where they have ongoing festivities, food, music, etc. Esplanade will truly be missed.
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May 2024 by Amit Kulkarni
We've been residents of The Esplanade since 2020 and it's been quite good! My review primarily is to appreciate the amazing work done by the maintenance team especially Mauricio, Jose and team - they're friendly and very efficient! Great job folks!
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May 2024 by Anne Poche
This is only for Stephen, as there have been a lot of issues the last few years with how Essex wants to run this place. I've been here 18 years, so I've seen many changes. The fact that they closed the office and sent their staff to an office downtown is one of their horrible decisions that NOONE in the complex likes. Anyway, even though they took away what Stephen was best at...interacting with tenants all day in person to help and solve problems, he is still very helpful and tries to help the the many issues in my old apt. He's awesome.
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April 2024 by M Ryan Hess
This was a fairly well-run apartment complex. The maintenance team was quite prompt and in the office, Steve, was an amazing help when things came up. In fact, Steve went above and beyond on several occasions.
Some decisions by the higher ups that impacted tenants seemed to come out of the blue and degraded the 'user experience' for the apartments, like changing out the locks to Internet-connected ones that send the access code as text to your email (this is just asking for trouble). There's also been a decline in the quality of tenants. When we first moved in, the place was largely occupied by mellow, friendly people. It feels a little rowdier and colder than it used to, but there's still a nice community left.
Overall, though, we enjoyed living there.
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January 2024 by Kshitij Bhardwaj
I recently self-toured the historical lofts/apt for a 1b1b. It's a beautiful loft with exposed brick walls and nice appliances. The community has great amenities and is walking distance to some amazing places in Japantown.But this 5 star review is for Maricela and the leasing office. Maricela was really helpful and answered all the questions I had, and I had a lot!I didn't submit an application this time but I'll definitely consider the property in future.
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December 2023 by Justin Perez
We're sad to be moving out of the Esplanade's but enjoyed the 4 years we lived here. It was our first apartment, and the staff had been and continues to be welcoming and helpful. Stephen was our leasing agent and lived across from our unit. Super friendly, ask for him when you decide to check the place out. My emails never went unanswered for more than a day.Maintenance is always around, always super friendly and respectful. It was reassuring to see that help would be there if something went wrong in the unit. The couple of times we needed our sink unclogged, they were there promptly.Annual fire alarm inspections, garage cleaning, and facility/landscape improvements were communicated to us with ample time to prepare. In the past year or so, they upgraded units to smart locks and thermostats. The convenience of being able to check on my locks and AC thru an app was something I didn't know I needed. 24 hr gym, locked mailroom and mailboxes, office area, event space, and large pool areas. Our dumpster area was also maintained pretty well. Front doors have an external building door with a keypad, so our Amazon packages weren't left outside and easily stolen by porch pirates.Our 1 bedroom unit had a surprising amount of space. Washer dryer in house, up to date kitchen appliances, fenced patio area. Windows and walls are sufficiently sound proof that the train passing by never bother our sleep and we couldn't hear neighbors unless they were really banging on the wall. Japantown is literally right around the corner. Bernal park is down the street. Just close enough to downtown San Jose if you decide to enjoy some nightlife, but far enough away that you don't get all the noise or craziness that comes with it.Rent increases were very reasonable. If our household wasn't getting bigger, I definitely would still be staying here. I highly suggest coming out to see the units for yourself.
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December 2023 by Dewank Drive Account
Nice place, their maintenance staff is very nice, helpful and hardworking, they do their best to resolve any issues. Specially Thanks to Mario, Jose and Mauricio for always having a prompt response to the maintenance requests and for fixing the issues so quickly.
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December 2023 by Kayla Go
My fiancé and I have lived here for a couple of years now and we’ve had nothing but great experiences - especially with the maintenance crew! They are always so quick to come and help AND with the friendliest attitude. We absolutely love living here!
