Tenant Reviews for 777 S STATE ST

Please save yourself and DO NOT live here. I lived at 777 South State for a year and this apartment needs to be condemned. This apartment is the definition of “pig with a lipstick on”. I could go on forever with how awful this apartment is.

The head security and concierge has been consistently rude and unprofessional and even accused my boyfriend and I of a crime of vandalism upon moving in. (They threatened to get security tapes and I said go for it and then they realized it was not us but yet we never got an apology). She has extremely rude staff and the package situation is untenable under her. If your name is not on the package, she will not give it to you even if the other person is on the lease. The staff frequently cannot find packages and do not give them all the you at once. I even had a staff member refuse to even look for a package that I know was delivered and had my name on it and even used Pam as her defense of why she behaved so horrendously. I would like to note that it is a crime to withhold packages and mail, so 777 is thus committing crimes. In this instance, I was even encouraged by the concierge on duty to report this employee and take pictures of the package after I did receive it and he had to apologize for her behavior. She was let go shortly after this incidence and the new employee is wonderful. I will say the after hours front desk workers are incredibly kind and friendly. Additionally, the maintenance staff are truly top notch. We’ve had a few maintenance issues and the staff have been extremely quick to fix them (even a broken a toilet that was replaced within an hour). Additionally the laundry room is disgusting and the card reader to load money onto cards is frequently broken. I have not been able to do laundry for a week and management does nothing about this. The trash shoot also gets clogged regularly and if your apartment is close to it, your apartment will smell like a dumpster for several days. I experienced my first May in this building and I almost passed out from the heat. It got over 100 degrees in the apartment during a heat wave in early May when it reached above 90 outside. I work from home and this greatly disrupted my work as well as my sleep as it didn't get below 85 in the apartment for days. Management said they could not legally turn on AC until June 1 but before the next heat wave in the middle/end of June, the AC was miraculously turned on. I've had a count down to the day we move out for months. We made it 11 months here. DO NOT LIVE HERE.

If you can imagine living in hell, you can imagine living here. No air conditioning, amenities always closed, no management, or at least management that responds to you, they lose all the packages and the ones they don't, they refuse to give you for like days, bugs everywhere, the list goes on. Don't torture yourself and find elsewhere.

The building is very old and management doesn't care to maintain the building. Group Fox raised the gas bill by four times the amount with no memo to their residents. They don't have any hand sanitizer during COVID. The maintenance staff are the best, super friendly and fast to get your issues fixed. The front desk staff manager Pam is the rudest individual, she's unfriendly and non helpful. They don't make any guests sign in, very unsafe. The bike room is disgusting and full of dirt and spider webs. Do not move here.

For the price it's awesome. Located right near school. Cool design. Unlike anything I've seen in Chicago. Kinda European.. in a good way. But the staff sucks. Not nice. The smell of garbage is horrible and they obviously rent to mostly young people... parties all the time. But the building is very cool. Had to move due to my displeasure with management.

Great people. Awful building. On the positive side, the front desk staff are very friendly and helpful (especially Pam and Deidre). They got to know me by name and sometimes would already have my packages ready if I had something delivered. The leasing staff was friendly/professional/helpful when I had questions. I had a few minor maintenance issues (dirty tub & toilet on move in and broken oven/broiler a few months in) that were dealt with quickly with out issue. I lucked out & had cool / quiet neighbors on my floor. The amenities are nice and well-kept - I made frequent use of the gym, pool, lounge and art studio. On to the not-so-good. The building was built in 1978 and its age shows despite recent renovations. The main reason I don't recommend living here is you will either ROAST or FREEZE in your apartment. The heat / air-conditioning is terrible. The building is a "two pipe" system which means there can be either heat or AC but not both. City code requires buildings to provide heat from Sept 15 - June 1. This means only heat is available during that time. AC is only available from June 1 through Sept 15. During the warm days of May and late Sept, it's an oven - especially on higher floors on the west side. Even when the building is switched to AC, it has a hard time keeping up on days hotter than low 80's. Again you'll roast. Good luck sleeping! You can't set a temperature in your room either. You basically manually control a noisy blower to blow hot or cold air depending on whether the building is running heat or AC. There's no thermostat to click the heat on / off to keep a steady temp. The sliding glass door/windows only open a few inches and there's no way to get airflow through your unit unless you open you hallway door which I did out of desperation many times. The doors/windows/screens don't open well, require a ton of force and are awful. The glass isn't insulated well. It's NOISY - not from neighbors but from the constant sirens on State street (if you face west) or CTA (if you face east). The windows do not keep out the noise. I was on the 22nd floor and sirens were constant and as loud as if I were on the ground floor. The washing machines smell moldy and the dryers are always breaking down. Laundry can be a real test of patience. I never experienced issues with the elevators. In summary - it's a terrible old building with inherent flaws that can't be cheaply solved. I highly doubt GroupFox is going to sink the millions required for modern glass on the exterior and upgrading the ancient two pipe heat/AC system to modern HVAC.

It is the middle of May, my apartment faces West and they refuse to turn on our AC. DO NOT SIGN A LEASE HERE. They con you with their well put together and cleaned lobby and amenities. DO NOT sign a lease here

I currently live here. If you have an respect for yourself DO NOT MOVE HERE. Don't let the beautiful lobby and amenities fool you. Tonight the elevators were all shut down and I had to walk up 25 flights of stairs with a 70 pound dog who has arthritis. Leaving me having to try and carry her. Also one of my friends who just had surgery last week had to make the climb too. She almost passed out and had to sit halfway through. And elevators are down for repairs every week. This is only a start. The apartment constantly smells like weed and cigarettes. The washers and dryers are always broke leaving 300+ tenants with only a few washers and dryers that work. During the polar vortex the heat wasn't working and during the heat index last summer the A/C was down. The A/C never works. It is absolutely miserable in these apartments when it's hot. I came home from work to my dog dry heaving laying on the floor. Ooh and COCKROACHES!! Be ready to have little friends keep you company. The management does nothing and has not remorse. They never do anything for tenants when these things go wrong. Iv read many bad reviews about places and disregarded them because every place can't please everyone. But please consider all these things before you sign a lease. Believe me when I say I'm not the only who feels this way. Many tenants are talking about a class action lawsuit against 777 South State because of these living conditions.

THERE IS A REASON WHY IT IS CHEAP! All the money was invested in the lobby, "club house" and the nice photos on the website. This place was built in the 80s as a student housing unit and still operates like one. Issues so far: -A/C DOES NOT WORK. PERIOD. You can control intensity but no temperature, management turns on and off when they want to. -Some windows open some don't, and when they open is just enough to put a hand out. Can you imagine living in a place were the windows dont open? -There are 15 laundry machines and 15 dryers. At any given time one or 2 are broken, there are 200_ apartments. Do the math. -Pool is filthy. Common area is filthy. -Elevators are still the original ones from 1980's super slow. Sometimes you wait 5 min for one. -There is no cleaning crew or emergency maintenance crew on call on weekends. -Security is a joke, the rule of only 2 guests is not enforced at all. Not uncommon to see unruly 10 guests at pool and common area. -One security guard was fired for sexual harassment. -50% of occupants are college students still, this detail was not disclose prior to move in. -Water, gas, sewage and trash are prorated between units based on your square footage. Runs easily betwene $90 - $120 a month. -$50 for internet and cable, no option for another provider. Internet is slow at best and cable choice is a joke. COAX cable. Don't fall for the pretty pictures. This place is a dump. I cannot wait for my lease to be over to move the hell out of there.

I was here when it was Grand Campus housing for students of the surrounding schools, this is my second year here, I moved in Fall 2016. Im a grad student and I like my quiet time especially at night when I study. Honestly, It was more quiet when it was student housing, it has now been transformed to residential and it is louder than ever here. My neighbors are the worst, I call security to have them quiet down and I literally hear them disrespect and disregard security. They play music loud whenever they feel like it and nothing is done. Ive written to leasing management, who claims to have had a meeting with them but doesn't seem like it helped. I have heard racial slurs come through my vents because my neighbors get angry due to security coming to their door. I have even had my neighbors walk in my house because my door was not locked and cracked open a little. They claimed they were trying to see if I was ok. Later they denied it. Ive done everything in my power except personally confront them which is dangerous. I do not suggest moving in here, please shop around, this place has a long way to go. I am not satisfied at all and I will be leaving this year when my lease is up. It is not worth it living here, I rather have to catch the train downtown. The security front desk people are the nicest but they don't have enough power, so unruly people do not respect them. I forgot to mention the smell of marijuana occasionally, If you are not a smoker you won't like it and it will smell up your apartment, it comes through the vents. Again, security tries but people do not listen, they have no authority over tenants. Hopefully this place shapes up in the future, I am awaiting my move-out date anxiously. The management of the building is not going well, the elevators are constantly dirty and sometimes smell like urine, bc pets are allowed, I have some kind of dust on the rug outside my door due to construction but it was never vacuumed and cleaned up. Honestly, for the money I am paying I am so ready to break my lease because it hellish living here. Come take a tour and you will see for yourself pay close attention when you do. Do not let them rush you out of here and you really get a feel for it the later you come because mornings are nice and you won't hear anything.