SODO - Calgary

Amazing looking apartments. Great building and location. Community team and building staff can be VERY hard to get a hold of by phone. Have ample time (month or more) for application process.

I don't write negative reviews, but this building is a disaster! Stay away from this place unless you don't care about cleanliness, safety and security. We had a viewing scheduled at 1:00PM and showed up at early 12:50PM. We buzzed the leasing office and the representative from SODO was not ready for us. He assumed it was a virtual tour and I said no, there was no indication in the email as the email said to come to this address. He sanitized two suites for us to view and that took 20 minutes and we didn't begin our tour until 1:20PM. The SODO rep hands us a blue sticky note with 2 suite numbers and said "here are the 2 suites I opened up and sanitized for you." I'm like "are you going to show us the suites?" SODO rep said "no we can go up to the floors on our own." We asked if we can see the amenities and he said no. I asked why not the amenities because that's a selling factor and he just said no. He didn't show us the parcel room or mail package area, we just walked by them by ourselves. ELEVATORS: the slowest elevators! They only have 3 elevators for their whole building. One was down due to parts. The other was being used for move in so ... no access to the public. There was only one elevator working for the entire building. The SODO rep did not tell us this, we asked maintenance. We decided to take the stairs after waiting for the elevators for a long time and it led us outside the building! I hope they let residents know when an elevator is down as there was a line up of people in the lobby waiting to use it. With only 3 people allowed at a time because of COVID, I don't know how residents are managing. APARTMENTS: The 2 suites we both went to were both dirty!!! Scum in the bathroom, hairs on the ground and significant scuff marks on the walls. Why would you show potential residents suites that are dirty? It was outrageous. Very low standards for cleanliness in this building. And we can't believe SODO didn't even give us a tour and told us to view the apartments on our own. They let us walk around their building as non-residents freely. No explanation for the suites we were seeing, the appliances, layout or the floor plans. This was a self-guided tour lol. And the SODO rep didn't even call afterwards to touch base with use or if we had any questions. ZERO follow up. HALLWAY: Dark hallways and we found hair on the ground near the elevator. DOG PARK: Sad to say, but the negative reviews about their dog park are 100% accurate. We found the 5th floor where the dog park is and as soon as we stepped out the door we smelled a strong urine odour swiftly through the air. It was coming from the dog park. Lots of feces as well on the grass. Just by the smell you can tell that they don't hose down the dog park, which is dangerous for the health of your pets. Yes, this is a "dog friendly" building, but they don't maintain it. TERRACE: Terrace was basic. Furniture had lots of urine on it from the dogs. I took a picture of one bench. Not enough BBQ machines for the whole building. Nothing special. Wouldn't want to be eating outside with the smell from the dog park and feces and urine all over the ground and furniture. AMENITIES: We found the amenities on the 5th floor on the way to the dog park. We would of been fine if the SODO rep even showed us the outside of the amenities, but he didn't as he left us right at the beginning of when the "self-tour" started. Looks much bigger on their website. Everything is closed because of COVID even though government regulations have relaxed. SAFETY/ SECURITY: I never saw a security personnel on site. Also the SODO rep just let us walk around their building freely without accompanying us. If I was a resident, I would not be okay to have people who are not living in the building have access to all the floors and amenities on their own without someone guiding them. Where is the safety in this? If a person got through the front doors, they could use the elevators and stairs and get anywhere they want in the building.

I have lived at SODO for almost a year and will be renewing my lease soon. I have not had to deal with management frequently since everything has run pretty smoothly for me, but the times that I’ve had to they have helped me somewhat promptly. The only negative thing I can say currently is that I’ve been on a waiting list for a parking spot for more than 5 months which I don’t think is okay. Other than that, I really appreciate the amenities, how dog-friendly SODO is, see security quite often (and they have helped me at times when I’ve needed them. If you don’t spot them, there’s a phone number you can call them at which they always pick up- I believe some residents are unaware of this number so it should be shared more often), love its central location, and also how spacious units are here in comparison to other new buildings in downtown Calgary. I’ve only had to contact maintenance maybe three times and Jesse (and Radovan) have been absolutely fantastic. I’ve read a lot of negative reviews and wanted to leave my own because I really don’t think they’re giving SODO justice, and a few are simply not true (from what I’ve seen/experienced). I have read that the dog park is cleaned maybe once a month, for example, but I can see the dog park from the unit I’m in and have seen it get cleaned at least once a week. I also think that a lot of suggestions that have been made here on Google have actually been taken into consideration by management recently (for example: using fobs to access common areas/your own floor was re-implemented recently. It was not a thing when I first moved here, but it is now and I’m grateful! Makes me feel even more safe). Overall, I believe SODO is a great place to live at. No place is perfect but I truly enjoy living here. I encourage management to continue taking these reviews into consideration moving forward; to be responsible and proactive when people are looking to sign a lease at SODO (as well as when they’re already moved in), and to continue finding ways to create an even better environment for people to live in. Update: I’ve recently needed to interact more with management here at SODO and I need to give a shout-out to one person in particular: TIM. Tim always has a smile on his face and has gone out of his way to help me. Truly grateful for you. Thank you for everything!

tl;dr: lived here for two years and believe that the issues at Sodo cannot be resolved by new staff alone, and outweigh the benefits of living here. CONS: - Fire alarms constantly go off for no reason. One time, the fire panel malfunctioned at 3 am, and the alarm would not stop ringing until 6 am. To make matters worse, there was ZERO communication from management about what was happening and why the alarm was ringing. - Pipes burst constantly in a building that was built in 2019. I even asked the leasing agent about swelling in my apartment before moving in, and she admitted it was from a pipe burst, but lied saying they have it under control. A friend lost all of their belongings because the pipes for the sprinkler on their floor burst recently (see attached photo). - Security is a joke. We’re supposed to have security on evenings and weekends. One time, security allowed an escaped mental health patient into the building. The person was wearing nothing but a pair of pants, and had residue from ECG stickers all over their chest. The intruder proceeded to pull the fire alarm at 4 am and go to the 5th floor patio where there were screaming that they would jump. Another security guard abused a friend’s dog by throwing chairs at small young puppies, then proceeded to aggressively scream at my friend that they shoot dogs in his country (see attached photo). - Heating and a/c does not function properly. Some apartments were 13° this winter with the heating on full blast. Heating is supposed to be covered, but when tenants used space heaters, electricity is their responsibility. - Windows have been shattering under stress, and glass has been falling to the dog park and ground outside the building. Even Jesse from maintenance has expressed how the windows used in construction are not good quality windows. These low quality windows have contributed to the heating issue described above. - They electronic fob entry system (this includes access to elevators, the garage doors, and individual units) constantly goes down. One time the system went down for 4 hours on the weekend, and tenants could not access the elevators or their apartment. There was massive crowding in the lobby. - The enter phone microphone does not pick up sound, so you can’t hear the person who is buzzing you. In addition, sometimes it won’t unlock and you may have to go downstairs to pick up your visitor. Also, because of elevator issues, the person may need to buzz again because it timed out access to your floor in the elevator. - Elevators constantly go down, and there is no way to access the stairs from the ground floor. - The barbecues on the patio all have plastic knobs which are chipped and broken, which means you can’t turn on certain burners on the barbecue. This renders them useless. Fire pits on the patio do not generate heat, and are really just for show. - There are not enough parking spots for tenants, and there is no free visitor parking underground. - Coffee machine is basically Nescafé instant coffee - Amazon packages get delivered to the parcel room, but are left on the floor rather than actually using the parcel lockers - I have documented noise and made multiple official complaints about a neighbour who has had parties on weeknights, including during covid gathering restrictions, and management has seem to have done nothing as these late weeknight parties still continue. - Notifications on the QuadReal app do not work on any of the tenants phones. - The “blackout” curtains in the bedroom are not blackout at all, and let in so much light. PROS: - Kieran (the female security guard) is the nicest person, and actually takes care of keeping our building safe. - Radovan and Jesse from maintenance are super fast, friendly, and helpful, even given all of the cheap construction issues they have to deal with. - The location is great, and majority of the tenants are friendly young professionals. - They fired the lazy dude in management who was related to the regional director.

Building looks fantastic from the outside and has great amenities that come with the hefty price of living so central in Calgary. The only major let down is the staff. Very hard to get anything out of them, even before renting, let alone when you are actually having issues while in the building. Better options for similar or less rent. Look at your options before choosing this location

Avoid at all costs. Management will "sell" the unit to you, remember that’s their primary goal…to make money. Once your lease is signed communication between management/tenant ceases to exist. Emails will go unanswered; requests will take forever, and follow-up does not happen here. A few building issues to keep in mind; Faulty fire alarm system due to the numerous catastrophic floods that have occurred here, the fob system works 50% of the time and when the system decides to “glitch” you’re out on the street at 3:00am. Random water shut offs are another issue, again due to the “pumps” being damaged in the flood. Safety & Security are another big one, security maybe puts in 10% effort, majority of the time they are nowhere to be found. The “dog run”, probably one of the biggest selling features is terrible. It was renovated last year to fix a smell/drainage issue. It’s almost worse now. Not to mention its only cleaned once a week – good luck cuddling with your dog after a play. Basically, to sum it up, the building is cheap. For what you are paying to live here these issues should be non-existent. Again, they get you in the door and sell the building. Talk to the residents that currently live here.

My boyfriend and I has had the best experience with SODO so far! We were able to book our own tour online which was super easy to do! Nicholas was a great guide and showed us everything we asked to see, including three different layouts. We decided on a layout and filled out the application online which was also super easy. Tosin was very very patient and helpful with this entire process. We got the keys today and the apartment was so clean and there was nothing noticeable enough to fault them on upon first looking around our suite. We are so excited to live in SODO and we thank the staff for being so accommodating! … I must add, they have an app that is awesome for those who live in this building. I hope that SODO continues to make us feel this excited to be living in this beautiful building.

While this is a beautiful building with some great amenities, there were many issues during our 2.5 years living here, most of which could have just been solved through better communication from management. The new community manager is much more responsive, so maybe this will improve others' experience. There were typical new building issues like elevators breaking and pipes bursting. The maintenance team is super helpful and friendly but security could be better. We had to call them often about excessive noise in the middle of the night and access issues.