UPTEN - Calgary

Shoddy construction makes apartment unliveable. Absolute worst elevators I've ever been in. Within my first week in the building, I got stuck in the elevator for almost an hour. Frequent elevator breakdowns. Advertised phone as elevator fob unreliable at best, with some elevators not supporting it at all. Elevators are slow, and occasionally doors won't open once it stops. You're often waiting more than five minutes for the elevator to arrive, and then another few minutes going down. Scary taking them in the winter. In addition to this, the emergency-call button inside is not answered, so you are left yelling for help whenever you get trapped in there. Water temperature is terribly inconsistent at best, and tap will usually have anywhere from warm to scorching water coming out of it. This is an injury waiting to happen. Air conditioning is good when it works, but broke down on one of the hottest days of the summer Poor engineering of the fire alarm system results in non-stop noise from 0900 to 1630 for more than a week every year as they test the fire alarm. While the units are visually appealing, the design in poor. Bedroom doors that can't open wide enough, or bathroom doors that open into medicine cabinet doors. Terrible lighting due to poor-quality living room blinds. Balcony doors that you can lock yourself out on. Long delays in receiving packages after they are put in the parcel lockers. Only good thing about them is them allowing me to end my lease early.

I moved into Upten last summer and could not be more pleased with my time here and am looking forward to another year ahead! For someone who works and plays downtown the location is more than convenient! Short walk to the saddle dome and everything else that downtown has to offer. The concierge has always been incredibly friendly and quick to help with any questions. In addition to a stunning building it’s self, Upten is loaded with amenities, the terrace patio is spacious and equipped with bbqs and the building has one of my fav residence gyms I have seen!

The building looks beautiful, but there are a ton of cons unfortunately. I finally got out of the building, and like peers on the reviews thought I'd share the pros/cons although lengthy. Management unfortunately doesn't give new signing tenants a full picture. Sign at your own risk, as these all may very well be growing pains of a new building. But hope this helps people who are looking for a beautiful space, but don't want to be roped into 12+month lease in constant headaches. The main negatives: - Fire alarms (frequent and lack of reason, management will blame tenants, when you speak with the firefighters they say it's in the system). You can expect at least 3-5 a month. - Management. They all lack professionalism unfortunately.. I had quite a lengthy and bad experience with Mary. Once talking to other tenants they had similar experience with her. When my garburator broke it took over a month to have repaired, others went months without their dishwasher and I had yet to have my stove handles fixed. A neighbour went 3 weeks without a working fridge. They lack any care (which its not like any tenant expects management to genuinely care... but do your job at bare minimum). They use a platform online now to submit request to have fixed. It's happened 2 times where I submitted a ticket and it happened to disappear which is why they claimed it wasn't fixed. Once speaking with other tenants, seemed others were having the same issues and they will not regard email requests. -It is a non-smoking building however expect if you are on the floors without gas stove (I believe 18 and lower) you will likely find people smoking in their units and management doesn't go past putting a paper notice on everyones door. The higher units are more expensive and also are not fully rented out (34th floor has multiple vacancies although they'll always claim to be "full" to ensure they receive top dollar for units). The higher you pay, the higher floor you get on, the less the issues with other tenants it seems. Due to the lack of care, many floors cary a smell that even febreeze and candles can't get rid of. -Harassment. Probably the most alarming. Many women had many issues and brought it to managements attention.. I personally had someone try to access my unit, friends had neighbours fully harassing them when they left their units. Management does absolutely nothing aside from telling you if it's that serious, go to the police. No repercussions as a tenant in the building. When I brought my concerns to management regarding safety, they initially didn't respond. Once I did, and I requested moving units or how I may be able to get out of the situation, they stopped responding entirely again until recommending if its a major concern to simply call the police. -Elevators. They aren't reliable to put it simple. I've been stuck in them, it sucks. But it's truly baffling that other high rise buildings with 2 elevators are quicker and breakdown less than the 4 "high speed" elevators UPTEN hosts. There are times you'll wait 20min+ for an elevator (unfortunately not an exaggeration). It's often that you will be down to only 1 elevator as 1 will be moving items in/out of building and 2 will break so just be prepared. The positive: -aesthetically the building is beautiful, most of the units get great light and look nice -the skylounge and gym are great -coffee station, all the residents found it quite funny they decided to advertise it on social media the one of many days it went down. When it does work, its great -The concierge. I don't think any resident can say enough nice things about concierge, they're absolutely amazing. Specifically Eusief and the newer lady hired. One thing to note.. not sure if its positive or negative but worth noting is many of the positive reviews under UPTEN are often by people who work for the building or help with social media content for the building. Overall, hopefully it's just growing pains, but you can't use that excuse forever. Simply things could could change to ensure a positive tenant/rental experience.

Shoddy building masquerading as a luxury renting experience. I made it clear a quiet building is a priority for me and the people who gave my partner and I two separate tours lied and said the suites are quiet and soundproofed. Soon after moving in someone moved into the suite above us and I’m not exaggerating when I say I could hear every single footstep. The sound of the garbage disposal from the neighbor UPSTAIRS would also come through the ceiling and was obnoxious especially when they would run it for nearly five minutes. I can also corroborate other reviews complaining about the water being scalding hot in both the shower and sinks, our suite had only a stand up shower which was constantly leaking and ruining the baseboards around the shower because the shower floor was not level. This and other small details such as writing in sharpie from the builders left underneath the kitchen counter and management problems, constant fire alarms, and terrible parking management and prices adds up to a very non-luxurious experience.

The building looks elegant and high end, but the longer you live here you realize just how rushed everything was built. • The floors are uneven, you can feel bumps all over your unit. •None of the walls are squared (don’t line up at a 90° angle). •Elevators are constantly down, getting stuck, refuse to open, or are freezing cold. Often renters are stuck using only 1-2 out of 4 elevators resulting in long wait times • While being advertised as party proof insulation” you can hear everything that goes on in every unit. •Constant issues with fire alarms going off at all hours of the night/early morning (10pm-6am)

Management is not communicative and uncooperative. They'll go against what they've said or promised to you. Dealt with a situation and handled it VERY unprofessional and poorly. They will not work with you. They will throw you out like trash even if you lived there for a year and have been a good tenant. Problems with the Elevators. Got stuck a couple of times. The doors wouldn’t open or the elevator just wouldn’t go up/down. They would sometimes take 20 minutes for the elevator to get to your floor. People get stuck on the elevators a lot. taking them is scary. Tons of fire alarms once a week. Sometimes 5 in a month. they blame it on “tenants” when really it’s other issues. Christmas night in -40 the alarm went off TWICE at 11:30pm and 2am. this has happened on many occasions. It still does happen. It’s a nice looking building, but very poor management and unprofessional building. I would not recommend to live here and if you do, you most likely end up regretting it.

Unfortunately I have to post this anonymously. The concierge and maintenance staff is amazing BUT (and this is a big but): - the building is not built for Calgary weather. The elevators, front doors, and parkade break every time it reaches -15 - the elevators almost never work regardless of the weather. Usually there are 2 elevators which with a building of this size, and the algorithms they use means 10+ minute wait time - there are MAJOR fire alarm issues. There have been over 5 alarms over the last month, and management blames them on tenants. When they were testing the alarms, they were on in every unit all day for 2 weeks straight. I truly believe that they are building malfunctions. - there has been construction in front of the unit for over 2 months. Water has been out for 2 days from 7am-6pm, and there has been no street parking the entire time. Hopefully this review convinces you that $2k+/month is not worth it. There are plenty of apartments downtown with better quality service.

Please ignore the negative reviews. Those people honestly don't understand what comfortable and luxurious living means. I'll divide my review into three parts for those who are looking for a more clear review of each category. Suite: I chose the single suite and for one person it's honestly cozy and very comfortable. The best part of the units are that every room connects to one another (bedroom will lead to closet to bathroom back to living room), this makes it very easy to get ready, etc. I also really enjoyed that the unit came with a pre-installed TELUS wifi system so I didn't have to go through the hassle of a technician coming over, etc. Also, not to mention, the views are gorgeous from UPTEN. The appliances are all new and very easy to use, they're all high quality and from J&J. There's enough space for storage and a queen/full bed in the main bedroom. Only few things I would nitpick about is that the walk-in closet is a little too big for my liking, I would rather have had that space for the bedroom for a single unit but nevertheless I'm not complaining over having a bigger closet. Second, the walls aren't soundproof enough, for a pet-friendly condo with many dogs, I think stronger insulation and more sound-proof walls would have been great, however, it's also not too big of a problem in my opinion. The condo being pet-friendly is a huge bonus since many are not in downtown. Management/Concierge After comparing with a few friends, I have to say management and communication at UPTEN will definitely exceed your expectations. I'll start off with management, I personally did not visit the apartment for a tour since I was desperate to move to another place closer to my work, so I called and was set for a WhatsApp tour. They were very friendly and welcoming and the contract/moving-in process was so easy and simple. Also, they reply very FAST, you would never have to worry about a reply not coming in time because they are definitely quick. As for the concierges here, they are literally all angels and the sweetest ever! I couldn't thank the concierges here enough, every one of them. I have been helped to move heavy items to my apartment without hesitation in the middle of the night, they have answered every one of my inquiries very politely and with detail, at one point I needed to make a noise complaint and the problem was solved within seconds (again during night as well). They are quick, professional and very polite. Amenities/Location This condo is extremely unique and stylish in my opinion. I attached a photo of the main lobby from Google, and as you can see as soon as you enter it's a very luxurious vibe. I get European fancy hotel vibes from the decor of the building. If I mention all the amenities and bonuses of location it'll take years so I'll summarize. The gym and coffee room along with the Zoom/Office space room is amazing for those working from home, everything is very modern and with the best equipment and technology without doubt. As for the mailing system, I really like how the packages could be picked up with the security code and that there's also a camera to prevent theft (previous condo did not have such a security system :'(). The garbage system is also very organized and thorough, the person that thought out and engineered this building definitely deserves credit. It's all very very organized, once you move I'm sure you will face no trouble either. There's countless of other amenities like the rooftop area (which is not available now because of COVID), padded elevator for moving in, a wine/alcohol shop and pizza shop next to the building, influencer room (I've never been yet), etc. This building is honestly perfect in many ways for the countless amenities and services it provides. Location wise, there is an H-Mart (Korean grocery store) very nearby, 17th Ave is super close, Sunterra Mart is also walking distance. I personally think the location is very nice and there's not much traffic/trains that could be heard throughout the day. Village Ice Cream is also right around the corner!