Guild - The Yards

I've been living at the Guild for two years, and a year ago, I would have given it 4 stars. Based on the recent changes Brookfield has implemented though, I will not be renewing my lease and wouldn't recommend any Brookfield Properties buildings. It's gotten so bad that we've formed a tenant group to take collective action against how we're being treated. If you're considering moving here: - Check out our tenant group complaints: brookfielddctenants.com/ourgrievances - Expect to pay an extra $1500 a year in undisclosed fees and common area billing (i.e. electricity for the lobby). You can see a breakdown of the fees/billing costs that leasing doesn't disclose here: brookfielddctenants.com/utility-and-junk-fee-comparison The good: - I love my apartment—my layout and view are fantastic. - The community here is great. - Best dog run I’ve seen in Navy Yard buildings. - Building staff are/were amazing: Ahkir (the building would fall apart without him), cleaning crew (so friendly and helpful), former concierges (Shyya, Ray, Ahmed, Christian, Tina, and Dre), and former leasing staff (Aaliyah and Mahamudur). The bad: - Our concierge service was completely removed a couple of months ago with only 5 days' notice and no rent discounts to compensate. Since then, package deliveries have been a mess—boxes left scattered in the lobby, misplaced, stolen, or unavailable for days while you wait for an access code. I've had over $700 of packages stolen from the "secured" package room since the concierge was removed. - With the front desk gone, there’s no security or personnel monitoring who enters the building. People constantly tailgate residents inside, and I've been pressured by delivery people to let them upstairs. The unsecured stairwells mean that once someone is inside, they can access any floor. - The water meters were "broken" for six months, and during that time, I received bills with no activity amounts or service dates for $70-90/mo when my metered water is usually $25-45/mo. When I questioned the charges, Metergy (owned by Brookfield) threatened to send my account to collections. It’s disappointing to see the building change like this... but on a positive note, if you move here - we’d love to have you join our tenant group!

Guild Update January 2025 I am giving one star because trash bills is $31 for one month which my lease says $9 per month. My holding fee deposit $250 and I found out it's illegal to charge holding fee deposit before the residents wasn't accepted as resident. Per Brookfield Property Former Accountant staff sent email to DC Corporate to refund the illegal holding fee deposit of $250. BTW as of January 2025 I am still haven't received $250 holding fee deposit and I paid $250 April 2024. By being a disabled person wouldn't you think Brookfield Properties Owners wouldn't have pick and choose who doesn't pay common area Utilities because several people with Tax Credit Vouchers, etc stated they don't pay for Common Area Utilities while others housing vouchers pay common area Utilities, how you can discriminate against certain federal government housing vouchers with disabilities. Why Conservice Customer Service couldn't explain this common area Utilities which sent copy of my lease with $9 trash fee. My common area Utilities over $100 per month. I moved to DC in 2023 from Georgia, never in my life I heard of common area Utilities until I move to Washington DC and gas fee which my apartment doesn't have gas and that per Conservice customer service, but my bill have a gas fee. The list goes on and on and on! Why does Brookfield Property Owners doesn't care about their residents and people with disabilities who being charge illegal common area fee's and holding fee? Why take advantage of good people who just want to come home and enjoy there community, place of home without being charge illegal fee's, we have to grab our packages quickly when delivery services come drop residents packages off and packages are not secure. It's 30 minutes to look for our packages in the suppose to be secure package storage room which packages are scattered everywhere. Brookfield Property Owners and Yard Collection Management I hope and pray that you will do better by telling the residents the true because no one deserves to be treated unfair regardless of your disability, race, gender, religion. It's not about my apartment because I love my loft apartment and couple of staffs who I admire who cares about the residents and admire the maintenance staff Akir because he goes out his way for the residents. I gave one star until Brookfield Property Owners And DC Corporate Executives do better with all of Brookfield Properties Residents And Employees! Post July 2024 I had deleted part of my post to update. The reason I chose Guild is because the leasing consultant Danielle Wright is awesome. She went beyond and above to make sure I was taking care. Danielle Wright needs to be promoted within Brookfield Property. Aaliyah Glover is also another great staff member, very friendly, and always greets you with a smile. Sometimes I be walking to Harris Teeter, and Aaliyah will see me and go out of her way to see how everything is going for me. She is just like a family member to me. Aaliyah and Danielle keep up the good work. Ms. Jeanette and Jasmine always smile and greet me when I come into the Yard Collection office. I love my Guild Loft Apartment. The only reason I gave Guild a 3 star is because the front entrance door was broken when I applied in April 2024 and was still broken as of July 2024. I really think Brookfield Property should invest in new lobby furniture because that dingy, dirty kids looking furniture needs to be thrown away. It's embarrassing to see an empty concierge desk after 6 pm and to see tenants' packages sitting on the empty concierge desk. We pay $20 for the sign up package, but your packages are not secure. I ask several tenants about social events for residents they laugh at me said no social events for tenants because of Brookfield Property budget cuts, really one of the largest property companies can't afford new lobby furniture's, 24 hour concierge staffs, tenants social events. Brookfield Property needs to listen to the residents because without listen to tenants, you wouldn't have any tenants at the Guild.

I moved into Guild about 2 months ago. The apartment itself is fine, however the ownership company is horrific. After moving in I found out that hidden in the legal jargon of the lease was a clause about community electric and gas billing. So on top of the expensive rent, we now have to cover the electric and gas used in the common areas. WHAT A SCAM. Isn't that meant to be included in rent?! Just received my first communal electric bill for the month of July $77!! That's more than I pay for my in-unit bill. And $25 for the 1.5 weeks I occupied the apartment in June. On top of this they use a company called Metergy to bill for water, this company is owned by Brookfield (who also own Guild). My metergy bill for this past month was $65 for water, $20 of that is just fees! In my previous apartment 2 blocks away I had an additional bathroom than I have now and I paid at most $45/month and none of the "DC water fees" Brookfield is charging. Finally when I first toured the complex I was told there was a concierge at the desk every day from 8am - 12am. When I moved in a month later this service had disappeared without any notice. This is one of the main reasons I moved into this complex! Suddenly after many many resident complaints a concierge has appeared again, however only from 9am-5pm. This does not offer the same level of service or safety guarantee as the previously promised 8am-12am service. The residents are coming together to fight against Brookfield and their deceptive and fraudulent practices. We have filed a complaint with the DC Attorney General's Office. I have attached two screen shots of showcasing the excess fees and communal billing now in place.

Update 9/25 - wouldn’t ya know…no one EVER responded to me. This place is a JOKE! Update 8/22 - Here we are a week later, and no one responded. No one from the property. No one from the corporate request. No one on Instagram. No one even cared to respond to this negative review. Honestly, I feel disrespected. I have never seen a property management company so blatantly ignore you. They really do not care. DO NOT LIVE HERE. Not at Guild, Foundry Lofts or Estate. At this point, the entire Yards Collection couldn’t care less about prospective tenants. Since 7/27, I have called no less than 30 times (either the leasing office is always closed or the concierge just hangs up the phone), left voicemails, put in 5 different email requests on the website, responded to the automated messages via email, reached out to the Brookfield corporate office contact form AND messaged Brookfield Properties on Instagram 3 times…..a leasing agent has still YET to reach out to me. I thought this was just Guild, but I have had the same experience with Foundry Lofts and Estate as well. Hopefully this will get someone’s attention.

Run, don’t walk, away from the Guild as well as any property managed by Brookfield. To call the management team woefully incompetent would not even be close to doing it justice. Just for starters, the $3,000 a month apartment we moved into was infested with cockroaches. As this was on the 5th floor, I’m sure we weren’t the only ones unless they can somehow magically 5 stories up. Next, we were overcharged on rent by over $1,400, something you would assume a billion dollar company with a massive portfolio would be able to prevent, alas, they haven’t. Also if you have dogs and care about their safety, you need to stay far away. After multiple emails to management about unleashed dogs running around in the building (which rarely got a response-but more on that later) our dog was attacked by an unleashed dog causing a $3,000 surgery to which management shrugged did nothing, and we continued to see the same issues. The management here to be frank, is absolutely pathetic. In fact, they’re downright negligent. And this seems to be a problem from the top down as in just 2 years there have 4 different property managers as well as regionals above them and the same issues persist so I wouldn’t count on it being fixed until they clean house. Many times we’ve called with issues to be told, we’ll give you a call back later today, and time and time again we get silence from them. We’ve had to email 4 times in a row to even get a response and often times they hastily respond with numerous typos “Sorry for the delay, I was in court all day”. Even now, we’ve had to fight to get our security deposit back because they charged us for things they assured us were removed months ago and like magic they appeared again and it took weeks to even get a response from management. There’s even more here, like waking up one morning and seeing our lobby covered in blood from someone I assumed got stabbed, as well as cars being keyed and stolen in a garage that’s over $200 a month. If you care about things like basic safety, competency in a management team, and a place to relax, avoid the Guild and any property run by Brookfield as any resident will tell you these issues persist community wide.

I RARELY leave a bad review, but you'd think a property who actually WANTS tenants would have an accessible and capable leasing staff. As someone thinking of moving to the area, this is both frustrating and disappointing. After reading several other reviews and multiple unsuccessful personal attempts at getting hold of anyone to speak with for information, it's a hard pass for me!

I have resided at the Guild for a couple of years and I have loved it since day 1. The staff, especially Mahamudur Rahman, have been exceptional. There was nothing too big or too small for him to handle and he did it with urgency and with discretion on sensitive matters. Jeanette Greene has also been tremendous in assisting me with move-in coordination and any help that I needed. The building location was right in the middle of all the festivities DC has to offer. I also was looking for amazing views of the Potomac and finally, when the apartment that I wanted opened up, Mahamudur was there to congratulate my move! I highly recommend this property. The management team and its staff are very attentive, helpful, and overall great people. Dr. Coy

Just moved into the Guild and the move in process went off without a hitch. Mahamudur Rahman was exceptional in making the process so seamless (in addition to following up with maintenance requests, answering all my questions, etc.). I chose the Guild because of its uniqueness, convenient location, and fantastic views of the Potomac. The leasing team and staff are very friendly, professional, and helpful. I look forward to my continued residency here.