The Porter

I would not recommend living at The Porter Apartments. The building itself has ongoing quality and maintenance issues that significantly affect daily living. The elevators are constantly out of service, forcing residents to use the stairs. The walls are extremely thin — you can hear normal conversations, movement, and noise from neighboring units and from upstairs at all hours. Maintenance issues take far too long to resolve. When my kitchen sink broke, I had to wait an extended period for repairs and was left washing dishes in the bathroom sink. Snow removal has also been poorly handled, creating avoidable safety concerns. The building is very loud overall, and package theft has been a recurring problem — multiple of my deliveries were stolen. Between the noise, frequent elevator outages, delayed repairs, poor snow removal, and lack of package security, the experience has been extremely frustrating. I’ve lived in other apartments and never dealt with this many ongoing issues. I would strongly encourage prospective renters to look elsewhere.

When I first moved here, I thought this place was great. The rent was slightly cheaper than most. They had a nice gym. It seemed safe that was not the case. In the two-year span of time that I’ve been here my rent has went up $300. There is a new fee for electricity tacked on. The water bill has went up by $10 each month. The gym equipment has been taken out of the gym meaning the weights so now there’s only eight and 25 pound weights two of the treadmills don’t work. In the summer, it’s blazing in the gym and in the winter it’s freezing cold. There’s a lock on the AC so you can’t change it. The elevator does not work. They will tell you when you get here that it does work that they’re just under maintenance. But it doesn’t. The elevator is literally out at least four times a month. At one point in time, the elevator had been out for weeks upon time, and I had to see people in crutches, literally climbing up the stairs. Half of the windows do not open. And when discussing this with maintenance, they told us this was a structural issue, and that it can’t be resolved into just not open some windows. But yet they raise the rent. They will refuse to let Your lease, and in the winter because they know that it cost more money for them to sell the apartments in the winter because nobody shops in the winter. They will force you to either go and leave early in the lease or later in the lease. They are overall not very responsive and not very easy to get a hold of. In the summer, the doors sticks, so you literally can’t get an even if you have a electronic key. The door will jam and you will be stuck outside, pulling and pulling and pulling on the door. OCF has been aware of this for quite sometimes at least for the two years that I’ve been here and they have still yet to find a way to fix that problem. If your packages get stolen, do not think you’re gonna get them back even if they’re stolen within the apartment cause guess what the package door does not fully close if you yank on it, it will open back up without the key. Please do not think that the tour that you take when you get here is how it will be when you actually live here. These are two different realities. They are selling to you. Just ask some of the people that actually live in the building.

I live across the street from the Porter and it is one of the worst neighbors in Brewerytown. If I could leave zero stars, I would. As you can see from the photographs, they do not properly maintain their dumpster area (trash has not been picked up in two weeks). Instead of having their trash picked up on Thompson, a road trash trucks can easily fit down, they let it pile up on Myrtlewood, a narrower street. The Porter is the primary source of litter throughout the neighborhood and a feeding ground for racoons, mice, and recently rats. The lids to the dumpsters are never closed and residents/staff often throw trash to the side of the dumpsters, allowing trash to be blown all over the neighborhood. The gates to the dumpster area, which could potentially reduce the amount of trash that is blown around, are often not closed (when they are closed, it is often because of myself or other neighbors on Myrtlewood). Because the dumpster area is not well maintained, trash often builds up behind the dumpsters and rots for months on end. Some residents have been seen tossing trash out their windows. On one occasion when a resident tossed a trash bag out their window it hit the side of the dumpster and split open. The contents were left to decompose on the sidewalk for months. In July, another resident went to toss a bag full of cat litter into an overflowing dumpster and it missed, spilling cat feces all over the sidewalk. It has yet to be cleaned up, despite their being multiple pregnant women on the block (cat feces contains the toxoplasma gondii parasite which can cause serious pregnancy complications including miscarriage). Over the past several months, racoons have gotten stuck in the dumpsters at least a half dozen times. The Porter Staff and the company that collects the trash have been seen acknowledging the trapped animals and allowing them to bake in 90 degree heat for at least three days. None of them ever tried to help the animals escape or call animal control. Instead, they piled trash on the side of the dumpster (The Porter staff) or ignored it (the company that collects the trash). The Porter's management company and Philly 311 has been contacted multiple times about these issues and more through all available communication methods and there has never been an acknowledgement of the concerns or any efforts to fix the problems. The Porter is a terrible, unresponsive neighbor. If you live here, they will take your money, but none of it will go towards maintaing the property, let alone showing respect for Brewerytown. If you want to live in Brewerytown, chose a more reputable apartment complex.

I have been living in this apartment building for the better part of 8 months now. Carly helped me out with moving in and getting everything settled with laying out everything clearly in an email and was very responsive with any questions and comments. Following this, throughout the months I have encounter routine maintenance issues with the apartment. The easy-to-use app made it simple to notify them of the issue, a small comment and photo to explicitly state what the problem was, and I even got to pick different time frames that work around my schedule and not the other way around. With the transition of Property Manager, Jarred Smith has been a huge help with taking over that role and providing me with the care and attention that was promised when I signed the lease. Jarred is very quick to respond whether it be phone or email and looks out for the best interest of the tenant. Very pleased with how clean the common areas are at all times and how each of the tenants respect each other. I would highly recommend The Porter to anyone that wants to be just outside of center city to get away from loud noises and traffic but still be in reach to numerous amounts of places to dine or go to happy hour.

I moved here almost 2 years ago because I signed a 2 year lease because of the amount that the rent would have increased if I did it year by year. If you want to live somewhere where your packages will be opened if delivered you have found your place. The windows in the apartments are beautiful however they will leak when it rains. I sent a video to the maintenance team and received an email that it was my fault that rain was pouring into my apartment ever single time it rains. The keyless entry seems cool but mine hasn’t worked in over a year so just ask for the key. The foundation is cracking which is normal for a new building, I was informed that it would be sealed once I moved out. Aesthetically the apartments are beautiful, just make sure your a handy man if you want things fixed.

I first moved here right when the building opened up in June of 2019 and I must say I have been very pleased with everyone and everything about the apartment. I believe I was the first or second tenant to sign with the building and I am only leaving due to job changes. During my stay here, the property managers have been incredibly helpful and quickly responsive with any and every maintenance requests and at a time that was convenient for you. Joe Romano was the property manager previously, now it's Jarred Smith - very responsive to emails. The leasing agents had been super helpful and accommodating with move in and making sure it was okay to show your apartment for upcoming potential tenants. The leadership with Stamm was also incredibly generous and accommodating with rent payments if there were every any issues (peak COVID problems), which is typically unheard of for property management groups. I had a corner unit so it was always full of natural light (friendly on your electric bill) and with more than enough space. Can't forget to mention the awesome rooftop with a great view of the city line and sunset. Lastly, I just want to mention that Brewerytown is an upcoming neighborhood in Philly with many new shops and restaurants popping up, especially on Girard Ave., and The Porter is the perfect place to live to experience all that it has to offer!

Carly and the team at Stamm Development Group were so kind and so helpful to me while I had an unexpected life event that caused me to have to move and really went above and beyond with assisting me in that regard. I greatly appreciated their patience and understanding and would recommend their properties, especially the Porter, to anyone. I loved my apartment there!

I had an appointment at 4:15 pm and was there at 4:05 pm waiting to hear how to enter the building. I checked my phone and I had an email and a text from a Carly Clemente saying the tour was cancelled and someone miraculously signed a lease for that apartment. Said it was signed 20 minutes ago. Waste of time and gas. If I got an update in a timely manner or knew someone was so close to signing for THAT exact apartment then I wouldn't have wasted my time. So unprofessional.