BJB Properties

I lived there for 11 months. The staff there is very helpful and nice. I used the roof top gym several times during the winter when I couldn’t run outside and enjoyed the rooftop patio during the summer especially for the air and water show when the jets were flying over the city. Really awesome and beautiful. The place is very clean, always maintenance cleaning almost daily. The doorman was great too even with getting packages for you if you needed it in the late hours of the night. I needed to move out a month earlier and the manager was very helpful with the thousands of questions I had about subleasing the place out as I was having anxiety over finding someone to sublease for the one month. I totally would recommend BJB to rent. The only bad thing I will have to say is that parking sucks around there but if you use public transportation then it should be fine.

MOLD, BUGS & BAD MANAGEMENT; RUN AWAY FROM BJB PROPERTIES
*On record, Unilocal wouldn’t allow 0 stars.
Whoever said ‘location, location, location’ was not renting from BJB.
My husband & I have rented from BJB for 3+ years in multiple buildings & leases. His 1^st unit was a studio in Lincoln Park (629 W Deming) & he referred me to 443 W Wrightwood. They weren’t perfect but they worked. When we were preparing to get engaged, we decided to use BJB’s upgrade policy (i.e. move buildings as long as your new lease is $ 1 more per month) & got a bigger place in the Gold Coast (25 E Delaware).
25 E Delaware has been awful since day 1. Upon arrival on the date/​time we pre-​scheduled to move in, we were told the cleaning & painting crews hadn’t finished our unit so we had to wait to get in. We had to pay our movers to stand around for 2+ hours until the cleaning crew was out (paying the movers in 15 min. increments).
Over the last 1.5 years in the building, we have had multiple issues with the 25 E Delaware staff. The doorman is very nice but everyone else is TERRIBLE. The maintenance man, Peter, has loudly barged into our unit unannounced at the crack of dawn many times (walking in on me naked in the bathroom 1 time without apologizing). He has also left trails of dirt, plunger/​wet vac/​toilet water, chunks of paint, & other garbage in his wake. Our dishwasher did not work for the 1^st 14+ months we were in our unit & each time he came to fix/​check it, he emptied dishes onto the counter (& never put them back) — scratching multiple brand new wedding gifts. He also emptied our under our sink cleaning supplies onto the middle of the kitchen floor, & left everything out (a hazard to our cat).
Throughout the lease, issues like loud neighbors, mold in the bathrooms, & 2 separate instances of water damage in our ceiling (which had to be opened/​vented/​repaired & let huge bugs in) leaving us with only 1 of our 2 bathrooms & an eyesore in our hallway while we had visitors, occurred.
The last straw was when I got pregnant & issues we reported were not addressed after they were deemed dangerous living conditions by my doctor.
Having been responsible renters, we hoped our complaints would be resolved & that the building would help find another tenant so we could move out & get a suitable place to have a baby but that was not the case.
We sent an email in Oct. outlining our biggest issues & requesting that they re-​let our unit & allow us to vacate. The response we received included no plan to resolve the issues, sarcastic comments using quotes around words like «mold issues», they ignored our request to get out of our lease & didn’t acknowledge our doctor’s concerns whatsoever.
Here are some of the complaints we shared with BJB that were blatantly ignored:
— The elevators in the building constantly stop working, occasionally both at the same time. My wife is in her 5^th month of a rough pregnancy & cannot take 10 flights of stairs when the elevators stop working.
— Our unit is adjacent to the trash room on our floor & there are constant smells in the hall (stronger on the weekends when tenants leave trash in the room) that are not conducive to one who is already fighting nausea.
— While doing laundry in the basement we have seen LARGE American Cockroaches.
— There are little silver bugs that come out of the cracks in the molding & scurry across the tile in the bathrooms & kitchen.
— We have had to catch & kill roaches in our apartment. These bug infestations raise very big sanitary concerns.
— Repairs done to the apartment are sloppy & appear to be cost-​saving in nature. We got flies in our unit & noticed a small tear in the screen. When we reported this we were told they would replace that screen immediately but the screen was just taped shut.
— A mirror needed to be replaced & maintenance broke the mirror. It shattered into many tiny pieces & they did not clean it up. My wife cut her foot, I got small cuts, & our cat got into the glass (cutting her nose) — thank God she didn’t swallow anything.
We continued to pay rent in Nov. & again in Dec. even after we vacated the unit, hoping they would re-​lease it, as they are required to try to do per our lease agreement, but to date they haven’t confirmed completion of ANY of the maintenance requests filed in Oct., they have shown the unit 1 time, they apparently cleaned & painted the unit (without telling us they would be entering the unit), & they are insisting that we continue to pay, even though they confirmed they we turned possession back over to them.
Now we are faced with a decision, plead our case & possibly face collections for the rent due through the end of our lease — or continue paying over $ 2200 per month to an utterly irresponsible & terrible management company with awful, persistent maintenance issues.

Let me start by saying that I love my apartment and the building, but it seems I have to revert to public forums like Unilocal to be able to resolve issues that need resolving. I have posted on here before due to a terrible bug issue and thought I wouldn’t have to post again, but that’s not the case. BJB properties charged me triple rent for July, and this is the 3^rd time in less than a year I’ve been charged more than my rent! When I called the finance lady to inquire immediately, she informed me that this was again due to a glitch in their payment system and she would take care of it through corporate to have me reimbursed. It’s almost August 1^st and I still haven’t received a check for $ 1,300 that BJB owes me. Like I said the finance woman has been responsive and trying to help, I know she’s a sweet lady and it’s not her fault, but it shouldn’t take corporate almost a month to reimburse. I’ve been told the check is in the mail, but still no check. This is unacceptable and they have offered no compensation for their «faulty» payment system. This management company has a slew of other issues that I won’t even waste my time with on here. Even if I receive my check today, it still shouldn’t have taken a month to reimburse me. And better yet, it shouldn’t have happened for the third time!

Literally the worst management company ever.
They know practically nothing about their own properties and could not even collaborate with all of the leasing agents I talked to on what the exact address of my sublet would be…
They gave me an address range from 1213 – 1225 west diversey, which is pretty not helpful when you are trying to get important mail delivered to you. I have been told 3 different addresses over the course of my month collaborating with them. When I called to confirm what my exact building address was to more accurately received mail I was told very rudely by the woman on the phone that it was 1223 West Diversey, even though BJB dropped off an envelope in my door earlier that door addressed to 1217! The woman was telling me that I was wrong and she is looking at my file that says I live in 1223. I kept trying to tell her that her company, BJB themselves addressed something to me at 1217 and that they should better collaborate on these type of issues to prevent dissatisfied customers like me who are left confused and with a bad taste in their mouth. She was less than apologetic and genuinely a very unpleasant person to work with.
I would definitely not recommend anyone using BJB even if they do have a lot of locations all around the city for good prices. Their management greatly outweighs any of these benefits and they are generally uneducated about their business with poor customer service skills.

In reference to 25 E Delaware Place.
GREAT location of building, but this company is a joke.
First and foremost, their «gym» is not a gym. Their equipment has been broken for months now (the treadmills don’t even work) and yet no one will fix them.
When your AC or heater goes out, and you request maintenance assistance, they take up to a week to come out and fix it. Meanwhile, I am either shivering or sweating buckets.
Once you give notice to not renew your lease (with plans to move out), they immediately start showing your unit to the public. They are in and out of your apartment every day — no privacy whatsoever. They don’t give you 24 hours notice before showing it and they are incredibly rude when letting you know that its going to be shown.
I have no idea how this company manages multiple apartments buildings in Chicago. They are NOT a management company. The girl that works the office is very friendly and helpful, but this company is horrible.

What I liked:
1. Great availability of public transportation — in the morning hours I would ride bus 134 running express via Lake Shore Dr to the board of trade building. It used to take me 12 – 15 minutes if I started before 8 am. On my way back I would take the brown line getting off at Diversey and walking 8 – 10 minutes. There’s bus 22 to downtown via Clark St available ²⁴⁄₇ so you can always get home having just a few bucks in your pocket. I discovered a dozen of different ways getting there by CTA.
2. Quick and pleasant driving — 8 – 12 minutes of driving to the Washington and Franklin garage via Lake Shore Dr is very pleasant as you’re observing Lincoln Park, Lake Michigan, Magnificent Mile and the Loop. You have to get out before the rush hour though. Lake Shore Drive is a lot less busy than Kennedy or Dan Ryan expressway in the morning hours, so starting at 7 am you would not likely to be stuck in the traffic jam.
3. Bars and restaurants — as you passed the front door of the building making your first steps you’ll find 2 night bars and 5 restaurants. There’s also 7-​eleven working 24/​7, big local grocery store, 2 hair saloons, CVS, Wallmarts, Bed & Beyond, TJ Maxx, Bed & Mattress, Chase and Bank of America ATM, Starbucks, Best Buy — and those are located in 1 to 5 minutes walk. In one word, this is Lincoln Park. Being first time there, I was just amazed.
4. Building and apartments — at the time I moved in, the building interior wasn’t fully finished but over time I’d seen the progress and I have to say they do care! Very, very nice in there, there’s a doorman, a nice leather sofa, and two nice leather benches, mailboxes room, laundry room with card-​operated washers and dryers, bike room, the back and front door is operated by the same card you use to get in to the apartment. Two elevators, two stair-​wells, 7 floors. The apartments are kept clean and nice. My studio had a microwave, refrige, electric stove and electric heater. Internet and TV were included.
5. Price — for six months contract from Feb to Aug I paid $ 875 with TV & Internet, on top of that there used to be $ 20 — $ 40 I paid for electricity.
6. Community — is very diverse with lots of young professionals, students and just successful people, so it’s relatively safe walking down the street in the night out there.
What I didn’t like:
1. Little space — their studios are just tiny, you enter and there you have the door to a compact bathroom on the right, two steps and there comes a living room with kitchen appliances and a medium closet. I realize this can be great for ‘go-​out’ type of people, but it was inconvenient for me. Before you buy something you’ve got to think twice. Cooking, ironing, packing, I used to be lacking space in everything I did. You have to keep your things organized to be able to handle it. Walls are thing and you hear it.
2. Noise — not only will you hear the street noise and sirens off every half and hour but also the sound off Daffy’s which is part of the building. The bar is open till late night and that made lots of people move out of there. I was lucky I lived at 7^th but still it took me a month to get the hang of it. I talked to people living on the 3^rd and they were really frustrated.
3. Night — I don’t like crowds, I do hate drunk crowds which was the case, with the reason being that popular Daffy’s. Also with lots of restaurants and night life around you are likely to meet buzzed people at night.
4. Street parking — in this area is tough. You can find a spot, the question is how far would it be. Particularly in the area around the building street parking is not that bad with Stockton Dr and Cannon Dr available all the way down. However, you should be careful of the signs. The right side of Cannon Dr has a permanent restriction not to park from 8 am to 9 am due to street sweeping. Be aware of the temporary signs, if you leave your car for more than a few days you can easily get ticketed or towed or both as there are lots of temporarily restrictions in the summer time due to various events and in winter time due to street cleaning. I got 7 tickets in 6 months. Some of the tickets were ridiculous. The area is packed and if I go to Best Buy I would think before I drive there as there may be an issue to find a spot around. If you do, you pay a few bucks. That was the reason I moved out — if you love driving, this is not the place.
5. Highway — is 15 mins driving via Diversey in early morning and 25 to 35 mins rest of the time. With all the big and great stores located by the highway, this location just isn’t convenient.

This is a review for this specific apartment building owned by the BJB Company aka 424 Diversey.
The units here are small and cozy but new and clean — this was recently converted from a hotel. I like the new appliances and white floors, and granite on the tiny mini kitchen is also cool. The staff in the office is what makes it welcoming, and the evening manager/​doorman is very cool and outgoing.
There will be the normal city issues such as noise and what not, but management is very good at communicating and finding solutions.
Public Transportation is very good here. You are right by several bus stops, express lines, and the CTA stop is not too far away. There’s also a bike storage room.