Latitude on the River

I have lived in Latitude on the River for over 4 years and it has been a pleasure. The access to parking, two-​story gym, ok pool, top lobby, large balconies, quiet atmosphere, great location and good management had made it a place we will not leave. The negative –the China dry wall issue impacted something like 25 percent of the units but they have now removed the drywall in all of the units that had such an issue. The construction around the area is a nuisance but the access to the Brickell city centre and being on the River is awesome. Ease of access to 95, walking distance to Brickell, the AA arena, bayside, Perez Museum, Adrienne Arsht Center, Mary Brickell and Biscayne Bay make every weekend a vacation. Management has also been attentive and anytime we had an issue, they were quick to respond. I would put 5 stars but the construction – Grrr– maybe in 2 years.

I would have given more stars if it had not been for the circumstances regarding toxic chinese drywall.
Basically this drywall contains a chemical that emits fumes that erodes electronics. Nearly all of my complains about the unit itself stem from this issue. Our AC kept running hot because the drywall fumes ate away at the coils and the freon kept leaking out.
We had testers come into our unit and cut out large chunks of the wall every few weeks during the last few months that we lived there to get samples for testing.
It is something they can fix, so it is understandable that I need to say more for people who may want to move in now when everything should be fixed.
This is one of the only buildings in Brickell that allows large dogs, so there were quite a few pets. The rule is that there should be up to two pets for the unit, and the pets should be less than 60 pounds total. While there were multiple dogs who were obviously well above 60 pounds, I don’t have a complaint about it.
They had this shabby gravel pet area right next to the back door. It smelled horrible despite being cleaned every day, people did not clean up after their pets, and because there are so many, it ended up being completely unsanitary by noon so people would allow their pets to go on the brick river walk instead. For a building that accepts so many pets, it is crucial to have a nice place for them to go, or you run the risk of stinking up the entire block. You can only bring your dogs in through the back door, not the lobby, so someone always tracks poop into the area next to the elevators. They have someone cleaning a lot, but not enough. They hose down the back in the morning, but only then. They have a wonderful amount of grass in the front, but dogs are not allowed to go on there.
Other than what I mentioned about the pet area, it is nice. They clean the halls often and the lobby daily. Some areas in the hallways could use a bit of paint, I guess people have run into some of the awkward corners and chipped it, but it’s not a big deal, it just doesn’t look as upscale as they want it too.
Everything else was nice. If they fix the drywall and the pet area issues this place would have 4 stars. I liked the security guards, though there isn’t one there for more than a few months. It is a generally quiet area, it’s right across the street from a hooker motel (I guess that’s not so nice… but it didn’t bother me), not many other tall buildings in the area so you have a nice view.