Honeyman Hardware Lofts

Visiting here as a guest —
PROS:
— close to the Park and within walking distance of everything
— windows with lots of light
— high ceilings
— super spacious for a studio
CONS:
— unit I am staying in backs to the elevator — you can hear every ‘beep’ as it passes up and down past floors
— sound isolation not the best
— no washer/​dryer in unit
— water, gas, or air pressure valves run through ceiling of the apt — there is a constant ambient hissing sound
— border of the ‘bad’ part of the Pearl so some sketchy characters hang around outside
— frigid corridors in winter

This place is fantastic.
I’m not a renter but I am renting this as a vacation rental.
I’m in love. Everyone is so friendly and sweet.
The views and the space is just fantastic.
Lots of great places walking distance too.
The best way to see Portland in my opinion.

Let’s pretend you are looking for a loft in the Pearl. Right now I am your Guardian Angel warning you not to rent this place. If you listen to divine guidance, consider this as a warning and a sign to look in another direction.
Need more info? Feel free to send me a message.
Have a lovely day.

I will be moving out of Honeyman lofts in a month and it will be a real relief.
My time here has been quite uncomfortable. Now they want to raise my rent, even though it is already very overpriced, plus you pay an extra 155.00 if you are lucky enough to get a parking space. The management has told me one thing then something different based on their convenience, not honesty. The bottom line of this business is greed, nothing else.
The place is not kept clean, the atmosphere is shabby, and the staff is rude. Not all of them, but the manager is very unpleasant to deal with.

Location is great, the units are really nice.
The garbage room is disgusting, completely unsanitary.
I was told I would have a washer and dryer in my unit before moving in. When I moved in, it was not there and they said they were unable to install it. Wouldn’t even offer to cover my laundry costs due to their error.
No staff on the weekends… What the hell? Not even just Saturday? Don’t expect to see staff often.
The amount of trucks for garbage/​recycling in the morning is absolutely unbearable. They will come at all hours of the night from 2am — 7am. You WILL be woken up.
I honestly really loved the space itself, the apartments are possibly the nicest in Portland — real wood, nice ceilings. But they really ruined the relationship with me when the rent went up 40% after renovations. It is rental companies like this that will ruin Portland, driving the rent up for absolutely no reason other than to make more money. It’s pathetic and this city needs to instantiate some rent control laws.
I will never recommend this place purely on the rent increase.
Oh, and the other reviews are right… Bums sleep in my doorway almost every night.

Loved living in my actual apartment… Hated the building and the staff were incompetent.
There were so many issues it will likely take me a few postings to remember them all but to start my re-​cap. I moved in last summer; was great, great view, airy, lots of light in my new place. Annoying that there is only one elevator and you cannot use a key to hold it so moving takes twice the time and my friend broke her foot while trying to hold the doors as they literally close on you. All was fairly (so I thought) well minus the dirtiness of the building and dark corridors. Literally piles of dirt/​dust in stairwells that never got cleaned… literally never. But, I could deal, I loved my little space and view and it was mine!
And then, the «supposed» unplanned construction that I was never told about. I had no windows, literally none for 6 months. Not to mention the dust and asbestos exposures they were submitting me to in addition to endless cleaning that I now had to do of my new «prior great» place to live. They had workers in and out of my apartment (without proper notice) who felt it was appropriate to move my personal items on their own. Not kidding… since they did not give me proper notice (told me the wrong date) I had not moved my items away from the beautiful windows (well what I used to call beautiful view). So, they re-​arranged my entire back half of my apartment for me, that’s right, the one I just arranged and put in order after my move 2 months prior. Moving my bed, expensive instruments, TV, not to mention all my personal items and scaring my dog who was left home due to the negligence in ability to provide proper notice. I was told the construction that took 5+ months was unplanned prior to my move in 2 months before it started… right. They offered a 10% discount. Really, 10% wasn’t near enough to cover the intrusion and mess they caused.
The updates that they boost on over other complaint posts of the «wonderful updates» are a joke. In 9 months, I never saw someone «playing the x-​box» or in the resident lounge that is also the managements office! The workout room was a closet of 3 workout machines and the outdoor space was a horribly taken care of 1 grill (dirty and unusable to anyone that is remotely concerned about hygiene) and some couches/​plants that are never watered and dying.
Lets see… how else is this place mismanaged? Lets discuss the rat, yes rats in the building, or the leaking pipes into the garage/​main hallway (with buckets underneath them), or the lack of office staff availability… they don’t work weekends, or after 5 so you can literally never reach them or pick up your packages unless you take off work. Try calling or emailing as an option… about a 50% chance they will even get back to you and you literally have to call 10 times before someone even answers. Face to face, they are «nice» but again, ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ on any follow through.
You should also be aware of the «safety» on the garage/​outside of the building. No camera’s, anywhere. Your s.o.‘s car gets broken into on the street… no camera, the front desk response, those things happen… The garage door is left open on many days with homeless people to come and go (sleep in corners, yup, often) as they wish. At one point I think the garage door was open for days at a time. No security. People shooting up heroin under the front door lights, not kidding.
Or should we discuss the smokers epidemic at this place. And in the building with the worst ventilation ever so the smoke enters your personal apartment. They smoke on stairwells and in the hallways so if you live with a smoker on your floor… yup the hallway is a haze of carcinogen.
Well…enough for the moment… there will be more. Wonder why 16 homes were vacated in one month???

Absolute worst place you can possibly live in portland. Trust me. Break-​ins are very frequent, shady people sleep in the doorways & sneak in behind visitors. Too many access doors to the facility. My car was broken in to twice in 9 months. Not to mention the lack of class and professionalism displayed by the staff. I would give a zero if possible.

I lived in the Honeyman Hardware Lofts for just a little over 1.5 years, with my 2 leases spanning the pre-​remodel era, and ending when the remodels began.
Overall, Honeyman is a great place: the on-​site property management, walkability, and floor layouts all make this property extremely desirable. (Note: it’s actually 3 different conjoined buildings – so all the properties layouts depend upon the building you’re looking at). I can’t say enough good things about Chris Jones and team. They were always available, ready to help, and the on-​site repairman (Steve) is awesome. Regardless of the issue, they always helped to resolve it in the most professional, expedient manner possible. The walkability, meanwhile, puts you within several blocks of public transportation (both the Streetcar and the MAX), a farmer’s market, a big park, and numerous restaurants, galleries, and shopping. Finally, the floor layouts are great: I LOVED my split level loft, and couldn’t have imagined a better intro to the downtown PDX scene than sitting on my balcony in the summer.
On the downside, ambient noise (from the Post Office and nearby indigent housing) and high-​ish rents detract from Honeyman’s desirability. Note that if your unit faces the Post Office (on Hoyt), you WILL hear delivery trucks rumbling down the street between the hours of 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Also, the indigent housing (not sure if it’s a halfway house or Section 8… but there’s definitely some type of substance abuse clinic therein) means that occasionally, you’ll have to deal with loud, shrieking, possibly mentally unstable individuals that may (or may not) make intrusive noises at all hours of the night. These two factors together made it difficult for me to want to re-​sign my lease at a higher price. Hopefully the remodel included sound-​proof windows!
That said: Honeyman is a great starter place if you’re new to Portland. You can get around easily, it makes you feel like you live in a city without actually living in a city (just wait New Yorkers and San Franciscans: PDX is a «toy city» a la the Disneyland version of a city!), and the great management make the experience a memorable one.
Big perk: they’ll accept all your FedEx/​UPS packages… and there’s even a dry cleaning service that’ll pick up your items from the main office.

Now that the renovation is done I can update this review and give HHL another star. It is A-​OK (in Unilocal parlance) and, in fact, I’m a fan.
I’m pretty certain the owners will sell the building (nobody does these upgrades and spends this kind of money solely for their tenants’ pleasure) and who knows what will then happen to the rents, but this is a good place to live and the onsite management is really responsive and all-​around great. Location is perfect if you don’t have a car and can walk to work.
Security of the building is only as good as the people who use it, and leaving doors and garage gates propped open (which happens often) is an invitation for strangers who are up to no good. However, this is a common problem in all buildings in the Pearl, not just here.
The student population may increase when the art school opens across the street which may increase the noise in the building. The walls are pretty thin (just sticks and drywall separate the spaces) and I can hear pretty much everything from the neighbor on one side but not the other. Trucks, music, recycling, crazy (or drunk) people yelling on the street, arguments, parties on the deck — we hear all that.
But the interior spaces themselves, just great. HHL is the only historic building in the area that was turned into apartments rather than condos — all the other apartments are new or relatively so.

We have lived @ Honeyman Hardware Lofts for over a year now and have had a very positive experience. The variety of lofts is unique and interesting. The location is great especially if you have a dog, as they are very dog friendly and North Parks are right across the street. The management has always been very responsive to our requests & needs. I wish their beautiful new office/​common area was accessible ²⁴⁄₇ to the residents. Also wish that the promised new bike racks would be installed soon as a rack for six bikes is not nearly enough for a building of this size. All in all, it’s a wonderful place to live and I would highly recommend it for those who want an urban living experience.

For a unique industrial style of living Honeyman is virtually unsurpassed in the Pearl. We have lived here going on 4 years now including through renovations and the entire time the management has been responsive and engaged. The Honeyman community it’self is also refreshing compared to some of the other communities in the neighborhood which are practically homogenous in their tenants. All in all I consider the Honeyman to be truly unique in a rental landscape dominated by cookie cutter glass and steel boxes.

My review has to be prefaced with the fact that living in a construction zone can get to even the hardiest of residents — a group in which I consider myself a charter member having lived and rented in NYC, LA, and San Francisco.
1. The construction is loud and continuous (as to be expected when pretty much renovating from top-​to-​bottom a 100 year old building to get it up to 2013 codes) and as I am one of those who work at home, I’ve been bothered from time to time.
2. The plastic covering up ALL of our South and East facing windows has been something to get used to and the length of time of coverage was dismaying when we finally got a list of project completion dates (- there goes THAT holiday housewarming party!). And I am giving management the benefit of the doubt on time lines for removal and completion of the projected work.
3. Others have enumerated their numerous personal issues connected with living in a building while it’s being renovated and while I agree with some of the descriptions in terms of annoyance level, I get it… perhaps I’m just less… prickly?
When you’ve paid twice as much for half the space in a much less central (or amazing) city neighborhood, perhaps you gain a bit of perspective.
That all being said…
The management team of Chris and Chris has gone above and beyond in terms of being accessible to all of our requests and concerns; for eg… one time I had a concern about our windows being left open at the end of the day and Chris immediately called up the construction foreman and fixed the «problem». (Turned out that my concerns were unfounded [general procedure was a window check at the end of the day] but Chris’ immediate action was greatly appreciated.)
The building is (from my vantage point) always clean and maintained (even WITH construction going on — yeah… let’s replace/​fix back the elevator after all of this) and I’m really NOT SURE what strangers are supposedly lurking in the building as some others have posted).
February can’t come soon enough BUT I still very much enjoy living in Honeyman.
And YES… we DO DESERVE a «Renovation is OVER!» party.

I can start with what I have enjoyed. The layout of our place is nice, plenty of room and storage, recently remodeled. It’s in a fantastic location, within walking distance to much of what the Pearl, Downtown, and the Northwest neighborhood have to offer. The manager Chris and the rest of the office staff have been nothing but kind and understanding and maintenance Steve is very friendly and quick to help with anything. Where my beef lies is with the management company, Madrona Ridge, and the building owners — Security Properties and Arris Investments.
When my partner and I moved in seven months ago, we were under the impression that there would be renovations to the building, but were told it would be to the entryway, a resident center, other units, the rooftop patio, and the management office. Nothing was said of the exterior of the building. We were debating between this and several other properties and ended up signing the lease for Honeyman. Huge mistake.
I was fine with the scaffolding in place. It was when the plastic went up that I started to panic. We woke up in July to pure and utter darkness in our unit, with a note that had been placed there the night before letting us know that plastic would be covering the building for the next 3 months. 3 months of darkness. During the summer. In Portland. We were then told we could not open our windows. We approached management and said that is impossible, and luckily they responded by installing a portable air conditioning unit. A month later they added another layer of plastic over the windows, further dimming what little light we were receiving in the first place. It could be high noon on a sunny day or a brewing tempest and we would not know. All of this for a laughable deduction of 10% in rent, which was provided after we, and I’m sure several other tenants, complained.
We have since learned that the project is behind, and the plastic is tentatively scheduled to come down in December, which I will believe when I see it. It is highly claustrophobic. A total of 5 months of darkness, accompanied by incessant hammering and power-​sanders being used outside our window.
They have not lived up to their word and I view the building owners and management company as dishonest and deceitful. I do not believe for a second that they did not know about the extent of the renovations when we signed our lease in March and that they withheld information solely to gather a consistent income from unlucky tenants.
A few other issues:
If you are on the North or West end of the building, you will hear loud semi-​trucks all day and all night due to the central post office across the street. And it is loud. Very loud.
The walls are extremely thin — I can hear our neighbors very clearly on both sides.
The new resident center is only open during business hours. It also happens to be the management office. Sure you can watch TV on the large flatscreen, play on the PS3 that they advertise, or work on your laptop in there, but keep in mind the manager and office staff are literally working in the same room. It makes the resident center entirely useless.
I understand that renovations have to be done. What I find ridiculous is how the building owners and the management company have responded to the whole situation. 10% off rent was a slap in the face, and the letter they sent to us was rude, brisk, and made it sound like we were lucky to be getting it in the first place. They have since been more accommodating in reimbursement, but this was only after we kicked up a ruckus and made them aware of how several areas in the building were not up to code. The entire process has just been utterly exhausting.
Please don’t be fooled by them. Should more renovations be done, trust me, you will not know until it’s too late. Take your business elsewhere.

Like both Bettie D. & Katie P. below have explained, as a former resident of the Honeyman Hardware I would highly recommend AVOIDING this building at all costs unless very very desperate.
Also, not being a complainer by nature, and after 8 flawless years of renting in PDX, on both sides of the river, this place is by far the absolute WORST! Indeed the personal space is nice, both Chris managers are helpful, and the maintenance guy Steve rules. But that is where the niceties cease.
Aside from the constant NON-​STOP renovation and construction inside, outside and all around, it is dirty, noisy, smelly and it could be one of the most insecure /​unsafe buildings I have ever lived in here in Portland. It actually says in the lease that they don’t do any type of background check on residents and make NO claims of a secure building, security or safety, and they are NOT responsible for any crimes that occur to you on the premises. There are constantly a plethora of strangers, gawking workers, homeless and others meandering around and in the property as well as propped open and tapped open doors.
The management company Madrona Ridge are clueless, faceless folks from Seattle, Phoenix and the like, that really could care less about your safe, secure, peaceful living rights and happiness. They think residents are more interested in Playstation, free coffee, and the 2 exercise bikes in a closet that they call a gym.
Well, Sorry… but, I don’t even have the time or steadfastness to even get into all the construction and remodeling woes. Just think twice before you sign that «Construction & Remodeling» addendum when you sign your lease. Oh, & They just sent out a letter the other day saying, and I quote «More Improvements To Come…». You have been warned.
Seriously, if you can afford to live in this dump… you can afford to live ANYWHERE in PDX.

I would highly advise against renting here unless you are desperate and have no other option in the Pearl. You should be sure to see the actual place you are renting in person before signing a lease. Also, know that there are additional utility payments that are due every month (this was never made clear to me until I signed my lease and had already given them a deposit and intent to rent.)
My apartment was nice, it has a good look and the location was exactly what I was looking for. Personally I feel that the prices in the Pearl are a little high but I am happy to pay a premium for exceptional service and good location. The service I expect is not up to par for a Pearl property. None of the staff let me know there would be extensive construction projects happening including removal of aspestos, lead paint, and other things they did not disclose to the renters. Basically we are just paychecks to them. There is really no care to treat their tenants well and provide a nice living experience. I mean yes, they sign for packages and fix things in a timely manner when they break, but they really should have a higher standard for resident experience instead of «let’s see what we can get away with and see if everyone puts up with it and for how long!»
There is a long waiting list for parking and they will ‘put you on it’ but it’s just lip service, really. After 6 months I inquired as to availability and was given the run around and no solid answers. It’s not a good idea to park outside all of the time — my friend parked his car on park street and someone tried to break into his car in the middle of the night on Park street. Since I moved in, there has also been a dark discoloration in the water in the bathtub (rust?), things falling apart, leaking, and… I won’t even write the worst thing.
I also wanted to rent another unit in the building because a lot of my expensive designer clothes were stolen in the laundry room. I asked when units with W/​D would be open so that I could solve that problem, but was (even after many attempts) never told when other apartments were open for me to rent a different (and higher price!) apartment.
The bottom line is that they feel that the property is so high in demand that you can rent it out and treat the residents like they should be lucky to live there, but that is just not the attitude to have, in my opinion. So I moved and found a lovely place where they appreciate the residents and are more clear about their intentions and plans. I’m a super busy professional that expects to get what I pay for, and this does not live up to the standards or current leasing price.

«We» have lived at the Honeyman Hardware «lofts» for about two year. I say «We» cause it is my boyfriend’s place and despite repeated attempts to add my name to the lease so that I would be allowed to recieve mail, we were always told to «come back later,» until we got a letter tapped to the door that said «Your lease is not going to be renewed as your unit has not been renovated.» As it turns out the PNCA is moving across the street, so they kicked out longer term residents in hopes of capitalizing on art school students paying an buko bucks to live across the street from class.
I can forgive the high priced studios, or the fact that my car has been broken into 5 times (as this building is just as much China Town as it is The Pearl), what I cannot forgive is how rude the manager is. The manager is the most inconsiderate person I have ever met and has gone out of his way to make our lives difficult. We have paid over 30k in rent in the last two years and kept our studio in great condition. He always acts like we are bothering him and is constantly power tripping.

All things considered, I hold no grudge against Honeyman Hardware Lofts or the property management company that runs the building. Considering how bad most apartments are maintained in Portland, Honeyman was pretty nice. It was the first building I moved into in Portland (back in 2007 – 2008), and while I wasn’t happy with a few things (pros and cons listed below), I never felt like management was a problem. All in all, I remember my time their fondly.
Pros:
1. Location. Ok, so I am not into the Pearl and it wasn’t where I would have moved if I had known Portland before moving there, but I am well aware of how desirable the location is and I made frequent use of it when I was there — pretty much leaving my car in its expensive tiny parking spot 6 days a week.
2. Amenities. So this isn’t a Manhattan penthouse with an Englishman named Jeeves greeting you at the door, but it was nice having the office accept my packages and it was even nicer being able to use a trash chute. And the fairly new dishwasher was definitely a big plus for me when I came to realize how rare that was in Portland. I know many of the newer places in the Pearl offer these kinds of things, but Honeyman is degrees less expensive than most of those places, fwiw.
3. Management. True, I got a little peeved that there was only someone in the office about 50% of the time there was supposed to be someone in the office, but just having an office that returns your calls is pretty great. And this one bleach-​blond girl who worked there was especially friendly and easy to deal with for me (which I really appreciated, being totally new to the city).
4. Paying rent online with a credit card. This is the holy grail for a tenant.
Cons:
1. My unit. Since I was moving from out of state, I signed the lease site-​unseen, and the pictures they showed me of similar units had hardwood floors, really nice appliances, and cool lofted sleep areas. While I knew my unit’s floor-​plan, it was not clear to me that it was carpeted with nasty old carpet or that it was a studio (it was billed as a «1 Bedroom Loft.» If I had known it was just a huge studio, I am sure I wouldn’t have taken the place. I complained about this on another site a few years back when I was still living at Honeyman, and I think they changed their descriptions to indicate when a place is or isn’t a studio.
2. Price. I had mostly lived in bigger and wealthier places than Portland since college, so I just fully expected to be able to find an apartment online. As it turns out, the Pearl is about the only neighborhood where that can happen and so I ended up there. In retrospect, I would have been better off staying in a cheap hotel and looking for places for a week, then moving into a place in Goose Hollow or near NW 21^st if I wanted to stay west of the Willamette. And I could have afforded a small house somewhere reasonably hip in inner southeast for the amount I was spending at Honeyman Hardware. I just didn’t realize what normal rent prices were in Portland because I had been living in NYC the year before and San Francisco before that. For someone like me (then a 2^nd year law student living off of student loans), I would never have moved into a loft in the Pearl, but saved $ 400/​mo and lived in a little 1-​bedroom apartment in Sellwood or something.
3. Maintenance. When I first moved in, about half of my windows didn’t open properly. It took three weeks to get someone in to fix them. Shortly after I moved out, my garbage disposal clogged and I couldn’t use the sink until it was replaced… several weeks later. The garbage disposal repair delay was what convinced me to look into moving our of the building. In retrospect, I would have been better-​served just hiring someone to repair it myself and deducting that from rent.

I had great hopes when I rented my loft. It seemed pricey, but the location was next to the park where I could walk my dog. It advertised hardwood entries and kitchens, but my 945 sq ft loft had plastic.
I was told that the building was full to capacity and that there was no room in the garage in the building in which to park my car– which, by the way, costs an additional 150 per month. I got on a waiting list for a space and I am still waiting. The managers are warm and friendly and if you request something they assure you that they will see to it. However my experience is that they will say one thing, but not follow through on their word. And they are so nice about it and if I complain they reply that everything they are doing is legal. Legal is good, but sometimes simple consideration and forthrightness, while not mandated by law, would be nice and make for better business practice. It appears that the demand for housing in the Pearl is so great that they figure that their residents are expendable.
Well, I have a nice view.