Metropolitan Apartments

I’ve lived here for the past 3−½ years. At each renewal, I’ve looked around to see what else is out there. Each time I found that the rents here are competitive and that the location and amenities are superior to the others.
I love being able to walk to grocery, movies, gym, restaurants, and CalTrain.
The remodel is now complete and the property looks fantastic. Was it noisy and dusty for a while? Yes. Is it noisy and dusty now? No.
Beautiful common areas. Sitting by the pool feels like being at a resort.
The staff is fantastic. All of them.

These apartments are a bit overpriced and not well-​constructed, but in general are fine. Friendly staff, and convenient location to access Caltrain and some great downtown restaurants.
Warning: if you are thinking about moving into 337 S Fremont (the cluster of units to the north) in early 2016 — don’t! There is loud, disruptive construction to replace balconies, stucco, and to remove dry rot. It’s been going on for months and has already suffered delays. And more than twice they’ve had to access our apartment to fix cracks and replace the cheap drywall. If we would have known about it, we wouldn’t have signed the lease. We’ve heard the leasing agent downplay the constructing while taking prospectives on a tour. It really is as bad as it looks.

Lived here for a few years now. Loved it at the beginning but due to the continual rent increases and constant constructions between the two buildings I am about done.
They have been doing constructions outside and around the property 5 days a week from 8 – 4. Not bad if you are working during the day but I like to work from home from time to time and thus makes it ompossible.
Now they are working on our patio and windows. They sometime close off sections of the floor and elevator to re cement the floor.
Parking is a joke. I pay for garage parking and you are assigned a spot. People from time to time park in my spot. Recently my spot was taken up by someone and didn’t move for 2 weeks. Notified the office and they say the spot wasn’t assigned to me and I had a different spot. Been parking there since day one and that was the spot they gave me day one. They tried to get my spot back but they didn’t have the contact info for the other car. Finally got my spot back after weeks
It’s a great place to live with great amenities. Close to down town. But the construction which isn’t scheduled to finish til late 2016 and the increase of rent on a yearly basis is enough for me to say stay away

My husband and I stopped by this morning to look at apartments. We had an appointment with Alyssa and she was great and incredibly friendly. Both her and the property manager really went out of their way to answer all of our questions truthfully. We had some questions regarding our two dogs, but both of them were very understanding and helpful. The only downside is the construction (noise) going on :-(Incredible service and great apartments.

Went on a Sunday to visit an apartment. Despite what was on the web site, the leasing office was closed. We waited 45 minutes for the leasing agent to stroll by — only to be told that she would only take appointments today and asked that we come back the next day.
We walked out and will not come back.
Somebody fires that idiot please.

I’ve lived here for a little while now and I love it. They are very pet friendly which is a plus since I have two puppies. The gym and pool are really nice and convenient! I love that they do community events every month (bagel Saturday’s, taco days, wine nights) The only downside is all the construction that’s going on lately, but it will be over soon. Overall: I love living here :)

We came to the leasing office on a Sunday morning, full of questions and a fair amount of hope (given how much demand there is for rental options on the Bay Area)… To be received by a lady at the desk that treated us in a condescending way.
In spite of the details that appeared on both, the apartment’s website and the Craigslist listing, she said there were no ²⁄₂ options that she could show us, but she would be able to share with us the floor plans (something one can see on the website).
When confronted with the question: how can one make a choice based on a floor plan alone, she dismissed it with «many people do it». When I asked her why was the info on the web site not consistent with what she was able to show, she said: «I am not in charge of the web site.»
I left, disappointed and quite upset. Is this what this market has turned into? :(

Where to begin… well, for starters, we didn’t believe the bad reviews either. The difference is that when we moved to the San Mateo area, the rental options were truly limited. Two years later, however, there are so many options, many of which are brand new — so don’t waste your time here. I could have dealt with the minor things (dirty around the property, semi-​sketchy neighborhood, rude neighbors, etc.), but when our apartment became infested with mold and they still wanted to charge us $ 6,000 to move out, I almost lost my mind! I developed allergies in this apartment — after 30 years of living allergy free — complete with allergic reactions and multiple trips to doctors and allergists. Oh, and they are doing construction on the porches, which weren’t properly built in the first place (warning, warning, warning). The construction has been taking 3 – 4 months per section AND they have the audacity to raise the rent while you have scaffolding over your windows and people banging outside your door for 3 months. What a joke! The maintenance guys are awesome — feel bad with what they have to deal with (one star). Corey has always been great to work with (the other star). Aside from that, the Met is poorly managed, has terrible customer service, and is an unnecessary headache. There are much easier places to live — trust me. I lived in apartments in NYC for 8 years and never dealt with anything remotely close to this. Oh, and now they’ve decided to charge us only $ 1,300 for the two weeks that we didn’t live there and they cleaned to prepare for the next tenant — that makes sense (insert sarcasm).
One last thing to add salt to the wound. All those pictures of the beautiful new common room don’t matter when you’re living with mold and insane construction (with no compensation or understanding). They had no hesitation spending $ 4000 on chairs, but have the audacity to charge the rent they do for the poor quality of service offered.

We lived in the Metropolitan Apartments for over 2 years. We only recently moved out because we bought a house.
Overall we had a good experience. I do want to note that due to the construction there to upgrade the complex, I have heard several complaints, in person, from my neighbors during my last several months there. Some tried to get out of the lease early due to the construction related noise and inconvenience but could not. We luckily were not impacted. The upgrade construction really did not bother us.
PROS:
— Great location, within short walking distance to restaurants and shops in downtown San Mateo.
— Management & staff generally good and timely responsive.
— For a rental apartment, good quality kitchen cabinet
— Super great location for dog owners. The complex is dog friendly, and a great dog park within a very short drive by the bay.
CONS:
— Some used car sales operation consistently parked the cars in their inventory, with «for sale» signs, on the streets surrounding the complex, especially 4^th street. This makes the streets looking like a used car parking lot. This contributes to more problems. For example, when people moved in or delivery comes, the delivery trucks could not find parking so they doubled park on the street and block the street. This could contribute to collisions.
— As a professional pricing guy, I understand how and the rationale behind the rent level they charge, but I do find the rent to be a little on the high side (even factoring in the great location), although it’s not ridiculously high.
— Unfortunately, some dog owners there or in the neighborhood don’t pick up their pets’ dropping.

Pros —
1. Good in-​house property management team. They’re a very responsive and considerate bunch.
2. Amazing location. 5 mins walk away from downtown San Mateo — restaurants, groceries, caltrain station. Far enough from the station that the noise isn’t a big annoyance.
3. The gym and club house are well maintained.
Cons —
1. Construction. Starts at 7:30 AM on weekdays and goes on incessantly till 4. It’s loud, noisy and jarring. So much so that it’s next to impossible to be inside the house during a weekday. This has been going on for about 3 months now and it doesn’t look like there’s going to be any solace from the unabating dissonance.
2. Rent is exorbitant for the amenities on offer.
The noise levels are insane due to the ongoing construction. The management team should make attempts to compensate the residents for the discomfort and inconvenience being caused.

All of the stars here go to the personnel that try to keep the place in order during the hellish banging, disruption of privacy, constant dust and dirt wafting in under our unsealed door from the constant construction. (Lower management and grounds keeping are the only people from turning this place into the absolute worst money trap ever)
It is seriously a money trap; a bad investment that you can’t get out of without paying a very large lease break even if when they rented you your apartment the company very largely misrepresented the «construction plan».
I don’t mind spending money on quality and «luxury living», but this is so far from accommodating that I want to vomit because I feel I have been made a fool.
Oh dear Budda!, does the metropolitan advertise «Zen» living on this very Unilocal page?

Run from this place! I lived here for 2 years and left because of the absurd increases in rent in addition to the construction that is allegedly «necessary.» Law suits were in the process of being filed and tenants have been leaving in droves. Of course the management company wants to make it look like its tenants are crazy and the impact of the construction with no reduction in rent is somehow fair. They expected me to put all the items I had in storage in my living room for 4 months (if not more). Only until I demanded that there be another storage area for my things did something happen. The noise was unbearable in addition to my entire outside living area including around the front door being ripped up. This is a poor management company who has no respect for its tenants and are only looking to get as much money in rent as they can for an average apartment with amenities that don’t work half the time. Find another place!

Only lived here for a few weeks but I can easily give 5 stars as the responsiveness of the management office has been outstanding. I’ve had a few requests of the maintenance team and all have been turned around within a couple of hours. Antonio is extremely efficient and knows his stuff. Corey, John and Teresa have been nothing but kind and helpful. Although the construction work currently underway is distracting, the workers have been very considerate to me living here and I’m pleased the building is undergoing improvements.

We have been living here 1.5 years, and these apartments are fantastic. A quick summary:
Pros:
Layout and storage is awesome
Pet friendly
Amazing kitchen & bathrooms — did I mention the storage?
Dishwasher, washing machine & dryer in units
Quiet neighbors
Fantastic patio!
Everything is within walking distance — good food, parks, Caltrain
Service requests are fulfilled lightning fast
Cons:
Staff is always busy, and it takes me an average of 3 trips to make it when someone is actually available. I realize this is nit-​picking, but if you need the staff for anything they just aren’t in the office. They’re amazing when they are available, but catching them is tough. That’s it — seriously — the end of the cons «list.»
Noise:
You can hear things on the walkways and from the street. It’s pretty muffled, but you will notice people walking by. Not a big deal since everyone here is quiet and respectful.
You never hear your neighbors! We only share one wall with a neighbor, but I’ve NEVER heard people above or below us. It’s pretty fantastic. I’ll take the outside white noise any day over the TMI you can get from people living close by.

My event at the Metropolitan Clubhouse went off without a hitch. Corey was onsite to help me with everything from opening the doors to directing my caterers where to go. On top of the friendly and welcoming vibe, all of my guests were awestruck when they saw the venue. I got all sorts of compliments about how nice the place was and what a classy event it turned out to be. Some guests even inquired about taking a tour and moving in! Cleaning up was easy and we were directed to place all our garbage in a corner for the staff to dispose. This was by far one of the best parties I’ve ever had. Many thanks to the staff at Metropolitan for your neighborly customer service and care!

I was invited to the party at the Metropolitan Apartments. Great place to celebrate an event! The clubhouse has a high ceiling, fireplace and the kitchen island, lots of space for catering and socialization. Staff was very welcoming and attentive.
There were few kids that wanted to run around and crawl, but the area rug was not very clean, the sofa had an animal hair as well. So next time I will definitely bring a play mat. The rest was perfect! My family had lots of fun!

So it’s been 1.5 years now, and still loving it. Great amenities, love our neighbors, Darcy is awesome. By far the best apartment complex we’ve ever lived at.
PS I’d recommend ignoring posts by folks who are clearly venting, or who have set opinions after one building tour. Focus on the ones by those of us actually living here instead…

So far so good.
We are enjoying this place greatly with its convenient location to the train and downtown.
The biggest downside is getting packages with no onsite concierge that means you have to be available during office hours. Unfortunately most people work during office hours! That leaves the weekend when they are usually not in the office on a tour somewhere.
I think that rent is reasonable compared to other similar places and par for the course at larger apartment complexes.
Early days yet but like I said so far so good.

I’ve been happy hear for nearly 2 years. I have lived in many cities, in different countries, and now living here I have been very pleased with the Metropolitan. Modern apartments are few and far between in San Mateo. I prefer modern and feel the apartment layout is great. I share only 1 wall, I have windows on 3 sides of my unit and I get tons of sun. The amenities are unmatched in the San Mateo downtown area. Additionally, there is a great, CLEAN, modern gym! I contest anyone to find a gym as nice as this one in a multiplex in the SM downtown area. I find the kitchen layout to be more than adequate. The full functioning gas stove, which is a bonus in itself, has a REAL vent — so many apartments fake it or don’t have it at all. Full size dedicated water heater. Ample storage throughout my unit with a smart usage of space.
The wonderful conveniences of downtown are a key component to my choice of living here too, as well as, having Caltrain, freeways, and shopping so close by. I feel safe here and the grounds are kept clean. Maintenance has been prompt and attentive. In fact I caught Luke, the property manager, replacing light bulbs himself one night. He seemed to think nothing of it, and I like that about him and the entire staff in general. The staff are so kind that when my dog passed away, they gave me a beautiful memory plaque with my dog’s portrait on it with a lovely poem. I have never had a property management be so generous, thoughtful and kind.
Speaking about pets, I had 2 dogs, one an 80 lb Greyhound and a 24 lb Italian Greyhound mix, and the Metropolitan welcomed them both with open arms. They keep dog biscuits and water in the leasing office. Cats are also welcome in the units. It’s not easy to find a place that takes 2 dogs, or large dogs for that matter. Property Management is so proud of their pet tenants that pet pictures are posted near the elevators.
Plus the Metropolitan has modern lofts on the top floor with spiral staircases, large windows and open floor plans. When I was looking 2 yrs ago, there was nothing like this in the downtown San Mateo area (mostly dodgy 70’s/80’s era cheap construction apartment is what I saw). Perhaps I have so many places to compare this to, but I feel lucky to be here. I was fortunate enough to find what I was looking for and so I truly appreciate what this place has to offer.

So, I haven’t lived here, but I did a solid hour long tour and thought I would post the details.
Walking into the place, the lobby is nice but extremely manufactured — new age music, cucumber water, etc… After sitting down with the leasing lady and filling out a «neighbor card» — basically, what features you like, how many people will be living there, etc… We started the tour.
The gym was spacious, but the televisions are placed in awkward areas and looked old. Typical few treadmills, few ellipticals, a bike, weight machines, free weights, a yoga mat (ew — who would share a yoga mat??) and a couple stability balls.
They gym had showers available with a steam room and lockers available for both men and women. There was a cart outside to put your dry cleaning where it gets pick up on corporate rates and returned a few days later.
The conference room/​business center was lack-​luster with just a large table and chairs, and only 1 computer, printer and fax.
There was a movie theater that conveniently had ESPN running and the leasing lady suggested my bf try out the recliner, showed a fridge available for beer, etc… and told him that he could hook up an xbox to the screen. «Imagine playing one of those games here!»… um… yeah, its a nice movie theater but way-​to-​stereotype lady. He wasnt impressed with that move at all.
Going outside they showed an herb garden which really just was a planter that they had 2 or 3 single plants growing, they looked brown and unhealthy. Probably not a good selling point, but whatever.
The pool was nice, fairly large and there was a hot tub. There was a grill available at poolside and 2 outdoor showers to rinse off in.
From there we went to the club house which looks just like most other nicer apartment complexes club houses do, the kitchen was nice, it was spacious. The leasing lady explained that people come down there during the day to just hang out and they host events for «neighbors» (what they call tenants) and also do cooking classes. She enthusiastically said one upcoming class was «cooking with beer!» — and looked at boyfriend and said «you’d really like that one, i’m sure!» — ugh.
Onto the 2 bedroom floor plan which she called the «artistic space» … I would have appreciated it a lot more if it wasnt decorated to leave some room for the imagination. The 1 bathtub was filled with beach balls, the living room had a chair attached to the wall by hooks… just too much of a gimmick. It had good space though, a huge front porch and the master bathroom had a giant soaking tub with a separate standing shower. The kitchen was a decent size, the washer and drier are in a closet in the kitchen though. Upon leaving this unit, our guide said «I’d like to give you an emotion!»… huh? She took some puzzle pieces that filled a wall mounted trough in the model apartment that had phrases on them and gave them to us. Mine said «I am a smile.» … um. OK.
We also saw a 1 bedroom model which was nice. Dining area was large and could EASILY be a second bedroom/​office space, whatever.
I liked the stainless steel everywhere, it was a nice touch.
There is a large garage below the buildings that are gated with assigned parking. 1 spot per apartment, an extra 50/​month for more parking.
I’m not sure if crime would be an issue, the apartment complex has a great location though. Easily walkable to downtown san mateo — just a few blocks.
This complex has something like 17 different floor plans and air conditioning (huge plus because nothing in this area has AC). They are big on helping you pick out units based on lighting throughout the day into the units — it must have been mentioned 50 times.
All in All — the location is awesome if you are looking for an easy walkable neighborhood. The apartment complex was nice, on the scale of things but felt sterile. The gimmicks could have been given a rest. It felt really manufactured and forced, especially the model 2 bedroom apartment. The bizzare and extreme décor took away from your ability to really take a look at the value of the apartment. Especially when we kept being directed to go back into rooms to look at the towels, or something that the leasing lady was exceptionally proud of placing there. It felt like we were being shown a kids playroom by the kid who was excited to show you their toys rather than being shown an apartment. We also really didn’t appreciate the beer/​espn/​video game references that were very frequently being directed at my BF.
It was expensive, too expensive for what it was. Granted, the steam room and locker room amenities are unique but everything else you will find at any other apartment complex. And honestly, how often are you going to be sitting in a steam room that is in the middle of a public gym bathroom? There really aren’t any play areas for children, if you have kids. They do accept pets, though, with no weight restrictions.