Cortland Alexandria

My husband and I moved from Chicago to Alexandria. We wanted to find a furnished apartment in the Old Town area, and luckily for us, we found the Clayborne. From the moment we walked in, we knew this was something special. The entire complex is immaculately clean and beautifully furnished. It offers a great workout facility, library, and business center. The apartment offers hardwood floors, stylish furnishings, and a fully stocked kitchen. It is clean and bright and has superb central air conditioning. Step outside and the grounds are well kept and although the building is newer, it is built to reflect the romantic and quaint historic buildings found in Old Town. Sarah, the building manager, is fabulous. She is professional and always helpful and friendly. She makes the place feel like h

Wanted to give a shout out for a recent repair, Tishami (office) and Barry (maintenance) went the extra mile in fixing my washing machine! Very happy with the service, washing machine working great and I've been running it with no problems. Makes my life a whole lot easier. I would say I have been getting very personalized service here at Clayborne, it’s not everyday the person in the leasing office assists the maintenance personnel in fixing appliances. I definitely feel like Clayborne is a close knit community.

This is a wonderful space with wonderful people who live here. But the management (not the maintenance staff, they are wonderful) seems to be going in a different direction. There have been a lot of unpalatable changes in the last year (1) it's difficult to get someone on the phone or speak to someone in person if there is a concern/ complaint. The front desk is left unattended often. Most communication is automated (2) There are random new fees like mandatory low grade internet for $70/ month, installed this month. (3) Poor security in stairwells, homeless people squatting and using the stairs as a bathroom I love this building and have lived here for 3 years. But things are changing, and the residents are generally concerned. We used to have great people who worked in the front desk.

The units seemed lovely when I toured, but they were dark thanks to the dark paint choices (grey) despite having ample natural light. Staff seemed friendly and it's a lovely complex. Seemed very quiet. Other communities offer better amenities though. My main deciding factor not to go with the Clayborne is the lack of nearby public transit options. For commuting purposes, it's too far from the King St metro connecting Dash buses. The closest market is Balducci's but I prefer Trader Joe's, so I'd have to always drive to get most of my groceries if I decided to live at the Clayborne and take multiple buses to get to the metro station for commuting. Even King St is a seven block walk. No thanks.

Every time it snows, this apartment complex has a landscaping company that comes out at 3:30am to loudly blow snow from the sidewalk with a snow blower. It’s inconsiderate and wakes the whole neighborhood. You can hear it all the way down the street it’s so loud. It would be fine during normal daylight hours but not at 3am when everyone is trying to sleep.