Balfour Place

My move-out process from NoDa was exceptionally smooth and professional. Nakira was outstanding at keeping in touch via email, which gave me total confidence throughout the entire transition. After 22 years at the property, I truly appreciate that the move-out experience was handled with such care and comfort. I lived at Balfour since 2004. My studio apartment is perfect :) The building is built in the 90's...so the structure and utilities are solid. I have a view on the 3rd floor of a urban landscape which is getting more modern and futuristic every day. I love living in the Denny Triangle! The building is secure, the folks who run Balfour are great. Update Jan 2024 There are friendly and respectful folks continuing to run Balfour. Staff is in office during and past normal hours, doing good things here. We got new, smartphone access laundry machines last Summer. 3 new blocks of construction on Stewart, increasing car blight and noise :( Never before seen opoid drug use increase as it has this year, as well as new folks who are moving to Denny Triangle from all over the country and world. And micro-mobility rules now, compared to last year. E-scooters, E-Bikes, E-Everything. Always rentable E-Vehicles in front of Balfour, if you haven't got your own. Balfour continues to be right in the center of a dynamic and growing location. It feels great to be at Balfour, and present, in the future ! Thanks for being affordable. Update May 2023 We have cameras in the hallway now, and it's strictly forbidden to exit out the stairs to the street. We are promised new laundry machines, and the ones we have only run on actual quarters, which is cool, as a trip down memory lane :) Since the new high rise went up on Stewart St, the freeway sound is completely gone. I can't remember the last time I heard the fire alarm go off. Update Feb 2021 Its still the number one place to live in Seattle! Sad to see Alfi's go, that store been there since I moved in (2004), and now its boarded up. Denny Triangle is growing midrise structures all around Balfour. Sad to say I LOST my view of the SpaceNeedle in 2020, which i mourn for every day, since I have known all my life to see the Space Needle from my dwelling. No more watching the sun go all the way down from my window either, view-gone :) Balfour still improves as time move on ultimately, because this location is more geared for the future, you can see that more and more. Mgmt here at Balfour are continuing to do the right thing in keeping us safe and sound. Common areas are always good - there were a couple of 'fire alarm go off' sprees, but folks who live at Balfour are keeping the cool, and I thank everyone for that. Folks keep the lobby clean, and garbage room clear. Balfour now has a musician, who plays tuba in the empty lot - I love to listen to the music he plays on some evenings. REAL music when i am safe in my apartment with the evenings peace and quiet, that tuba instrument he plays sound so cool with acoustics due to pandemic stillness and surrounding tall glass buildings. Update - Feb 2020 The manager Susie and maintenance man Forest are really doing great, as the building continues to get better each year. My stove died recently, and I didn't wait more than 48 hours for a replacement. Forest worked with me, and was present in the building on a Friday evening, past 530pm, getting me a working stove so I didn't have to go the weekend microwaving. Our manager Susie is present, taking care of business past 530p, when many residents here may be just getting home from work. Also the maintenance man who keeps up the common areas deserves a big shout out, and has my appreciation, for making a positive difference in my experience living here. Thank you for all yall do!

Do you enjoy frequent false fire alarms, getting PTSD from notes on your door every other week and broken-down elevators with no option to use the stairs to get up to your apartment? Balfour Place is the building for you! Let’s start with the fact that this building went through three different ownerships in the six ½ years I lived there, with front office staff being replaced every six months. Zero consistency in management. That, and they sold the garage to Diamond Parking, which, if you aren’t familiar with them, they are a predatory parking management company. Good luck with them, if you pay for a parking spot. The only good thing I can say about the garage is that my car never got broken into. Building ownership also sold out and got rid of their low-income status – which, Seattle needs MORE affordable living, not less. You will get notes on your door for EVERYTHING. Water being turned off for three days, spraying for roaches, pizza socials, fire alarm testing... and the list goes on. Your home should be a safe space, not a place where you’re harassed. You like roaches? Yeah, they have those too. They haven’t been so bad in the last year but they’re still there. Just wait until they leave a note on your door that you have to pack up your entire bathroom, kitchen and front hallway area so they can spray for roaches. The elevators are constantly going down, which in and of itself is annoying, but when management has locked the stairwell doors so you can’t go up, it’s even worse. You should not HAVE to take the elevator up. They say it’s for “security” but they have locked entry ways with cameras in the lobby – anyone that’s getting in will take the elevator up anyway so it’s not a logical point. The fire department has also been notified more than once, to which they’ve said as long as they unlock during fire alarms it’s fine – which they don’t... and they’ve also said it’s a matter to take up with management of the building. Oh, and those stairwells? If you take them down (which, you should because why make people wait longer for their only way up) you will encounter dried urine and vomit that has been there a solid year now. They have said for YEARS that there would eventually be a rooftop deck. That will never happen. They also have not cleaned the windows in years – they claim they were cleaned a few months ago but I could still see the exact line where I had tried cleaning my own windows the previous summer. If they did clean the windows, they did a terrible job. They disabled the buzzer for the front door too. What other building do you know has a buzzer but purposely disabled it “for security purposes”, yet they have a security guard that’s always sitting there in the lobby by the front door? And the fire alarms... you will find yourself debating even leaving your apartment when fire alarms go off, especially since someone cooking sets them off. They happen so frequently, it’s ridiculous. Let alone the debacle of having to wait for maintenance to unlock the stairwell doors for you to get back upstairs, since the elevators don’t work during the alarms. Balfour Place is NOT worth what they are asking. There’s no way a studio apartment here is worth $1500. I have lived in at least a dozen apartment buildings in my life and this was legit the WORST place I’ve ever lived. The ONLY redeeming qualities are its walkability and the 7-Eleven downstairs (which used to be a mom-and-pop shop for 20+ years, but of course ownership raised rent and forced them out). Do not live here.