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Iowa-City-IA-MSA

As a current grad student resident at Aspire, my main need in housing is affordability.  Aspire fails to meet this need.  Relatively low noise (I live on the top floor) and responsive on-site maintenance, etc are irrelevant to the students already being priced out of housing that was ostensibly built to house them. Aspire simply fails to provide acceptable grad student housing. 

If corporate management at UK-based Balfour Beatty wants to solve this problem there is one solution: renegotiate the land lease with UI. Balfour is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange.  It&apos;s fiduciary responsibilities mandate Balfour to maximize profit.  (Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.) This is the sole underlying reason for the steep increases in rental pricing.  

There is nothing wrong with a profit motive in general.  Here, however, UI ought to have constrained that profit motive through the long-term contract that grants Balfour exclusive access to a captive rental population and leases Balfour 27.8 acres of tax-exempt public land for just one dollar per year.  Instead, the land lease features no price controls.  Moreover, Balfour controls a majority of votes on the committee that reviews rental pricing at Aspire, leaving UI no mechanism for constraining Balfour&apos;s price gouging and deceptive marketing.  As long as this land lease governs Aspire, residents can expect the current patterns of predation and mismanagement to persist.

Balfour originally projected (in the land lease) annual rent increases of 3.0 percent (and hundreds of millions of dollars in profits across the 50-year project).  Instead prices have increased more than 7 percent annually.  Inflation, as measured by CPI, is currently 0.5 percent per year.  

One motive governs all corporate management at Aspire -- profit.  The land lease is the appropriate instrument to constrain Balfour&apos;s profit motive at Aspire, so that Balfour and UI both gain from this project.  Without such constraint -- as things are -- Balfour is pricing UI graduate and professional students off the property.  We should seek housing elsewhere.

Management at Aspire could also improve as follows.

1. Discourage non-resident employees and their families from juicing the ratings of Aspire online.  Currently, management seems to encourage this deceptive practice.

2. Stop cashing rental checks before the dates written on the checks -- especially those checks deposited in months when UI academic calendars predict that many students will depart campus before the end of the month.

3. Extend free resident parking to apply year round.  Here&apos;s one viable option: convince UI administration to obtain free passes for Aspire residents to park in some section of the Hawk Lot during the fall semester&apos;s finals week. (Some sections are now free during Thanksgiving and winter vacations, which helps.)

4. Return the $75,000 payoff Balfour recently received from the UI to do something that Balfour should have done for free: abide by its original plans for next year&apos;s rental pricing structure.  Above, I mentioned that Balfour holds a majority of votes the committee which approves rental pricing.  Specifically, two members of the committee represent Balfour and two represent UI; crucially, if there&apos;s a tie, Balfour casts the deciding vote.  This year&apos;s committee voted unanimously to approve increases in renewal and market rates which exceed 7 percent (the unanimity of this vote calls into question whether the committee&apos;s UI representatives actually advocate for students), but it did not approve limits to the number of renewals available at the renewal rate, according to the minutes of the committee meeting.  Yet Balfour imposed and advertised such limits, benefiting through widespread and rapid renewals from the ensuing tenant panic.  After all this, UI administration &quot;negotiated&quot; for Balfour to extend the renewal rate to all renewals, as the committee originally approved, &quot;in exchange&quot; for the $75,000 payoff.  Again Balfour benefits through increased renewals.  Yet, even if every single tenant at Aspire were to renew (an impossibility), the deal would save UI students no more than $75,000 in total.  This deal is completely unreasonable, another giveaway from UI to Balfour. Balfour should return the deal&apos;s unconscionable payoff to UI.  

5. Reinstate current tenants&apos; original rental agreement. Background: Aspire&apos;s January newsletter included 84 separate amendments to the rental agreement, without an attached copy of the new contract.  Residents were given no avenue to contest any of these amendments. Balfour informed residents, &quot;the changes to your lease contained in this notice will be considered effective by Landlord without any action on your part.&quot;  Here is an excerpt from one of the 84 amendments, which is both frightening and bizarre: Iowa does not require inspection stickers for cars.

&quot;Exhibit C: Parking Rules and Regulations, Section 7 is deleted in its entirety and is replaced with the following: &apos;7. The vehicle ... cannot ... have an expired state inspection sticker.... A towing company may be engaged by the Landlord to frequently, and at random, tour the property.... The towing company may tow any vehicle that is in violation of ... rules and regulations applicable to the Tenant. Vehicles will be towed ... with no advance or further notice.&apos; &quot;

Aspire is not for grad students, despite what the sign out front says.

(Note: apartmentratings.com&apos;s T&C include a forced arbitration clause, by which users forfeit their rights to access the civil courts.  Excessive litigation is a problem, but this solution is coercive and un-American.  I hope the website will reconsider its use of this tactic.)

I'm living in Aspire since 2018 Fall. I'm pretty satisfied with most of things, like cleanness, staff responses, and quality. The maintenance is quick enough (most of time) and the atmosphere here is very quite to study. One thing I'm concerned about is the rent which is pretty high for the graduate students given that this community was originally built for graduate students and faculties. Other than that, I'm pretty satisfied with everything.

Aspire apartment is very safe and convenient, cambus could send you to the school. Washer and dryer in the unit is perfect for us, free high speed WiFi, pretty room and peaceful surrounding community. I have recommended it to my friends.

I have been living in this community with my wife and daughter for more than 3 years and really like this place. Generally, the staffs, especially those responsible for maintenance and repairing are really friendly and ready to help. But in the past year, I have some concerns about the safety and the responsibility of individual staff. Anyway, I hope I will still stay here for longer time.

Having been here only a few months, I have greatly enjoyed my time here at Aspire. The facilities are clean, staff is helpful and prompt, and the location is actually quite pretty. Rent might be a bit higher than other complexes around campus, but it includes most of the utilities (except gas/electric) and the Community Center hosts several events with free food/giveaways. I signed the lease for this apartment sight unseen (aside from a virtual tour via Skype), and have been very happy with it!

I love this community and I am considering to renew the rent next year. However, I am now very struggling with the awful dog smell. I am very concerned that my two kids who have some problems with the dog smell come to my apartment in a few months. I think It would be better for you to inform new tenants in advance if the former owner raised dogs.

With cooler temperatures quickly heading our way in much of the U.S., you may be wondering how you can add some greenery to your living space this fall. Aspire can certainly lend a touch of the great outdoors to any room ? not to mention the fact that they liven up our surroundings at a time of the year when the view outside is, for a lot of us, pretty dreary. In fact, many who suffer from varying forms of seasonal depression find that having a few lush, leafy plants around provides an all-natural mood boost, and helps to distract from the otherwise chilly, bleak conditions around them.

I moved in Aspire on August, 2018. The first priority to choose this Apartment was the 'security'. Most people living in Aspire are almost students or workers related to universities and this was a big factor. I am pretty satisfied with living here except some noises from neighbors. Plus, Cambus is free and easy to take, and this is really convenient, too.

So far, I like living in Aspire. The reason i choose Aspire is because of the transportation facility and the security of the apartment. Plus it is pet friendly and has all types of units available according to your choice.

Aspire is an excellent place to live for a graduate student. It's quiet, neighbors and staff are friendly, it's on campus, it's safe, has a cambus stop, internet/cable and parking are included in the rent, and it has a great community feel.

Great location, beautiful, well-maintained buildings and friendly staff. On the Cambus route, but you will have to wait 30 minutes or more for the next bus if you are traveling to main campus. Also, the marching band practices in the nearby fields so football season can get a little noisy if you are outside. There are some fun activities that are free, but very over priced. The rent also increases every year, driving away residents. It's a shame, because it is a nice area and they accept pets.

Fairly great. But I do hope rent is not going up. I know many rooms in Aspire are not being occupied and most of the residents are quite sensitive to monthly rent. In this situation, rasing rent does not make sense for you.

It's been great so far. I really love that Aspire provides fully furnished apartments and a low price, which also includes cable/internet, garbage/sewer, and water. With the amenities given, it shows how much Aspire wants to make living here a positive experience.

Review History for Verified Resident 1189024

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