Assembly Station Columbia

Genuinely, do not stay here. Please don't waste your money. I saw a few bad reviews before I moved in and ignored them because I liked the look and location of the place, and I regret it. From the day I moved in, things in my apartment were broken. I've had an electrical issue or a leak/break nearly every week for the 6 weeks I've lived here. Maintenance takes forever to respond. They only have 2 men for the entire building. They claim to have an emergency number, but it's legitimately the same number as regular maintenance, so if you have a pipe break after 5pm, you have to deal with your apartment flooding until at least the next morning. This happened to me. I've also had a ceiling leak in the bathroom that I've been told has been fixed three times, but leaks again every other week. Maintence is rude and borderline sexually harassing. I've been stared up and down to the point I've had to walk out of my own apartment while they're here. I have a broken ceiling fan, and I was told that the boss refuses to replace it, so my fan is always on high -- runs up my electricity bill and causes my apartment to be freezing all the time, which is horrible for my lung condition. These are only a few of the problems. Parking is horrendous. I have to park on the 4th floor of the garage more often than not. There are roaches and spiders everywhere. The room they've given me is near uninhabitable. It's gross negligence as a product of either severe laziness or extreme ignorance to let someone move into a unit with so many fundamental issues. I come home every day and genuinely worry about what else I will find that's broken. And it's definitely a undergraduate environment. I've had drunk teens knock on my door late at night twice. They claim it's safe because of all the magnetic locked doors, but the main entrance from the visitor's parking lot is broken, so anyone can walk in. I had to buy my own alarm system to feel safe.
Do NOT waste your money here.

Fraud Alert! My niece recently moved into this complex. I helped her with deposit and rent. I logged in and made the payment, once. They charged my card twice without my authorization. I reported this to the apartments, they were ZERO help, had no intentions of helping to straighten this out, rather told me they were keeping the money. I have reported this fraud to my credit card company and have agreed to help prosecute. Be very careful what credit card numbers you give them!

Aspyre is great for me, I would say check it out yourself before you trust all of these reviews. I like the location, the staff handles any issues I have. Some of these people sound like they just woke up on the wrong side of the bed... I'd rather live here than on shop rd!

Best apartment in Columbia! I picked aspyre because I wanted a quiet, safe, and convenient location. Aspyre offered all this and more! The management team is very attentive in addressing any issues that the property may have, and they have always treated me professionally. No matter where you live as a college student, things are going to happen. I lived at University Oaks before aspyre and there is not nearly as much that people can complain about here that they could at University Oaks. I'm a grad school student and aspyre has seemed to attract a lot of the students in my program. It's a very professional, but fun atmosphere. I enjoy having two pools to use. I tend to use the lap pool instead of the resort pool because it's a little less active. There is a gym on site, but with the USC gym only being walking distance I just go there. Pets are allowed which is another reason I picked aspyre. I really cannot come up with anything truly negative. No apartment is perfect, and I know from my past student apartment experience in Columbia that the grass is not always greener. Think twice before you listen to some of these negative reviews.

Positives: Modern, clean and comfortable apartment units; garage parking; nice resident lounge; private washer/dryer in apartments; nice "roommate style" floorplans; flooding issue that other reviewers have mentioned seems to have been brought under control (and we've had some heavy rains w/o incident in the past six months).



Negatives: Paternalistic management office that conducted invasive apartment inspections and extended pool shut downs during the summer; inadequate fitness center (not enough equipment); inadequate business center (took them forever to get a reliable printer set up, broken tables in conference rooms); management severely underestimated utility expenses during our tour (that one still burns me up- go ahead and add 50-70% to whatever estimate you receive for electric); no dish TV access...



Overall: Aspyre is one of the more expensive apartment communities in Columbia. While the amenities and the location are nice, I was (obviously) unhappy with the management (whose style seems better geared for managing boisterous undergrads than for catering to graduate students and adults). On the balance, the value isn't there and I look forward to exploring other options in the Columbia area.

Stay away from this place unless you want to be treated like a 10-year old by unqualified office staff.