Chautauqua

Rental office of Chautauqua and Casitas apartments.

Location

717 Alvarado Ave.

(North Davis, on the corner of Anderson & Alvarado Ave.)

Office Hours

Mon-Fri 9:30am-5:30pm

Contact

(530) 758-2950

chautauqua@tandemproperties.com

Website

tandemproperties.com

Features

Central heat/air

Dishwasher/microwave

Handicapped access

Laundry

BBQ area

Exercise room

Patio

Pool/spa

Study room

Announcement from management:

This property is featured during the annual Tandemonium open house event.

Chautauqua Apartments is located on the northwest corner of the Alvarado/Anderson roundabout, and across the street from Casitas, another Tandem Properties complex with which it shares a management, maintenence, and landscaping crew. Chautauqua is on the F and G Unitrans bus lines as well as the Yolobus 230 line. It is also within walking distance of Anderson Plaza and The Marketplace. From the complex's northwest parking lot is an entrance to The Greenbelt. Management at Chautauqua is very friendly and makes repairs promptly, often without charge; they occasionally put on social events for residents, like pizza parties and finals-week breakfasts where there is always more than enough (free!) food to go around. Residents can ask for keys to access the pool and laundry room at Casitas.

Map of the Chautauqua apartment complex (Note that the north parking area is not depicted. Also, the pool and spa are oriented incorrectly, so don't dive into the spa where it is shown here.)

Chautauqua offers studios, one- and three-bedroom apartments ranging from $892/month to $1,820/month with a $400-$700 security deposit [April 2009]. The complex has a pool, spa, weight room, BBQ grills, and a common laundry room. If you go to the laundry room, watch out for the dryer with the X scratched into the top of the door, as with some larger loads of laundry it won't dry them at all. Note from management: Our laundry room machines are owned, operated, and regularly serviced by an outside company. As of today, 8/11/08 management is not aware of any poorly operating machines. If you notice a machine in need of repair, please call us so we can request service for the machine. :)

There is also a study room available to residents by borrowing a small set of keys from the main office. The grounds are very well landscaped, but every Friday morning be prepared to wake up to the sounds of the landscaping crew. The complex has three parking lots; parking by permit only. By the maintenance workshop in the north parking lot, there is a hose you can use to wash your car.

Sign at the corner of Alvarado and Anderson

Studios and one-bedroom units at Chautauqua are available either with/without a loft. Most of these apartments have sliding glass front entry doors, which are neither convenient nor cool, while others just have one for "convenience". The apartments also have very few windows and a muggy cave-like atmosphere. One problem with the studio-with-loft floor plans is that hot stuffy air gets trapped in the loft during the summer. The only air conditioner in these is a wall unit on the first floor and the upstairs (loft) only has a tiny, hard to open window high up in the ceiling (the architect seems to have forgotten that cold air does not rise above hot air!). I'm sure the other floorplans are great though. The built-in lights on the inside are very minimal, so plan to buy a lamp or two.Note from management: We have starting installing ceiling fans to aid in air circulation in many of our units. The fan can be turned on in reverse to help pull up the air from the air conditioner. Thank you for your useful feedback! :)

There are occasional parties in Chautauqua, but they rarely get out of hand or obnoxious. Most neighbors are friendly enough to let you know if they plan on having one so you can prepare. Most residents at Chautauqua are either grad students or law students and this tends to keep the noise down (but people also get peeved quicker about noise).

Announcement from management:

We have one studio with loft cancellation available. (8/26/09)

Comments:

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I looked at two apartments at this place. I absolutely loved the layout of the studios with lofts. The reason I didn't pick this place is because the front doors are sliding glass and do not deadbolt. If you are a female looking for your own place, not having a front door and only having a sliding glass one is weird. Also, there are very very few windows in the place. The layout is cool, and is spacious (two story townhouse feel, even though it's a studio with loft). There are currently two people trying to sublease their apartments, call the office. I recommend seeing both apartments if interested in this complex.

• It is a little weird not having a front door but putting a piece of wood/metal to lock the door is probably just as safe as a deadbolt. The one story studios also don't have windows (mine doesn't) but the airflow is suprisingly not that bad considering (Note: I haven't yet experienced summer in the apartment). I have been in apartments in the trees that would get no airflow even with all the windows open. Overall it's been alright living here although it's very difficult to find parking if you get home late at night.

• How do you lock the door when you leave? —hankim
  

2006-03-13 00:41:40   I recently looked into renting a 1 bedroom unit with a loft at Chautaugua. The loft works great as an office or den. The kitchen looked a bit older than some of the other places I looked at, but depending on your taste might be ok. The unit I looked at was going for $1060 as of March 2006 —GuyGordon

2007-01-14 20:43:31   When I was young I used to watch the wwe in the weight room, since it had cable and my house did not! —StevenDaubert

2007-01-14 20:40:57   I just put my name on the waiting list for ChautauQua and noticed the sliding glass front door and thought it was odd too. But my cousin also advised me to place a piece of wood where the door would slide when I want it locked. He also suggested asking the management if I could drill a small hole in the sliding door and place a pin into it to stop the door from sliding (like a dead bolt). But does anyone know if there are sliding screen doors as well? —AlexisGutierrez

• When I lived there, my apartment had a screen door. —CM
  

2007-03-07 12:44:49   I personally thought the one bedrooms here were really nice. The sliding glass door is a little weird, but I think it would be nice during hot summers? The three bedrooms at Chautauqua is a little dark but other than that they are pertty decent apartments. A lot of space too! The office people were really nice. The leasing agent showed me literally all the different apartments they had. I swear he had too much sugar or something, but he was really nice and funny. The Casitas apartments are managed by the same office. I really really really liked their duplexes. All in all, a good place to live! —Anonymous

2007-09-12 22:46:45   My parents liven in a loft here in the early 70's when the complex was new

good times —StevenDaubert

2009-03-29 11:05:16   For the price, this apartment is very run down and dilapidated. The fan in the bathroom doesn't work so you get a buildup of black mold, the free "DSL" is about as fast as dialup so it's basically semi-false advertising without full disclosure, the office staff is very reluctant to fix some things that don't work well like the fan. They refuse to replace or fix anything unless it's completely broken and they're required to. The sliding glass door gets annoying and is quite frankly just stupid. The maintenance staff are very friendly though and the office staff are as well. The apartments themselves have never been renovated since the 70s either, the kitchen is old, some parts of the counter are permanently dirty and stained. I would never stay here again. —emttim84

2009-03-30 09:18:22   Hi Tim, I'm sorry to hear of your frustrations. If you ever feel that your concerns were not properly addressed, I would hope that you feel comfortable enough with management to let us know. While it's true that Chautauqua is not as new and modern as Tandem's more recently constructed communities, our price-point compared to our newer sister sites, is reflective of that. Our interiors are maintained and we did go through a full renovation in the 1990s. I cannot always accommodate renovation or upgrade type requests, but our maintenance staff is very prompt to replace things that are indeed not properly functioning or are showing excessive signs of wear. Like most apartment communities that do not offer windows in the bathroom, proactive measures like running the bathroom fan for a bit both while and after showering, wiping down the walls if excessive condensation from a hot or long shower develops, and cracking windows occasionally in your apartment and/or running your air conditioner, are all a part of controlling the internal humidity in your apartment. A bit of bathroom mildew can happen in any apartment community to even the most pro-active housekeeper. If that happens to you, a quick wipe-down with a bleach and water solution during your regular cleaning routine (be sure to use the products as directed) should do the trick. If you need a bit of help in the process, just let us know and we'd be happy to show you how. As for the FREE DSL, it won't be as fast as a T1 or digital connection...but the price makes it a very satisfactory amenity to most of our community. :) If you'd like information about upgrading the service, I can put you in touch with our service provider. Even if you won't be staying with us for another year, we'd like to help you feel comfortable here until you go. Take care. —ChautauquaManagement

2009-04-19 16:57:55   This is a very unsafe place to park your car!!! First, management is very nice and repairs are swift. Probably the best management here in Davis. But the apartments are very rundown for the price of rent, you can find someplace cheaper and brand new, but perhaps without the nice management. However, over my lease term several cars have been broken into, at least one motorcycle, and two of my roommates cars have also been broken into (this is what prompts me to write this). Nothing was stolen, there was nothing to steal hence these are people doing it simply b/c they can and there's no incentive not to. So if you have a car you are warned, as is my right to warn you. Oh, and I read the comment about the mold and it's in everyone's apartment. So if you don't want to be battling mold every weekend, and I mean every weekend, another reason not to live here. Use bleach, leave your doors open, nothing works it just grows and grows. —chatres

• Can management do anything to prevent seemingly random criminal stupidity? Probably not save raising rent for private patrols and monitoring (a gated community may be ideal). Mold is certainly within their jurisdiction although to varying degrees residents would certainly be responsible if less than adequite measures are taken. Mold is not an isolated problem which is why most leases and addendums emphasize prevention. —RyanMikulovsky
  

2009-04-24 15:46:06   Today we got a notice from the management that tandem is hiring off-duty cops to patrol our parking lots as well as other complexes due to the increase in car vandalism and theft in the area. So thanks for the comment ryan, but it looks like management can do something about it and they are. I truly hope this increases the safety of our parking lots and really appreciate Tandem Properties for their honest concern for their residents. I still have to say that the apartments are old and falling apart, but my comments about how this is the best management in davis, well, I prove my point. —chatres

• I'm honestly pretty glad to hear that although I wonder at what cost. I was concerned about the problem mentioned as I'll be moving into Chautauqua's sister complex this summer. So it's great to know that management decided to take some action despite not having any obligation to do so! Terrific. Thanks for the update. —RyanMikulovsky
  

2009-10-04 11:10:22   I've lived here only for like a month. The property itself is really quiet, the management is really nice, but I really regret living on the first floor. The structures are old, so I can practically hear the people upstairs talk, watch TV, or move at all. I'm constantly woken up in the middle of the night bc of their dog and frankly feel sleep deprived and tired in the morning. Sleeping in on the weekends is not an option. I would totally live here again if the studios were offered on the second floor though. —PP