The Mills is offering special incentives for its current and possible future tenants in order to fill in upcoming vacancies and improve its relationship with current tenants.
The Mills offered $400 to students who referred other students to sign leases with the Mills. Furthermore, those who sign a lease between April 11 and April 22, will receive a $600 gift card for a three-bedroom apartment and a $800 gift card for a four-bedroom.
The off-campus housing option opened up this year, and since then has had mixed reviews from tenants, some of whom complained about unfinished work in their apartments, poor maintenance service, poor hours for the gym located there, high cost of laundry and climate control systems.
Tenant and KSC junior Jenna Bellano said that she thinks the reason for the issues stems from the rush there was to have the buildings finished.
“I think at first they really rushed to build the buildings,” Bellano said.
KSC junior and Mills Tenant Natasha Schwartzkopff said that she was excited for the new building with little to no issues.
“I thought that everything would work and hopefully functioning,” Schwartzkopff said.
Schwartzkopff said that she is moving out and into a house, but that she would not consider staying at the Mills anyway.
Property Manager Steven Nelson said that a lot of the issues being brought up were based around the unfinished projects.
“When we took the building from the contractors, there [was] a list of things that were broken or not fixed or completed, and when the students moved in these things weren’t finished. It wasn’t perfect for them,” Nelson said.
Nelson said that he was aware of these complaints have persuaded tenants to move out and seek other housing options for next year. Nelson, who came to the Mills in Oct, said that the issues that were presented are being and have already been fixed since then. According to Nelson, he and the rest of the staff have been trying to make the Mills a more enjoyable place to live,
“The relationship with the students and our building and management has changed quite a bit, and they’ve gotten a lot better,” Nelson said.
Nelson said that the gym is now open 24 hours a day; the incomplete work was finished after contractors returned over Winter Break. Additionally, the staff has worked to put on events such as a pizza party last week, where they gave away a 42-inch television and other gifts to the tenants.
According to Nelson, the promotions and improvements have drawn the interest of students looking to move off campus and others to stay for another year. A few groups have signed leases. Students said that the work the Mills staff has put in has put a stop to most of the issues that were present on move-in day. Bellano said that she does not plan on moving out for her senior year in the Fall and said she is content with the progress made thus far..
“Now I think that they’re on track and have things under control for the most part,” Bellano said.
Jacob Barrett can be contacted at jbarrett@kscequinox.com
