ANOVA uCity Square, philadelphia-pa

‼️THINK TWICE BEFORE LEASING HERE‼️ I've been a resident at ANOVA, and I want to give future tenants an honest picture of what living here is actually like. Every morning between 6 and 7 AM, the trash truck slams into the metal trash cans for about 30 minutes, loud and clear enough to wake you up daily. One of the elevators is usually out of service. The door lock at the parking garage has been broken for quite some time with no apparent intention to fix it, which puts every resident's safety at risk. There are also occasional middle-of-the-night fire alarms — I understand those are a safety protocol, so just as a heads-up. And as I'm writing this, the entire building has had no running hot water for a week (since 07/03/2026). Individually, these problems might happen at any apartment (just more often at ANOVA), what makes it worse is how the management and leasing team handle them. The staff at concierge are all lovely, but the leasing office is a different story. Whenever an issue comes up, the leasing front desk seems to exist mainly to shield the manager inside the office from having to deal with it. You'll be told there's nothing they can do, and when you ask for the contact information of their manager or a colleague, you're simply told they don't have it. That kind of dead end makes even small problems feel impossible to resolve. They make you feel like YOU're the problem they want to get rid of. For $2,000+ a month in rent, this apartment is not worth it. As someone who has lived through all of this, I hope future renters can make a more informed decision than I did and find a good place to live with peace of mind.

I want to give a mini-update of my time here at ANOVA U City and update over time. I would say the amenities are great to have access to and the location has been beneficial for my commute to school. However, a very large and concerning problem ANOVA U City has is transparency. For example, I read my contract thoroughly, and it said that subletting was allowed and that ANOVA could coordinate the sublet with me given I present them with an appropriate opportunity and permission. However, when reaching out to the leasing, they said while I was "right" in showing them that clause, they did not want to allow a summer sublet. Read your contracts and ask a list of questions to this apartment before renting with them because the written policies change to their beliefs. The second thing is events. The community events have been welcoming for the most part except for some that I found strongly concerning. Today with a collab with an organization called Hungry Panda they were going to give out "complimentary bubble tea" as noted in the flier. I come there being asked to download an app called "WeChat" which I found was an application that has "a lack of end-to-end encryption, surveillance, and data sharing with Chinese authorities." I declined and asked management, and all he could say was he was not aware and to not download it (and also this meant to not partake). In addition, happy hours from 4-6pm still yet have any options for those who can not drink alcohol (even juice or 0% alcoholic beverages). In the beginning of my time here at ANOVA I would have given it a 5/5, but my time here has decreased in quality and I'm at a 2. Hopeful for better months and for management to listen to these concerns to make this location more welcoming and more importantly, transparent.

I would not recommend living here to anyone. We are currently on day six of no hot water and have just been told that the soonest we MIGHT have it again is for another two days. Management has yet to provide any alternative or compensation to residents. We have routinely lost hot water, even during the winter months, and other amenities such as elevators and trash rooms, are also regularly out of service. There are also regular fire alarms that are incredibly loud and disruptive, and the wifi is unreliable yet you are not able to secure your own servicer. The staff here are very nice, so I want to be clear that this review is no reflection of them.

The building has currently been without hot water for 5 days. We have repeatedly been told that this will be resolved within a day, but to no avail. This makes the units legally uninhabitable, but management has offered no compensation or resolution.

Our unit had no hot water for more than five days during a declared heat emergency, and management declined any credit, describing it only as a “temporary partial disruption.” For a building at this price, I expected a basic utility failure to be taken far more seriously.