First published Oct. 15, 2022 in Stories Beneath the Shell.
by Lucy Hubbard
A new luxury apartment building for University of Maryland students claims to “redefine luxury living.” But according to some residents, the luxuries are exaggerated – at best.
“They definitely tried to sell the apartment as much as they could,” junior marketing major Sara Wooten said. “The amenities are a little stretched.”
Many residents signed their leases last spring, while the apartment building was still under construction. They were wowed by fliers, social media posts, and mailing lists advertising a variety of amenities, from an outdoor jumbotron to a coffee bar to a putting range and computer-generated renderings of their floor plans.
Upon moving in many residents didn’t see some amenities at all— or they didn’t live up to the advertisements’ hype.
A promotional video of The Nine’s homepage shows a small pool at the center of a courtyard with plants, a seating area, a TV, and hanging string lights.
Look at the gallery, though, there is only a fountain.
In reality, there is no fountain and there is no pool. There is only a fenced area for pets and a huge TV. Victoria Ramirez, a The Nine representative, said that this was due to Prince George’s County regulations.
The tour guide also advertises “24/7 free coffee” — and not from some “cheap Keurig machine.”
“We have espressos, cappuccinos, lattes, all the works for you, for free,” the guide states.
You’d be forgiven for imagining a futuristic coffee bar sprawling across the complex. But the Nine’s “24-hour caffeine cafe” is nothing but a self-serve coffee machine in the lobby by the front desk.
“The coffee bar is not a coffee bar,” junior government and politics major Paige McCloskey said in an interview on Sept. 22. “It’s like a little coffee station that just got put in maybe like two weeks ago.”
In addition to the coffee bar, The Nine advertised fridges full of Celsius, an energy drink. Wooten, the junior marketing major, was sold.
“[My roommate] and I are like, ‘Oh, well that kind of seems like no other apartments gonna have that,’” she said.
But when she moved in, there were no Celsius fridges.
Even now, with the building fully built and housing residents, the website continues to use computer-generated renderings of the apartment’s amenities in the section dedicated to 2023 leasings. Ramirez, the Nine representative, did not respond to multiple emails and phone calls asking for comment about this.
The amenities the Nine offers don’t extend to overhead lighting in several rooms, either.
“We only have overhead lighting in our kitchen and our bathroom,” McCloskey said. “So the living room didn’t come with any overhead lighting, but they were giving out free floor lamps, like on the first few days.”
Sophomore Gabby Coleman described it as an “undercover lamp exchange.”
“If you asked they would be like, ‘Oh, we might have a lamp for you,’” the sophomore letters and sciences student said.
The trouble doesn’t end with inaccurate descriptions and lack of lights. Within the first month of living at the Nine, residents report unstable wifi, broken air conditioning, sporadic hot water outages and frustrating elevators.
Two elevators service the complex’s nine floors, leaving residents to wait 10 to 15 minutes to get to the lobby.
“It’s kind of like a gamble,” Wooten said. “Like am I gonna have a good elevator day or am I gonna have to walk up and down six flights of stairs to get down there?”
“The elevators are horrible,” McCloskey said. “Usually only one of them works at a time. People constantly get stuck in them.”
Her roommate, Jenna Viola, was one of those unfortunate people. The fire department had to come rescue her while the elevator was stuck in between floors.
And when things in the apartments break, timely fixes are no guarantee. Coleman and her roommates did not have Wi-Fi for two weeks. Wooten asked the maintenance department to fix her garbage disposal. It was fixed two and a half weeks after the request was sent, Wooten said.
Located on Route 1, the Nine is a 25 minute walk to the center of campus. In its FAQs, the Nine says it offers “an exclusive shuttle that runs every 15 minutes, so you don’t have to walk if you don’t want to.”
There is no exclusive The Nine shuttle. A Shuttle-UM bus serves the complex, but Wooten says it’s unreliable.
“The buses will come 20 minutes late, or a couple minutes early,” Wooten said. “So it’s a little iffy on days knowing whether you’re going to walk or not.”
Even when it’s running on time, the shuttle takes a lunch break and does not run between 11 a.m. and noon, meaning residents have to plan ahead or walk to class.
“Sometimes the shuttle doesn’t just decides not to run for whatever reason so I have to walk,” Coleman said. “But if the shuttle is here, I’ll take it.”
After only a few weeks living at the Nine, Coleman and her roommates have already decided not to renew their lease next year.
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