WEST CHESTER, Ohio -- Upscale apartments have arrived at the Streets of West Chester, and the timing couldn’t have been more perfect for pediatric pharmacist Abigail Clark.
Clark grew up on a farm near Springfield, Ohio, and had experienced living in a tiny New York apartment. She landed her first job in Cincinnati last spring and started pricing two-bedroom apartments close to Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
No dice.
“You have to pay $1,700 to $1,800 for a one-bedroom down there . . . I wanted more space, coming from a 500-square-foot apartment in New York City.”
Clark expanded her search and heard about a new seven-building complex, the Savoy, going up behind West Chester’s main shopping grounds, the Streets of West Chester.
She found a match.
Natural Light And Room For Dog
She landed a corner unit on the first floor that has lots of natural light, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a great room, open kitchen plan and bonus space for an office, dining room or third bedroom.
And, oh yeah, she could keep her Cavalier King Charles spaniel puppy, Pippa.
“When I found the Savoy, it was perfect,” Clark said. “Even though it’s close to (Interstate) 75, it’s quiet. I kind of feel like I’m in the country, but I’m not... If you’re going to get a luxury apartment with this square footage, you’re not going to find it in Cincinnati.”
The price is high – $1,623 a month plus $35 for Pippa – but when the 12-acre, 272-unit Savoy is finished, it will have the special amenities Clark appreciates, including a large clubhouse next to a swimming pool, putting green and tennis and bocce ball courts.
Particularly important to Clark is that her apartment has a second bedroom for her New York friends and other out-of-town guests. The brightly decorated deck off her first-floor apartment is one of Pippa’s favorite places.
“She loves it,” Clark said. “Sometimes she goes to the door and says ‘Is it time to go out, Mom?’”
Roomy And Modern
Visitors enter Clark’s apartment through a dark charcoal door and step into an entry hall with similarly colored doors that lead to a laundry room, a storage room and a coat closet. The walls are painted a light gray and the doors are trimmed in white.
The entry hall leads to a large, sun-splashed room with enough space for a dining table. The galley kitchen is open to the great room and features 42-inch, dark brown, soft-close cabinets and a curved peninsula topped with white quartz. The appliances by Whirlpool are stainless steel.
At the far end of the kitchen is a short hall that leads to a guest room and full bathroom. Also at that end of Clark’s apartment is a bonus room that she uses as an office where she plans to hang her college and pharmacy school diplomas once they are framed.
Clark brightened the cool-colored apartment with gray, yellow and bright red furnishings that include a collection of lady bug-themed items she started as a youngster. She shopped on wayfair.com and at HomeGoodsto supplement the furniture she already had. Her main piece of art is a square painting of a yellow poppy created by her mom, who is an amateur artist.
Clark’s major antique piece is a quartersawn oak table with multiple leaves that her aunt and uncle bought at an auction and gave her after she graduated from pharmacy school.
Luxury High-End Feel
Her décor is simple and modern, and her strategy is “to pick up things I like as I go.”
The apartment’s bonus room has double doors and is wired for a ceiling fan or a chandelier, so it could be used for formal dining, Savoy property manager Sarah Hahn said. Others might bring a wardrobe into it and use it as a bedroom.
Clark’s master suite is off the great room, across the apartment from the bonus room. A large space, it includes a walk-in closet, standing shower, bathtub, twin sinks set in white quartz and dark-brown cabinets.
The white, 9-foot ceilings in the Savoy’s apartments are free of canned lights and feature track and pendant lighting in the kitchen.
The feel is clean and high-end, which was the intent of Hills Properties. The Blue-Ash based company built and manages the $43 million Savoy at the Streets of West Chester.
“We wanted to incorporate things that you would find in a custom-built home into a luxury apartment,” Hahn said. The deal Clark landed comes with the same kind of secure underground parking and ground-level guest parking found at high-end apartment complexes in downtown Cincinnati.
Clubhouse And Other Amenities
When Hills finishes the Savoy, Hahn said it’s expected the clubhouse will be a center of activity for residents and their guests.
The amenities in the clubhouse will include a fitness center, conference room, cyber café with an 80-inch flat screen television and a large lounge with an interior wall of bubbles that are colorized by a lighting system. The lounge, Hahn said, is where residents can hang out or attend special events such as wine tasting, trivia contests and barbecue parties.
The adjacent clubhouse swimming pool will be filled with salt water. It will be next to a large party deck and will feature a waterfall, a “Baja deck” where people can kick back on lounge chairs in shallow water, a couple of fire pits and a handful of grilling stations.
Hills is installing tennis and bocce ball courts and a putting green beyond the pool area.
Hahn said the clubhouse is due to be completed by the end of September and the main pool area should by ready for use next summer. A smaller pool and clubhouse that residents can reserve for parties is being constructed kitty-corner from the main clubhouse.
The complex’s 272 apartments have either one or two bedrooms and range in cost from $988 to $1,623. The Savoy’s first apartment building is full. Two more should be finished this month, Hahn said.
The Savoy charges $50 a month for two dogs and accepts pets that weigh 40 pounds or less. Six breeds of dogs are not allowed: Chow Chow, Doberman pinscher, Rottweiler, pit pull/Staffordshire terrier, German shepherd and bloodhound.
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