Living at Renaissance Uptown in Tulsa

You made it into Tulsa Remote? Cool. You are in for a lot of fun with cool people in a happening city.

But now the hard work starts. Where will you live?

I'll assume you've found the vetted TR Housing list, have interacted with the TR Housing Manager, and are now just looking for some first-hand experiences at specific places.

We're empty-nesters in our 50s and wanted to be downtown Tulsa. After touring a number of places, we ended up at Renaissance Uptown (RenUp). You can read some of our intial thoughts in this earlier blog post. 

We've been here just over two years now.

Location

In Tulsa, the downtown area is formally contained in the Inner Dispersal Loop (IDL). It's the rectangle-shaped network of highways you'll see on the map. Inside the IDL is the Arts District, the Blue Dome District, the Cathedral District, and the Deco District. Other neighborhoods like Cherry Street, Kendall-Whittier, and Brookside are outside of the IDL.

Corner to corner the IDL is just over a mile across. There are over 100 restaurants and a number of music venues like Cains, the BOK, and the Tulsa Theater.  

I wanted to live downtown. We've never had a big-city apartment and I wanted to be close to music and food.

Apartments in the Arts District were visually what I wanted - hip and cool. But they were ~ 30% more expensive than RenUp, and parking wasn't optimal. The TR discounts weren't as good either.

We settled for RenUp as it was still downtown but with more affordable prices and better parking (we live and park on the same floor).

The longer we've been here the more we've come to appreciate the location. The Arts District is busier than we expected with events going on most nights. We go over there for concerts or dinner, then drive five minutes back to our quiet corner and dedicated covered parking spot.

Walkability

I can walk to the library in like 10 minutes. I'll walk to Gradient once or twice a week and it takes me about 20 minutes. For concerts or meals in the Arts District, we'll usually drive. It's walkable, but less so in fancy shoes or after hours. And downtown parking is free after 5:00 p.m.

MsBoyink walked to her downtown nursing job for a year.

Safety

Overall we've felt safe and have never been accosted. There is a homeless population and once in a while one of them is angry and shouting at clouds. In that case I'll divert my path. 

Apartment Features

We rented a second-floor 1BR, 1BA 800 sq. ft. apartment. The unit came with stainless appliances and in-room laundry. We have a corner unit with large living room windows. 

For storage we have an entry closet, large walk-in closet in the bedroom, and some shelving in the laundry room.

Our unit has composite wood flooring in the entry, tile in the bathroom and kitchen, and carpet everywhere else. Walls and cabinets are white/off-white.

It also features a gas fire place.

Amenities

RenUp has a small gym, pool, and hot tub. We've use the gymn infrequently, but aren't big on pools so have only walked around it on the way to get mail or packages.

RenUp has its own parking ramp in the middle of the complex. Entry and exits are gated with keycard acccess. We were able to get parking two spots side by side on the second-floor level (so the cars are covered during Oklahoma's famous inclement weather.)

Speaking of which, RenUp does not have a storm shelter. Using the stairways was one recommendation. We've learned to just hunker down in our bathroom.

Maintenance and Management

Apartment staff have been good overall, with some turnover during our residency. There's an online portal to submit maintenance requests, which have been handled reasonably. Not like same-day, but not weeks later.

Community and Noise Level

The complex has periodic movie nights or other holiday events, but don't move here expecting to be on first-name basis with neighbors. People mostly keep to themselves. 

We have had periodic issues with upstairs neighbors being noisy in the wee hours. RenUp has an after-hours number to call, and security will come do a door-knock. It's helped at times but not others. 

We are on the southern end of the complex, and there is a fire station nearby. We do get regular fire trucks and ambulances going by with sirens blaring. We also hear cars and motorcycles on Denver Avenue and on the IDL and they do get annoying at times. 

The complex is non-smoking, but we have smelled marijuana infrequently and mostly outdoors. 

We've had nothing stolen, no damage to our vehicles, and no "run-ins" with other residents or staff.

Cost and Value

We find the rent reasonable. There was still a free TR month and discounted move-in costs when we started here. Since then we've added another parking space and an extra storage room for less than $150/month. 

It's now been almost three years since we apartment shopped in Tulsa, but are satisfied that RenUp is a good value.

Recommended?

We've been happy here. If you are also looking to be "just close enough" to the action in downtown Tulsa, want reasonably-priced dedicated parking, and aren't looking for an apartment that looks like a movie set, RenUp is a good candidate.

Referral? 

RenUp has a referral program. If you read this and end up moving, refer us and we'll get $300 off our rent for a month.