312 College Ave is the premier luxury living building in Collegetown. For those who don't care about price or who have parents who won't spare any expense this is an amazing building.
There are many different layouts and the apartments are extremely nice. They come with state of the art equipment as well. In addition, the building has it's own gym - I believe it is the only building in the area to have this - and has study rooms and a tenant lounge with a television and couches.
Everyone I know who has lived in this building has been satisfied. The apartments are in great shape and the management group does a great job of maintaining the building and responding to tenant complaints when they arise.
In addition, there is an optional underground parking garage to keep cars out of the snow that inevitably falls for most of the year.
Obviously, this kind of luxury comes at a cost. The 312 apartments are among the most expensive in Ithaca with rents per person easily reaching $800 or $1000 a month. For some people this is worth it, for many others, it is not.
I toured the apartments and looked at them closely, but ultimately decided that it wasn't for me. It is a subjective and financial decision for each person. However, even if you aren't planning on renting there, I would advise checking out the place so you know what the high end has to offer and to give you a point of comparison as to what one extreme end of the market looks like.
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