Browsing Internet reviews of The Enclave apartments this summer made German exchange student Yannick Kluch second-guess a decision that once seemed like a no-brainer from across the globe.

The graduate student committed early to living in the apartments this fall, attracted by alluring amenities and an affordable price touted on The Enclave’s website.

Reviews from its westernmost tenants, however, painted a grimmer, grimy picture: shrill squeals, foul smells and bloody entrails visible from a neighboring pig slaughterhouse.

“I was scared,” Kluch said. “They made it seem like you see the pigs walk in on one side and see the bacon come out the other.”

Five buildings — two belonging to The Enclave and three owned by Falcon’s Pointe — are situated nearest to Pioneer Packing Company. The only barriers that separate students and the slaughterhouse are a parking aisle, a 7-foot-tall wooden fence and shrubs and trees about a story tall.

Now that he’s moved in, Kluch says his room near the slaughterhouse and the occasional “whiff of pig feces” doesn’t bother him — but he knows many students disagree.

“It’s disgusting, it always smells terrible out here, but I think students are just sick of complaining,” junior Ashley Shaw said while walking into her apartment at The Enclave last week. “I complained, you can complain, but what can they really do about it?”

SWINE STORY

Siblings Brian Contris and Kristi Contris own Pioneer Packing, a family business dating three generations. It’s been in constant operation for more than 60 years, supplying pork-based products to the city and nationwide.

Contris sympathizes with his neighbors, but said the apartments’ original owners knew about his slaughterhouse since the beginning.

“Unfortunately, someone still decided 15 years ago it was a good idea to cut down trees and build a beautiful apartment complex right next to a slaughterhouse,” he said.

Pioneer Packing operates Monday through Friday and some weekends, Contris said.

He does his best to address concerns — for example, he’s cut down on late-night deliveries so squealing pigs don’t interrupt sleeping tenants — but sometimes it’s just part of the job.

“It’s not an envious job, but someone’s got to do it,” Contris said. “We try to be a good neighbor, but not everyone likes what we do.”

LIVING CONDITIONS

Activity at Pioneer Packing has troubled nearby tenants for more than a decade, but property owners at The Enclave and Falcon’s Pointe said complaints have dwindled in recent years.

Built in 2001, The Enclave consists of 10 buildings and is currently owned by American Campus Communities, a Texas-based company that manages student housing.

Falcon’s Pointe, formerly known as Enclave 2, was added in 2005. As of last July, Colorado-based real estate company Corson Properties manages the eight buildings.

Tenants aren’t assigned apartments when they sign their leases, property owners said. They can request to live near friends or in particular buildings, but aren’t placed in apartments until after they’ve signed their lease contract.

Signing early ensures more preferences are met, but signing a lease in November still wasn’t enough to keep Shaw out of a west-side apartment.

“They said I’d get a great building, but I got the worst one here,” Shaw said. “I knew the slaughterhouse was nearby, but I didn’t think it would be that noticeable. I can hear squeals with my door and windows closed.”

DEALING WITH IT

DJ Sandiford, The Enclave’s general manager since January, said the slaughterhouse “isn’t a huge concern” to his tenants.

Nearby Falcon’s Pointe receives the brunt of the foul smells, sights and sounds, he said.

Trent Goodwin, assistant manager at Falcon’s Pointe, said he hasn’t received a complaint this year, but acknowledged some tenants found the nearby slaughterhouse problematic in the past.

“When I got here [three years ago] it was quite a bother, with the noises and smells,” Goodwin said. “But people have either gotten used to it or they haven’t really noticed it this year.”

NO SOLUTION IN SIGHT

Junior Breanna Sharpe, a tenant at Falcon’s Pointe, said it’s unfair for students to criticize Pioneer Packing. Information about the business is available online and students should research an apartment’s location before signing a lease, she said.

“People always start rumors about them, like they’re spraying pig guts into the air, but come on, how would that even be legal?” Sharpe said. “I’ve had my windows open all week and it’s not bothersome to me, but I guess everyone’s different.”

But Stu Knight, a city resident living in the building, fears downplaying the problem will never lead to a solution.

He’s lived in Falcon’s Pointe for four years, unable to open his windows as he battles an awful stench and the sight of slaughtered pig parts plummeting off a conveyor belt and into a truck — something he said a larger fence, or even a soundproof barricade, could resolve.

“I’d even be willing to pay higher rent for a few years to help fund it,” Knight said. “But the apartments keep changing owners so nothing can get done.”

Contris, Sandiford and Goodwin all said there are no plans to build a larger barricade anytime soon. Contris can’t afford it, and Sandiford and Goodwin said the topic hasn’t been brought up since they took over the properties.

For Knight, that’s enough motivation to consider living elsewhere when his lease at Falcon’s Pointe expires next year.

“Both sides need to work together to fix the problem for those living there,” he said. “But I guess it’s become the elephant in the room — or the pig, rather — that no one wants to talk about.”