Arella Forest at Woodland

Michele

I liked Arella Forest at Woodland. The apartments were really laid out for an independent living situation. It worked to my mom's advantage. As far as she's not interested in the meals, we run into so many places where you have to purchase the meal plan, which stores everything up to $3,000, and my mother doesn't eat. So this was appealing to us from that factor. Plus, it was close to where I live. I really liked the community, that is probably one of my number one choices. The staff was very nice, she took us to the apartments that we wanted to look at, and was most helpful with the information. We looked at three different floor plans, a smaller one bedroom, a larger one-bedroom, and a two-bedroom. So they had lots of options. The prices were reasonable. They had a pool, an exercise room, a card room, and they had quite a lovely monthly planner that they use. My sister was like, "When can I sign up and go there?"

Dan

I moved into Arella Forest at Woodland. What I liked best are the people. It's just a very friendly atmosphere with the people who live here. I've yet to find someone who does not like it, and those people have been here for years. An old neighbor of mine is also there. There's a little bit of everything on the menu. They serve dinner two nights a week. The kitchen is very nice. It has wood floor and marble, and all the appliances are new. It's just really a comfortable place. There's a nice balcony. I'm on the ground floor so I can get my dog out for a walk easily. I've met the maintenance people; I've called them twice. They've been here repairing things a few hours, both times. The management itself is very open, very quick to get to things and answer all your questions. They are very friendly and very professional. The food is OK, not bad and not great. The only complaint I have is they don't have a dog park. They should build one. I'm really happy here. I have a two-bedroom, two-bath; my room is about 1,350 square feet. It's all like brand new, they just refurbished it.

WS

Arella Forest at Woodland is a beautiful property. I would've jumped on it in a heartbeat, but they didn't have any apartments that were wheelchair accessible. I'm not terribly impressed with the front office people. I was ignored for quite a while when I walked in. I had an appointment, but apparently someone came in to lease before I got there, so I was completely ignored. They showed me an apartment, which I loved, but it was not wheelchair accessible, and they don't seem to be willing to make any modifications. There's a pool and a courtyard area. The one thing that struck me was that they have a pond with about 200 ducks living, and I love to see the ducks, so that was a plus. They also had little fences around their porch, with just a small grassy area, so that you could let your dog out, and as long as you kept your yard clean, you could let your dog out on rainy days, which was a plus for me to be able to do that. It was a very attractive apartment, and they called it their presidential package. It's just too bad they don't wanna do modifications.

JohnVreeland

The apartment is Spacey, Modern, Efficient and had new carpet and appliances. The people at Arella Forest are friendly and outgoing. The food is wonderful and very affordable. Arella Forest is near Sam Houston college, numerous doctor and dentists offices and good restuarants and HEB.

DjB1949

What do we look for in an apartment complex? Pricing, cleanliness, friendly helpful staff, fast response to maintenance requests, square footage that meets your needs. Arella scores 5 in all categories. If you look at some other apartment reviews you will usually see some complaints about maintenance requests taking a long time to be completed. Not so at Arella. I have been here for two years and I haven’t had to wait more than an hour for a response. Whether you live in a house or an apartment, there are always going to be things that need to be fixed. Serious problems like heating or AC problems are fixed within a few hours, even after business hours and on weekends. Response time to maintenance requests is a big part of what will make you happy over time, living in an apartment complex. We did once have a problem with the AC on a Saturday night and the maintenance man Juan was here in two hours and fixed the problem. Juan is the best and it amazes me how he is so knowledgeable about plumbing, electric, and heating and air conditioning. There has never been a time when I had to call them a second time for a maintenance problem. I know I can depend on Juan to fix the problem quickly. The next thing that you want to consider when looking for an apartment is a friendly staff. The Property Manager Paula and Assistant Manager Erin are friendly, caring and responsive and they always make me feel welcome when I walk into the office. The staff was very helpful when we moved here from Florida. They took all the stress out of the move and were always accessible to answer questions. About the complex: the common areas are immaculate, the large beautiful swimming pool is screened in to keep the bugs out. The common area consists of a large beautiful dining area for special events and all the activities. There are too many activities to list here but here are a few: water aerobics, bingo, dominoes, Wii bowling, social poker, zumba, crafts, Friday night entertainment and social gathering. There is a fitness center, a game room with a pool table and a free coffee bar. If you compare the square footage here at Arella to similarly priced complexes you will find that apartments at Arella are generally bigger and more open that other apartment complexes. The soundproofing between floors and adjoining apartments is the best there is. It’s almost like living in a house. You don’t hear a sound from any of your neighbors. The location of Arella is also a big plus; just far enough away from I-45 so that you can’t hear it, but it only takes a few minutes to get there if you have to go north or south. From Arella, it takes about ten minutes to get to any of the major hospitals and medical facilities off I-45. All in all, we love living here at Arella and hope to stay here indefinitely.

Carolyn

We went to Arella Forest at Woodland. The people were really friendly, but we had to wait a long time, because they only had one person on duty, and somebody was already touring. We didn't have an appointment, and we just walked in, but once we got her attention, she was very good. It's a little worn, it's tired looking inside, outside, and the apartments as well. You have to pay a pretty good upcharge to get an apartment that had been renovated, otherwise it's over 10 years old, and nothing has really been updated. It looked really dated. It was a weekend, there wasn't much going on, but they have Friday night events, live music, and that's very popular. We met a resident that has lived there since the doors opened, she was very knowledgeable, very nice, and everybody seemed super friendly. They have an arts teacher that's very talented, they hung art done by the residents on the wall, and that was beautiful, they did a great job on that. They had a van service. It was half the price of another place, so it probably was good value, and it seemed the people that lived there liked it, and enjoyed living there.