Vela at Tempe Town Lake

Do not move here. Let me succinctly tell you why: 1) There's a pool alarm that goes off 3-4x a week in the middle of the night waking everyone up. Management wants to fix it but told me they don't have the budget to lock the gate at midnight and stop the alarm. 2) I know of at least 8 car burglaries in the past two months - windows smashing. No one feels safe. 3) I've seen my neighbors being hauled out in handcuffs and sent to jail. 4) Homeless sleep next to the property regularly and we don't have the budget for real security they say. I loved living here before but I'm tired of hearing "I can't fix it" when it comes to safety.

Absolutely HELL of an experience here. This is worth the read… Day 1: Vela gave up our apartment we paid to have held, told us to take a less desirable one or take a hike. This apartment has been the worst place I have ever stayed in, and I’ve been in 27 difference places. The upstairs renters used their patio as a poop/pee spot for their animals, which leaked down to our patio and rendered our patio a useless/uninhabitable BIOHAZARD that could easily make our dogs sick or even worse. 9 months of constant communication with management and they never solved this issue. They kicked out the upstairs renters and put in new ones. THEY DID THE SAME THING! After emailing management with plenty of proof, videos and pictures of them washing their poopy/pee balcony with chemicals down to our balcony, MANAGEMENT STILL HAS DONE NOTHING! Emailing the manager and REGIONAL MANAGER and they have done nothing but ignore me and make false promises saying they will “talk” to the tenants. This is 8 months going on 9 months now with no solution. Over 50 emails begging for something to be done and nothing. Resident events: If you have a normal job, you will never be able to attend resigned events as they only schedule them 3-5pm. The staff at this community puts in the BARE MINIMUM and calls this place “luxurious.” Along with dirty hallways, constant break-ins, stolen packages, trash NEVER being picked up on time, I have absolutely nothing good to say about this community. Paying a few hundred dollars a month in amenity fees for WHAT? Broken gym equipment, no cleaning supplies ever in the gym, gross facilities, hot tubs full of foam and chemicals that can burn you, a fountain bigger than the pool? Is that necessary? Doors unlocked by key fobs always broken, elevators constantly broken, smell of weed everywhere. I can keep going on and on about how awful this place is, but I think you get the point. Management will most likely try to respond to this saying none of it happened, but I have all the emails, all the photos and videos to back up everything I’ve stated. Please stay away from this place!

Run away as fast as you can. I wrote out all of our problems with Vela and its staff, but it was too many characters to fit in the review. Some highlights: - It routinely takes more than a week or two for any maintenance requests to be completed. - Multiple exterior doors are frequently left open for anyone to come in and out as they please. This has been brought to the attention of the staff who say they are “trying” to fix it, but nothing has been done. This complex is absolutely not secure. - omeone threw a bunch of sauce (probably marinara, who knows) on the wall of one of the public hallways. This was left there by the staff for nearly a week. Once is was brought to their attention they simply painted over the sauce on the wall, while leaving all the residual sauce on the floor, INCLUDING THE CONTAINER THE SAUCE CAME IN. We had to contact them AGAIN to clean up the floor and the sauce container, and they didn’t clean that part up for another 36-48 hours.

This was an outstanding place to live. New, clean, great amenities, location, well maintained. Since Shelton Cook took over a couple months ago it’s gone immediately downhill. Maintenance is now as bad as I’ve ever seen, workout area is constantly in disarray and filthy, packages aren’t held in the office, properly is generally dirty, parking rules aren’t enforced making with cars parking wherever they want and often blocking other cars in, pet waste everywhere and a generally feeling of apathy from the staff. No longer worth the high end $ for rent. Prospective renters beware.

I have been a resident of VELA since August 2017. I wanted to write this review to let future renters know exactly what you are getting. There are really three issues: the developers, the City of Tempe and the new management company. Each of the following points are based on fact - not opinion. I will update this review anytime with new, updated information. 1. The developers have taken over the area by VELA. They close walkways by the lake, it is noisy, lots of small bugs and driving/biking is dangerous in some cases. I most recently had to the complain to the City of Tempe about The Watermark developer closing a major walkway. The city took care of the issue, but it is clear that the developers around VELA care only about themselves. 2. Everyone who lives on the lake pays additional fees/assessments to the City of Tempe. Since the city regularly has events on the lake, they have little sympathy for those who actually live and have to get around. I have talked with numerous city officials and city council members. They are nice, but nothing gets done. 3. The new VELA management team. You expect transition issues with any new management company. However, the lack of communication to residents and the general disorganization by the property management is concerning. A good example: they changed the company that handle billing for water. No EMAIL or notification to residents, and now I have been billed for double the amount of previous months -- no resolution at the time of writing this review. Certainly you expect more for the monthly rental price.

First off I’m very hard to impress because i am a clean freak and this is my complete and honest opinion ,and I’m very impressed with how clean and well maintained the property is I’ve actually told all my family and friends about how clean this place is and my family that has came over to visit and who are equally as clean as I am have been impressed. Your maintenance team has done a outstanding job.

Friendly staff, very quick to respond. Very clean atmosphere. Love it. Greg is a pleasure to talk to every single day as well. I love him.

Would recommend for location, amenities. Would not recommend for ongoing construction noise/traffic. People in marina are noisy and disrespectful, especially with loud cars at night.

Would recommend Vela because of the professional help that is given as well as the neatness and location of the community.

Absolutely, we the residencenter appreciate all the updates regarding the construction and between me and yall, we appreciate the compensation for everything that's affecting us like the sounds of the construction bright and early and such. The team at Vela is truly trying their very best to accommodate for any inconvenience.

Obviously the property and amenities are beautiful. The community, including residents and staff, is very nice and everyone is friendly. We love it!

Alex was amazing from start to finish and was the main reason I chose this property over the others near you. I will have my other co-workers ask for her personally.

The community is just very expensive, and people can be loud in the courtyards at night. Other than that I love it!

I think it's a little over priced, considering there is a strip club a street away (haha), especially the valet trash and pet rent. I have legs and would rather not pay 300$ a year to have someone take it out for me, I also think it's gross that people's trash is just like in the hall way for hours waiting to be picked up. I like it but those are a few cons for me, along with the light colored carpet that shows everything.

These are nice apartments. Pros... Feel safe, even at night (coming home late) Modern Mostly quiet Pretty Great amenities Friendly/ caring staff Maintenance is on point Amazing sunset veiw on lake, foot steps away Parking garage Very secure Negatives... Pet charge is highest I've ever paid Valet trash cost (I have legs, I take out my own but still have to pay for it) Light colored carpet in bed room (shows every peice of dirt and pet fur lol)

I was not home to meet the maintenance personnel but the slip they left indicated they completed my request within a very reasonable time.

This is, by far, the nicest apartment I've lived in. Location is great, units are beautiful, spacious, and well appointed, community has great amenities, and staff is courteous and competent. Highly recommend.

The community is very well kept and the amenities inside the apartment are great!

So far, we're very happy here. The complex is very nice and getting nicer by the day; the staff is very friendly and helpful, our apartment unit is beautiful, the complex is centrally located, and we LOVE that it's a 21+ community.

I would totally recommend Vela to anyone who wants great management, pristine conditions of the building, amenities and apartments, and a central location.