Z Islander

I’ve lived here for about 2 years now and I absolutely love it! Especially lately. They’re really making improvements in every aspect, and it shows.
The apartment itself is great. Only place I could find that comes furnished with a queen size bed. As a big guy, that’s definitely important to me. The living room and bedrooms all come furnished with flat screen tvs — big plus. Very comfy Having my own washer and dryer included, lots and lots of space inside the unit, including a spacious patio (also furnished) is great for me.
Office staff = AWESOME. They know me by name, and always stop to chat and take interest in what’s going on with me. They make me feel like a person, rather than just a tenant. And they’re constantly putting together activities for resident life; stop light party, trivia night, fantasy football league (i won an apple tv!), constant snacks and food at the clubhouse for no reason other than they want to do something nice for us. They regularly put on events and tournaments to get the community actively involved, and it’s just so refreshing to see an apartment complex stay so actively involved. And there’s always free coffee and water — which i totally take full advantage of!
Their gym is great! I use it to supplement my regular workout routine and knock out my cardio there every morning. And they just got a punching bag to keep me busy! There’s also a little yoga room, stretching stations, weights, cable machines, pullup bars, and even tanning booths. Not. Too. Shabby.
The pool is absolutely beautiful and can’t be beat. Especially with the improvements they’re adding here — vegas style cabanas and a really sweet outdoor kitchen! Right next to it, they’ve got computer lab and game rooms, with pool tables, shuffleboard, poker tables (nice ones at that!) and a really chill theater room.
This place is great, I can’t recommend it enough. The ONLY knocks on it are the super convenient back entrance is closed nights and weekends, but that’s for security purposes so I have no gripes there. And the trains. The tracks are across the street and those trains sure do love their horns … but again, that’s no fault of Z’s. Great place, love living here, no plans of leaving anytime soon!

A few years ago, I lived at Z Islander for 2 years. (I waited to post this for privacy reasons.) When I moved in, I was in love with the place. By the time I left, I was fed up and feeling a lot of animosity toward the management. Since it has been a while, I have calmed down from all that hullabaloo. I have also realized that apartment companies around here generally do not expect their student residents to give a damn, so Z Islander is about average in that respect.
When I left, I had a whole list of grievances against the property, and I was sure that when I got around to writing this, it would be a treatise on why students are people, too. Now, I don’t remember a lot of those reasons because they were just little things that built up. A few major points are probably still valid (unless things have changed super drastically):
1. The construction of the place is poor quality. The management put a lot of money into making the area around the pool super awesome. I lived in one of the corner buildings far away from the pool, so less attention was paid in the construction of my building. For example, my roommate’s shower door was installed backwards. The insulation in my apartment was next to nothing. There were paint spots on the carpet. The RF ID chip door locks kept breaking. Etc.
2. The neighbors were awful. Nobody picked up after their dog or kept them on leashes, like their contract said they had to. This actually led to an incident where two dogs ran into my apartment and chased my cat around while their owner looked dumbstruck. My cat ripped off her back nails, bleeding, and she was freaked out for like a month. I tried to get management to actually enforce their own rules, but they never did. Also, people would regularly have parties in the parking lot at 3 AM. For a grad student trying to sleep, this was infuriating.
3. Overall, management was less than responsive. In addition to that dog incident, there were multiple times when I tried to tell management something or tried to get them to respond to a request, and they either never responded, or it took me being super annoying to get something done. Example: At the beginning of the second year I lived there, the screen on the patio was falling down. It took them 3 months to fix it, and they only fixed it because I started telling everybody on Facebook about it. They finally sent maintenance to fix it, deleted my post, and played innocent about the whole thing.
I did like my bed, and I liked the TV. However, I am so glad that I do not live there anymore. I would only recommend Z Islander to those people who do not care about the quality of their home and who like to party.

So I am moving out of Z Islander because I am graduating. Since I moved to CS for college, I’ve lived in Aggie Station, Gateway, Reveille Ranch and Z Islander. I think I’ve seen all the apartment complexes that CS has and I can just tell you that there is no place that will have such a huge bathroom (because it is HUGE), pretty big size room, big closet with a set of flat TV screens for your room and the living room. Yes, some of the buildings have not been maintained that well in the past (comparing to when they were brand new), but the renovations they have been doing this summer have been making a difference. If I would not be graduating, I definitely would stay here. Yeah there is some new places but I have seen the models and they are tiny for the price they ask, for that I might as well live in a dorm. And either way, Z Islander is super close to Northgate and school! I don’t think it is a bad location at all! The maintenance staff is super friendly and they are happy to help in anything you want. I have even ask them once to cut a bush of flowers that I did not like outside hahah
And I know everyone complains about the train, I don’t know if it’s because I’ve always lived around Wellborn but I don’t even notice it. It is not THAT loud. The amenities are awesome, they just upgraded the gym so it really has anything you can think of, stan-​up tanning beds and the pool and huge and really pretty. It makes you feel that you are in Florida when you are at the pool. Hope this information helps!!! :D

THERE IS A REASON IT HAS A LOW RATING ON A LOT OF REVIEW SITES. THE ABSOLUTE WORST APARTMENT COMPLEX I HAVE EVER INTERACTED WITH. I would rather live in a place full of bed bugs than this place. The management is terrible, the maintenance is inconsistent, and many of the workers at the front desk are rude. Not all of the front desk employees are inconsiderate though, and you will know the good ones immediately since they are far and few between the others. I was on hold almost 20 minutes for the 5^th call about keys they lost almost A MONTH AGO. I took classes at home because I had no keys to come back to, and I only wanted the month of housing I had lost in compensation because I was not coming back to a place with no keys and who have beat around the bush for this. They told me it was my own hesitation that prevented me from coming back, but OF COURSE I WOULD BE HESITANT. THEY ARE INCONSISTENT, anyone would be hesitant after all that has happened. I am busy, I have to work and have classes. All I wanted was for my roommate to get my keys and spray my plant because it would be sensitive to the travel and possibly die of shock since it is in aeroponics, but now it is dead and they question me about it. It was in the sink so that my roommate spraying it would be easier, but now it is definitely just dead down the drain and gone. They constantly changed the subject and questioned me over the phone about why I would leave with everything but my plant. I had to leave that plant because it could die of shock and take all of my other things because I AM POOR AND GO TO SCHOOL ON SCHOLARSHIPS. It pays for my housing, food, school, and such. When I ask for compensation, WHEN MONEY IS INVOLVED, THEN THEY ACTUALLY TAKE A LITTLE ACTION AND TRY TO HELP. There is a reason their reviews are so low, my one star alone couldn’t make the review as low as it is, others feel the same way. DON’T LIVE HERE, A LOT OF PEOPLE HAVE HAD ISSUES WITH A VARIETY OF THINGS. I AM ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE.

I am going to be pretty honest here, because I wish someone had been before I lived here. I have had so many issues living here.
1. When I moved here the apartment has fleas! I got bitten up pretty badly! Let me say I did not bring a pet! And the building I moved into was not pet friendly!!! I mean it go to the point where I had to go to the doctors. On top of that it took WEEKS and several different spraying to get rid of them. All they did was a apologize and take of 100 from one months of rent!!! Crazy.
2. My AC has broken four different times.
3. My dryer hardly works and they have never fixed it to where it actually does.
4. They have switched my mail before with another girl with the same name. When I addressed it, it happened still two times after.
5. They lost my package in their own office. I kept telling them it was there and they denied it. Finally I went to the post office and had to get proof, then all of a sudden the found it.
6. They hit the side of my car with the gates from their trash can. When I told them the manager said she would get me a free car was as apologized. She NEVER ended up getting back to me at all.
7. There is one girl who is constantly rude when I go up there.
On top of that there is much more! You can hear everything. I have heard the person sharing the wall next to me sneeze! They don’t enforce parking or towing! The parking is awful! Please don’t live here.
This place needs to get it’s act together. I more than displeased. Honestly this place is appalling.

Nice amenities and decent sized rooms but the WORST management ever. They are just looking for suck you in and take your money. I had a 545 $ down payment that I was supposed to get back but I received a letter saying I was only getting back 60 $!! Then that check never came! When I went to speak to the manager, surprise surprise, he was never there or replied to emails. Ive had multiple issues that could never be resolved. I lived in the same place for two years and left it in perfect condition so why I had 400 $ plus in repairs or cleaning is beyond me! Especially when they had three other down payments from other roommates. Find somewhere else to live unless you don’t mind partying 24/​7, paper thin walls, don’t care where your money goes, poor management then this is the place for you!

Like Trains? This is a train watchers dream. Right across the street is a Union Pacific Staging Track where trains heading North and South through central Texas will stop and wait as the other comes through College Station and then Bryan and vice-​versa. The cool thing is that the variety of trains to be seen are quite large as UP must lease this track out. I’ve caught engines with Mexican to Canadian road names to rare combo lash ups. Since there is an intersection and automobile crossing gates right across the street the trains go in both directions blast their horns all day and night, especially when the waiting staged train across the street starts to accelerate from a dead parked stop after the other one passes. Lot’s of rare photo ops here.
Apartments are huge and I believe it’s the largest salt water pool in Bryan.