As cold weather sets in, pressured migrant apartment renters in Aurora facing eviction

AURORA | As the election ends and fresh snow falls, many residents at the Whispering Pines Condominiums in northwest Aurora are expecting eviction notices any day now after avoiding payment as part of a boycott for poor living conditions in the complex, city officials and renter advocates say. 

“There’s multiple reports from tenants that they don’t have heating, right now, and it’s freezing outside,” said Nate Kassa, a representative for East Colfax Community Collective, a local advocacy group in Aurora helping struggling residents.

The threat of evictions of renters — many of whom are recent immigrants without work permits — is the latest in ongoing controversy surrounding a handful of apartment complexes owned by the same New York company.

The Aurora apartment complexes were made notorious by national media and social media coverage about blighted conditions and alleged Venezuelan gang takeovers over the past few months. Residents say they are trapped in a nightmare of risky housing conditions and anti-immigrant politics as property owner CBZ Management faces financial turmoil, receiverships and mounting city fines.

Now, some are facing eviction from their apartments for not paying full rent on units the city and current property managers say are sometimes seriously deficient.

CBZ Management is entangled in a bevy of lawsuits, receiverships, news reports and controversy as tenants face rodent infestations, crime, broken appliances, unreliable utilities and discrimination when seeking alternative housing — all while city officials and banks take steps to address a crisis that’s left residents fearing for their future.

“We have people who have been applying (to live in other rental locations) for many months to move out of here,” V Reeves, a Housekeys Action Network Denver representative, said in October. “Folks are desperately coming up to us and saying, ‘We don’t want to continue living in these conditions, but when we apply by ourselves, nobody accepts our applications, and we end up spending over $1,000 in application fees trying to get into every possible place and being denied whenever they find out where we are coming from.’”

State and local government officials say more than 40,000 immigrants, chiefly from Venezuela, have come to the metro area, many bused here by Texas state officials after crossing the border. While some have a temporary ability to gain temporary residency and job permits, navigating the bureaucracy and wait times has added to what advocates say is a simmering humanitarian crisis in the metroplex.

Housekeys Action Network Denver officials say their program advocates for housing rights and policies shaped by increasing homelessness. The organization works to promote humane shelter conditions, support homeless migrants and fight for universal housing, according to its website.

Not only dilapidated, property negligence at three Aurora apartment complexes owned by CBZ Management — Aspen Grove Apartments, Whispering Pines Condominiums, and the Edge at Lowry — has contributed to criminal activity at the complexes, leaving these properties struggling with ongoing issues, said Aurora City Attorney, Pete Schulte. 

Police say some of that crime involves gangs, including the notorious Tren de Aragua prison gang from Venezuela. Police have repeatedly disputed, however, that the complexes are “overrun” by gangs. Aurora Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky inspired national hysteria with her unproven claims. The right-wing TV and social media foray drew the attention of Donald Trump, who came to Aurora Oct. 11 to hold a rally, promising to deport millions of undocumented and legal immigrants across the nation if elected president.

But controversy stems from three complexes owned by CBZ the city says were mismanaged to the point of becoming slums, and owners say they became slums because gang activity kept them from managing the buildings. City officials have provided numerous documents citing lists of unaddressed livability issues with the apartments, some going back several years.

Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman has publicly called CBZ principals “slumlords.”

Conditions at the Aspen Grove property at 1568 Nome St. were so serious the city shut the building down in August and evicted every tenant.

On Sept. 30, Aurora sent a letter to CBZ Management’s lawyer, Walter “Bud” Slatkin, warning of similar potential building closures at the Edge at Lowry complex due to criminal nuisance concerns. CBZ’s property manager, Zev Baumgarten, also received summonses to appear in Aurora municipal court on Oct. 24 for the Edge at Lowry and Whispering Pines properties over code violations. He did not appear.

Meanwhile, US Bank has filed a lawsuit against CBZ Management for loan defaults on some of the properties. Those court records show that CBZ claimed they could not collect rent due to gang activity. A receivership was established over one building at the Edge of Lowry and all of the Whispering Pines complex, temporarily halting Aurora’s closure efforts on the remaining five Edge at Lowry buildings.

Baumgarten was still expected at the Oct. 24 court summons despite the receivership, but he did not appear.

“My understanding is that the court gave the city until Dec. 5 to try and serve Mr. Baumgarten again,” Ryan Luby, Aurora’s deputy director of communications, said in an email. “We will continue to hold these property owners and managers accountable.”

Schulte confirmed the process this week and said the city can only fine the property management company for the code violation and the city code if the representative appears for the court summons. Expenses like trash pickup can be received by the city through a lien on the property. The city has not disclosed an estimate of the fines. 

“Our system, based on our code and our charter, says that we allege the violations and then the fines get levied in court,” Schulte said. The court cannot rule against CBZ if the city is unable to serve them the summonses through their registered agent. Schulte said the city will continue to pursue the registered agent, Universal Registered Agents, for the properties until someone appears at court. Otherwise, they are actively going against the rules of an LLC in the city, Schulte said. 

One reason Baumgarten might not have shown was said in a statement on the CBZ Management X account on Oct. 23 saying that the people who run the X account would not be able to respond to questions until after Oct. 23 because of the Jewish holiday Simchat Torah.

Schulte said the city does not have the ability to condemn the remaining CBZ-owned buildings. In Colorado, cities cannot legally use public funds to maintain private property, he said. If a property manager fails to address safety issues, the city can only intervene if it poses a public safety risk. In such cases, the city can fix the issue and then place a lien on the property to recover costs, ensuring that taxpayers don’t cover expenses meant to be the owner’s responsibility.

The code violations summoning CBZ to the municipal court for each building included failure to remove trash/debris, failure to maintain the premises, failure to keep property litter-free, sanitation issues and standards and maintenance requirements.

Aurora’s apartment debacle begins at Aspen Grove 

Aspen Grove at 1568 Nome St. was the first apartment complex to draw national attention for what city officials say is the landlords’ overwhelming neglect of the building. The city forcibly closed the building, leaving hundreds of tenants scrambling for housing in a matter of days.

CBZ officials contacted the Sentinel and other metro media June 27 through a public relations firm, insisting that Venezuelan gangs had taken over the complex, preventing them from managing it. Almost the same day, city officials released livability citations against the owners, going back more than two years.

At the same time, Jurinsky also said publicly that the owners were forced to let living conditions at the complex deteriorate because Venezuelan gang members had “overrun” the buildings. Events started the conversation of there being a presence of TdA in Aurora after a gang-involved shooting on July 28 that involved multiple injuries. 

The closure of the Nome Street property was described as “unprecedented” by Schulte and Matthew Brown, the Aurora public safety strategic communications program manager. The city has rarely, if ever, forcibly closed a multi-unit property.

Aspen Grove is a large four-story, 98-unit building built in 1970. Nome Partners LLC (a subsidiary of CBZ) bought the property on Dec. 20, 2019, for $12.4 million, according to city, state and county records. 

The city shuttered the apartment complex  Aug. 13. City officials said the complex was closed because of more than two years of neglect and mismanagement that led to public safety and health violations.

In a settlement with the city, CBZ’s property manager, Zev Baumgarten, waived his right to a speedy trial, agreeing instead to sell or lease the property. Under this agreement, Nome Partners LLC was required to pay up to $60,000 for securing and cleaning the complex, with the option to re-tenant the building if it meets city code standards.

Shuttered, the property is still owned by Nome Partners LLC and CBZ, according to property records.

There has been no public announcement as to whether the property will be sold or reopened by Nome Partners, or anyone. The City of Aurora is communicating with the UBS Bank, which loaned Nome Partners LLC $9.2 million for the property in December 2019, according to the Adams County Clerk and Recorder website. Depending on the amount of the loan paid back, there may be another receivership for owners defaulting on payment due to claiming gang and criminal involvement, according to the city. 

Nome Partners faced multiple charges over substandard living conditions at Aspen Grove, where residents endured infestations of rodents and cockroaches, sewage backups, piles of garbage, and electrical and plumbing issues, among other health and safety problems they say went unaddressed by the owners and their property management company for too long.

The Edge at Lowry, once obscure and now internationally infamous

The Edge at Lowry, 1216 Dallas St., was the site of an August home-security video depicting armed men in an apartment hallway that went viral. The video became the focus of heated controversy about Venezuelan immigrants and gang members in the city.

The Edge at Lowry was built in 1971 and comprises six three-story buildings with 12 units in each. 

Ownership of the complex is confusing because it is made up of six buildings that line Dallas Street. However, 1208 Dallas St. is under its own limited liability company called 200 Columbia Realty LLC, while the rest are under the Five Dallas Partners LLC.

The 1208 Dallas building was purchased by 200 Columbia Realty LLC (a subsidiary of CBZ) on Dec. 1, 2020, for $1.5 million. Five Dallas Partners LLC (another subsidiary of CBZ) purchased the other five buildings in 2019 for $6.9 million. All six buildings were purchased from D&D Street Partners Ltd.

An Arapahoe County judge placed 1208 Dallas St. under receivership on Oct. 1 after US Bank Trust Company filed a foreclosure case on a $2 million loan, citing gang activity as a major obstacle to rent collection and property repairs. 

On Sept. 24, the court appointed Kevin A. Singer from Receivership Specialists, citing the group’s experience managing gang-impacted properties, to address the issue.

Singer’s team hired local property management company PMI Aspire, Schulte said. The new companies immediately started asking for rent, which concerned residents who said they were not receiving many basic standards of living, residents and their advocates told the Sentinel.

Reeves, a spokesperson for HAND, a housing advocate group that has been helping Venezuelan immigrants in Aurora since an Aurora city employee whistleblower worked with tenants during the closure of Aspen Grove. She’s now working with tenants at other CBZ properties targeted by the city.

The receivers evaluated the condition of 1208 Dallas St. and placed security cameras around the property. Although they are updating the complex to get it back up to code with the city, they are already collecting the full monthly rent price from tenants, according to Reeves. 

PMI Aspire told tenants it would take months to get the buildings up to code. Many tenants are critical about paying the full price of their original contract with CBZ Management because they still live in below-standard conditions, Reeves said.

All of the buildings in the complex are infested with mice, bed bugs, cockroaches and mold, Reeves said. This was also verified in the additional court summons for CBZ.

Reeves listed the substandard conditions the tenants are dealing with at all of the apartment complexes owned or previously owned by CBZ, which included a lack of clean running water, hot water, electricity, heat, air conditioning and working appliances like unusable stove tops and ovens. Some apartments are missing entire appliances.

“People have to find ways to heat water on their own,” Reeves said.

Scott Yahraus from Receivership Specialists said in a Nov. 1 email that there have been numerous improvements since mid-October, when the receiver was appointed and took control of the property. He declined to offer details of the improvements and to which units.

The Receivership Specialists and PMI Aspire are also tasked with verifying who was placed in the building with a completed lease, who qualifies to create a new lease, and anyone else. Jurinsky and CBZ officials say numerous squatters are living in the buildings, and without proof, insisting the squatters are TdA gang members.

PMI officials say they will systematically bring the complexes back to suitable conditions for renters.
“Significant amounts of money have already been expended and will continue to be expended going forward,” Yahraus wrote in the email. “All residents are expected to pay their November rent to property management. All residents have been given notice on no less than three occasions where to send rent and request repairs. Notice was provided in English and Spanish.”  

Yahraus said that he and property management met with all the tenants individually, introduced themselves and performed dozens of tenant maintenance requests for minor plumbing and electrical issues.

The company installed new common area doors to all buildings that self-lock and installed eight security camera towers throughout the property, with four to five cameras on each tower for resident protection. They also re-established security cameras in resident hallways for better resident protection. Private security guards are on-site nightly from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Around the building, they’ve cleaned up all debris and established regular trash service, Yahraus said. They provided new stoves to residents whose ranges had failed, cabled floor drains and hauled away bulky item waste left by residents, along with cleaning the common area hallway floors, boarding up broken windows, establishing pest control and repairing mailboxes to resume service. Yahraus said the water boilers have been serviced.

Rental advocates and tenants say they’ve seen improvements, but that serious problems, especially with vermin, are still unaddressed. 

The eviction process for those not paying full rent was expected to begin this week, city officials said. 

Eviction in Colorado, including Aurora, requires a court order, and only a sheriff can enforce it. Landlords can only lock out tenants, change locks, or remove belongings with this order. The process starts with a “Forcible Entry and Detainer” action, where landlords must issue a 10-Day Demand to the tenant detailing unpaid rent or lease violations. The entire process can take up to 45 days. An exception is made for tenants who commit crimes in a rental unit, allowing landlords to complete evictions within 72 hours, according to state law.

Laws regulating evictions are not affected by immigration status. 

The rest of The Edge complex’s five buildings are still under CBZ management’s control and have not been included in the receiverships. These buildings are under the Five Dallas Partners LLC, which the city of Aurora threatened to shut down but postponed after word of the receivership. 

The City of Aurora is communicating with UBS Bank, which loaned Five Dallas Partners $6.1 million in August 2019, city officials say. There may be another receivership for defaulting on payment due to gang and criminal involvement. 

Moises Didenot, a tenant at one of the Edge at Lowry buildings still owned by CBZ, showed the Sentinel his online portal with CBZ Management requesting his Oct. 1 rent for Five Dallas Partners LLC even though the company has wholly withdrawn from providing services to his building. He said he was worried about paying because he wasn’t sure if they were still in charge of his building or if it would change hands and he would be double charged.

Whispering Pines Apartments brings new controversy to the CBZ debacle

Most of the attention brought to this building at 15483 E 13th Ave. was due to negligence of the property and the squalor that the tenants said they were being forced to live in.

The tenants feared the city would shutter their building as it did with Aspen Grove after a city inspection highlighted the deplorable living conditions in the complex.

The Whispering Pines Condominiums were also reported by CBZ officials to be linked to gang activity, including an incident where property manager, Zev Baumgarten was allegedly assaulted by an alleged TdA member, Yoendry Medina-Jose. Medina-Jose has been arrested and charged with assault in the case.

The complex was built in 1971 and comprises three multi-family unit three-story buildings with 48 units. Whispering Pine Partners LLC, BZMRS LLC and 733 Dekalb Realty LLC. They are all subsidiaries of CBZ, which bought the property in January 2022 for $7.7 million.

The entire complex was recently placed in receivership by an Arapahoe County judge on Sept. 24 after breach of contract with US Bank Trust Company after defaulting payment on a $7.2 million loan. 

The property owners stopped making loan payments in July, citing gang activity and inability to collect rent, according to the court documents from the receivership. On Sept. 23, US Bank acknowledged that CBZ Management stopped paying the business insurance for the Whispering Pine Apartments in order to cancel it which tipped the bank to take CBZ to court, according to court documents.

Just like with the 1208 Dallas St. property at The Edge, the Receivership Specialists took over the Whispering Pines and made PMI Aspire the new property management company.

Many tenants at Whispering Pines say they, also, are unwilling to pay full rent for substandard living conditions, Reeves said. 

An eviction process there, for non-paying residents, is expected to begin the first week of November, according to city officials. 

Kassa said none of the residents he spoke to on Nov. 7 have seen or received eviction notices, but he said some residents are still missing essential appliances and heat as cold weather continues.

“We spoke to tenants in early October and also today, and many of those tenants that we’ve spoken to are still reporting that a lot of the issues that they have are not fixed, which include broken appliances, holes in their apartments and mold,” Kassa said.

Pest infestations were also prevalent in all the buildings in the complex, according to municipal court summonses for CBZ and activists like Reeves and Kassa. Building violations for the Whispering Pines Apartments have verified many of the issues in the court summons from an inspection on Sept. 18. 

A letter was placed outside on all of the Whispering Pines buildings that said PMI would have a pest company spraying for bedbugs and cockroaches on Nov. 6. 

City code violations listed in municipal court summonses from the city include a missing refrigerator, missing range hood filters, inoperable hood vents, inoperable smoke detectors, missing bathtub hardware, missing toilet hardware, damaged front doors, missing ceiling fans, an inoperable stove, inoperable dishwashers, inoperable or missing smoke detectors, missing exit signs, inoperable disposals, breaker box breaker missing, missing thermostats, missing screens, exposed wiring, etc.

Repairs by the receivership appointed managers at the Whispering Pines include boiler repairs, and hydro-jetting and clearing blocked sewer lines.