Bennito L. Kelty
Audio By Carbonatix
The three properties at the center of a Venezuelan gang controversy that attracted President Donald Trump to Aurora last October have been under new ownership for more than a year, with a couple of the properties now trying to attract new residents. As the apartment complexes formerly owned by CBZ Management move forward, Aurora prosecutors are preparing for a jury trial in November involving the embattled property management firm.
CBZ previously managed about a dozen apartment complexes listed in Colorado, including a handful in Denver and three in Aurora: Aspen Groves at 1568 Nome Street (also known as Fitzsimons Place), Whispering Pines at 1357 Helena Street, and the Edge of Lowry at 1218 Dallas Street. The three Aurora properties were owned by LLCs set up with addresses tied to CBZ Management and residences in New York linked to a family with the last name Baumgarten. According to an Aurora city court filing, CBZ was owned by a family consortium from Queens, and two brothers, Zev and Shmaryahu Baumgarten, were supposed to manage the Colorado properties directly.
City code violations against CBZ’s three Aurora apartment complexes started piling up in 2020, including citations for not throwing out trash, failing to fix broken windows and unpaid water bills, among others. In August 2024, the City of Aurora closed Aspen Groves at 1568 Nome Street because of outstanding code violations. The Baumgartens and CBZ quickly responded by hiring a Florida-based crisis management firm, which helped circulate their claim that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) had taken over the building by assaulting Zev and telling him and his staff to abandon the property. The closure of Aspen Groves displaced about 200 people, mostly Venezuelan immigrants, and sparked a saga that Aurora will never forget.
The claim of TdA gang activity took on a life of its own a few weeks after the closure of Aspen Groves, when Cindy Romero, a resident of CBZ-managed property the Edge of Lowry, recorded six armed men walking through her hallway and shared it with local media. Although these TdA claims were only being made at CBZ properties, the narrative spiraled into what Mayor Mike Coffman now calls a “national embarrassment,” and an issue Trump campaigned on during an October 2024 trip to Aurora. During Trump’s speech at the Gaylord Rockies Resort, he was flanked by two mugshots of alleged TdA members as he teased a mass deportation plan called “Operation Aurora.”
Cleaning Up a Mess
While Aurora wrestled with its image on the national stage, city code enforcers were trying to close CBZ operations and bring Zev Baumgarten in for a trial. In August 2024, the city announced that it had a jury trial scheduled for that October to resolve the outstanding code violations. In the meantime, the city began attempting to shut down the three CBZ properties in Aurora.
In September 2024, Zev and Shmaryahu Baumgarten, listed owners of a company called Nome Partners LLC, signed off an agreement to sell Aspen Groves by February 2025 in order to avoid criminal charges for the property’s outstanding code violations, but Aurora officials still wanted to have Zev stand trial for violations at the other two properties, Whispering Pines and the Edge of Lowry. A few weeks later, U.S. Bank, which had made loans to CBZ to purchase Whispering Pines and the Edge, sued the Baumgartens after they defaulted on loans. In a court filing, CBZ claimed it wasn’t able to pay back loans because of dangerous gang activity preventing operations there. That same month, a judge put both properties into receivership, essentially handing ownership off to a third party tasked with finding a buyer.
Zev was due in Aurora Municipal Court on October 3, 2024, and he didn’t show up; according to prosecutors at the time, they couldn’t find him to serve a court summons. A judge delayed the trial until prosecutors could locate him.
Later that October, Receivership Specialists, the court-appointed receiver for the Edge at Lowry and Whispering Pines properties, hired Lakewood-based company Property Management Incorporated Aspire to manage the two properties, where residents were still living. Aspire continued renting to those tenants before offering them around $1,200 to move by the end of January 2025, a move that drew criticism from activist group Housekeys Action Network Denver (HAND).
At the same time, a broker was hired to sell off Aspen Groves, with the Aurora-based addiction recovery group Ananeo eyeing it as a potential sober-living facility. Neither the City of Aurora nor the broker, Jason Hornik, said whether CBZ managed to sell Aspen Groves by the February deadlines. That same month, Aspire closed the other two CBZ properties for renovations, meaning all three were shuttered for about four months. The city was also able to serve a lawyer for Zev that month.
In March, Shmaryahu Baumgarten appeared at the groundbreaking of a luxury resort on the Caribbean islands of Turks and Caicos that he’s developing for $200 million. Shmaryahu isn’t facing charges like his brother Zev, however.
In April, Zev’s lawyer submitted a motion to dismiss Aurora’s charges against him because of alleged anti-Semitic discrimination by city code enforcers, a claim that was thrown out by the judge in July.
In June, the temporary receivership of Whispering Pines ended. By late August, U.S. Bank settled debts at Whispering Pines by foreclosing the property, according to the City of Aurora. Aspire went from acting as the landlord to taking over ownership of the property, according to a spokesperson.
The Helena Street property reopened to residents about three months ago.
Inside the Old CBZ Apartments
Colorful “now leasing” banners draw attention to Whispering Pines apartment buildings, but most of the units are visibly empty, with dozens of vacant parking spots and empty apartment balconies. On Aspire’s website, a handful of two-bedroom units at the Helena Street complex are listed for about $1,400 a month. Aspire has yet to rechristen the former Whispering Pines, though some online rent listings still use the CBZ-era name.
A resident at the property who asked to use the name Destiny said that she pays just under $2,000 for a three-bedroom. All of the appliances, including a washer and dryer, are new and Aspire takes care of maintenance requests right away, says Destiny, who praises the management and security at the property.
Meanwhile, at 1218 Dallas Street, fencing from February still surrounds the Edge of Lowry apartments. Windows are boarded up, and contractors with BND Construction can be seen fixing the exterior property, fiddling with electrical wiring and digging into the bits of landscaping around it. Inside, renovated units have new flooring, appliances, plumbing, windows and paint jobs, and look much different from what residents of the last rendition experienced, which included rat and bedbug infestations, flooded basements and a lack of heating in the winter and air-conditioning in the summer.
According to an Aspire spokesperson, the property at 1218 Dallas Street will come out of receivership in the coming months and reopen for residents to lease shortly after.
In the meantime, Aspen Groves is also surrounded by fencing that’s been up for more than a year, and nearly all the windows are boarded up. The spacious parking lot, once filled with trash and shoddy cars, is empty and blocked off with barbed-wire fencing. On Wednesday, October 8, Aurora firefighters appeared to be inspecting the property, but the Aurora Fire Department declined to say why they were there.
No ownership records for 1568 Nome Street pop up with the Arapahoe County property search, and the city has no comment on the current owner’s identity.
The City of Aurora also has yet to locate Zev Baumgarten, even as his company’s trial approaches next month. According to city spokesperson Joe Rubino, “the seven criminal cases against Zev Baumgarten remain in warrant status and nothing will happen unless and until he appears in court.”
Either way, a civil trial in which Aurora is suing the listed owner of the Edge of Lowry, Five Dallas Partners, to resolve outstanding fines, is still scheduled for November 4. Five Dallas Partners is registered at the same business address used by CBZ Management. According to the City of Aurora, the trial will move forward even if Zev isn’t present.
