A Turks and Caicos resident reached out to Westword with concerns about Shmaryahu's project after seeing him at a groundbreaking ceremony for the resort last week and then looking into his background.
"It seems to be a very shady project, because of the fact that it's actually in an area that could damage the whole entire area in the Turks and Caicos, and they don't actually care," says the resident, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of reprisal from the Turks and Caicos government. "The area has been destroyed by sand mining."
The Turks and Caicos islands are British territories located a few hundred miles east of Cuba, south of Miami and the Bahamas. The islands' white sands and clear blue water make them a tropical paradise where tourism is a big part of the economy.
The area where Shmaryahu is developing his Navah Turks & Caicos luxury resort has been trying to recover from sand mining since 2012. The beach's sand was extracted for manufacturers who bought it to make materials like glass, concrete and asphalt. Too much sand mining at the beach has made flooding an issue for local residents and wildlife as both illegal and government sand mining cut the beach down nine to twelve feet below sea level, according to local reports and the resident who spoke to Westword.
"The development will destroy the area and cause flooding, but our government is more concerned about money than the environment," the resident says. "This is a big mess, and people are afraid to speak out against the government corruption."
Shmaryahu appeared in the May 16 edition of the Turks & Caicos Islands Sun, a local weekly publication, in an article about the Navah resort. According to the article, in January 21, Shmaryahu got in touch with real estate agents from a company called the Agency RE while looking for "five to six" vacation properties to buy in the Caribbean. Instead of selling him a property, the Agency RE teamed up with Shmaryahu to develop the $200 million resort, which will take up to twenty acres of land and 1,000 feet of beach for about four dozen luxury units. It's unclear how much money is coming from Shmaryahu.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Navah resort was on May 6, and the project is expected to finish in 2027, according to the Agency RE.
“Our vision for Navah has always been clear — to create a community that inspires and empowers residents while seamlessly integrating modern luxury with the pristine beauty of the Turks and Caicos,” reads a quote by Shmaryahu in another article, this one paid advertising content, from May 6.
The area where Shmaryahu is developing his Navah Turks & Caicos luxury resort has been trying to recover from sand mining since 2012. The beach's sand was extracted for manufacturers who bought it to make materials like glass, concrete and asphalt. Too much sand mining at the beach has made flooding an issue for local residents and wildlife as both illegal and government sand mining cut the beach down nine to twelve feet below sea level, according to local reports and the resident who spoke to Westword.
"The development will destroy the area and cause flooding, but our government is more concerned about money than the environment," the resident says. "This is a big mess, and people are afraid to speak out against the government corruption."
Shmaryahu appeared in the May 16 edition of the Turks & Caicos Islands Sun, a local weekly publication, in an article about the Navah resort. According to the article, in January 21, Shmaryahu got in touch with real estate agents from a company called the Agency RE while looking for "five to six" vacation properties to buy in the Caribbean. Instead of selling him a property, the Agency RE teamed up with Shmaryahu to develop the $200 million resort, which will take up to twenty acres of land and 1,000 feet of beach for about four dozen luxury units. It's unclear how much money is coming from Shmaryahu.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the Navah resort was on May 6, and the project is expected to finish in 2027, according to the Agency RE.
“Our vision for Navah has always been clear — to create a community that inspires and empowers residents while seamlessly integrating modern luxury with the pristine beauty of the Turks and Caicos,” reads a quote by Shmaryahu in another article, this one paid advertising content, from May 6.
The Agency RE has not responded to a request for comment on working with Shmaryahu and his ties to CBZ Management. The Baumgartens' lawyer, Stan Garnett, has not responded to requests for comment for this story.
The Navah would be a far cry from the apartments that CBZ operates in Colorado. Tenants of CBZ properties throughout Aurora have reported living with rat and bedbug infestations, flooded units and harassment from vigilantes and social media creators who believed they were gang members after the Baumgartens helped spin a narrative that put Aurora in the national spotlight.
Gangs or Slumlords?
In August, Shmaryahu's brother, Zev, claimed through Red Banyan, a Florida-based crisis management firm, that the Venezuelan gang TdA had taken over his apartment building on 1568 Nome Street in Aurora.The City of Aurora was about to shut down the Nome Street property when Zev and Red Banyan told media that CBZ employees were unable to take care of the apartment building because TdA gang members had scared them away with violent attacks and threats. However, Aurora's closure of the buildings stemmed from code violations dating back to 2020.
Before it was closed in mid-August, the Nome Street property was severely neglected, with trash overflowing out of the dumpsters, windows broken open and tenants, mostly Venezuelans and other Spanish-speaking immigrants, reporting no water, heat or electricity for months on end.
Aurora officials tried to control the narrative coming from CBZ. Interim Aurora Police Department Chief Heather Morris denied TdA was a problem, and Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman cast doubt on CBZ by telling the media that the Baumgartens were "out-of-state slumlords," as the company is based in New York.
Later in August, another CBZ property became the focal point of the national immigration debate spurred by furious media coverage and the presidential election. Aurora resident Cindy Romero captured footage of the armed men filing through the hallway outside her apartment at the Edge of Lowry at 1218 Dallas Street in Aurora, and the footage was shared on social media as proof that TdA had taken over Aurora apartment buildings or even the whole city.
Aurora police have confirmed a TdA presence in Aurora, but downplayed the idea that the gang had taken over entire apartment complexes or were an overwhelming problem. The only incident on a CBZ property where APD mentioned TdA involvement was a shooting on July 28 at the Nome Street property; four suspects had gang ties and were suspected TdA members.
The six men seen in Romero's footage were illegally entering a unit to look for a 25-year-old man they later shot and killed, but none had known gang ties, according to APD, which is still trying to find and arrest one of the men. On December 17, a dozen people broke into an apartment unit at the Edge and kidnapped a young couple, and while APD has since arrested ten people for the incident, it hasn't confirmed any gang ties to the incident.
The six men seen in Romero's footage were illegally entering a unit to look for a 25-year-old man they later shot and killed, but none had known gang ties, according to APD, which is still trying to find and arrest one of the men. On December 17, a dozen people broke into an apartment unit at the Edge and kidnapped a young couple, and while APD has since arrested ten people for the incident, it hasn't confirmed any gang ties to the incident.
Republicans latched on to the story, especially after the influx of Venezuelan migrants into cities like Denver and Aurora during the past two years. Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky built a national profile by defending the Baumgartens' claims, and President Donald Trump came to Aurora in October to campaign on the issue. Trump even named his mass deportation plan Operation Aurora to sell his supporters on the raids and detentions that followed.
A recent investigation by the Phoenix New Times into the conservative Project 2025 policy agenda found that the far-right think tanks behind targeted immigrants to frame as terrorists to galvanize political support for militarizing law enforcement. Since Trump took office, three large immigration raids have occured in Colorado, including one at the Edge, where federal agents reportedly used flash and smoke grenades as they made arrests.
As beneficial as the Venezuelan gang controversy may have been for Trump, it was devastating for Aurora's public image. Mayor Coffman called the saga a "national embarrassment," but blames Denver Mayor Mike Johnston. The Edge and the Nome Street apartment complexes have been shut down, with court-appointed third-parties in control of both complexes after hundreds of residents were displaced from their homes.
Where are the Baumgartens?
Shortly after the Baumgartens set off that chain of events, the City of Aurora began going after Zev in September with criminal charges for code violations at the now-infamous Edge and Whispering Pines, 1357 Helena Street. For more than five months, the City of Aurora couldn't find Zev after sending code enforcement officials to serve him a court summons at his listed residential and business properties in Lone Tree, Denver and Thornton.
While Aurora and Denver have had trouble looking for Zev and his brother, the Turks and Caicos resident who reached out to Westword says that Shmaryahu has been on the islands at least since early March.
In December, Aurora judge Billy Stiggers considered dropping the charges because he said the city didn't have enough evidence that Zev owned CBZ, the Edge or Whispering Pines. About a dozen Colorado properties used to be listed as part of CBZ's portfolio on its now-defunct website, but the entities registered with the state as the owners for these properties were LLCs with offices in Denver and New York.
Aurora had no success finding Zev and bringing him to court. Zev's former lawyer, Bud Slatkins, and his current lawyer, Stan Garnett (the former Boulder County District Attorney), started appearing at the Aurora Municipal Court in February to relay Aurora's summons to Zev and push back court dates. However, Shmaryahu was left out of Aurora's efforts, as only Zev was identified as the owner of CBZ.
In March, a Denver County judge signed an arrest warrant for Zev after he failed to appear in court to settle code violations at William Penn apartments at 1644 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Last month, the Baumgartens sued the City of Aurora for antisemitic discrimination and allegedly targeting them with code violations because of their Orthodox Jewish faith. In the lawsuit, their lawyer wrote that Zev hadn't been in Colorado since July 2024.
The criminal case against Zev brought by Aurora and the responding lawsuit are both still in progress, according to Joe Rubino, a city spokesperson. The pre-trial conference and motion hearing for the criminal case is scheduled for June 11 at the Aurora Municipal Court while the trial dates for the lawsuit are set for July 15 to 17, according to Rubino.
In October, U.S. Bank sued CBZ Management and Zev Baumgarten for not paying $10 million owed on loans for the Edge and Whispering Pines. The lawsuit resulted in both properties going to receivership as they were used as collateral.
The Baumgartens have argued since August that their Aurora properties are in severe neglect because of their fear of TdA, but they've never responded to requests for comments about their other dilapidated Colorado properties.
Shmaryahu is not only tied to the $200 million Navah resort: he's named as the current resident of a 4,000-square foot estate in upstate in New York that's also listed with the Colorado Secretary of State as the primary address for owners of CBZ properties, like the William Penn.
"No one is listening or trying to find out who these people are that they're inviting into our country," the Turks and Caicos resident says. "I really hope that they are caught and held accountable for any wrong they have done."
This article was updated to correct an error stating that Denver prosecutors had issued an arrest warrant for Shmaryahu
Baumgarten. We regret the error.
