Bennito L. Kelty
Audio By Carbonatix
The City of Aurora has once again delayed its lawsuit against the landlords formerly in charge of the infamous Edge of Lowry apartments, ground zero for the 2024 Venezuelan gang controversy.
In August 2024, news broke that violent Venezuelan gangs had taken over apartments in Aurora, and while the claims were overblown, they led to President Donald Trump’s visit to the city that October and his naming his mass deportation plan “Operation Aurora.” The gang story focused on not just the Edge of Lowry, at 1218 Dallas Street, but also Aspen Grove at 1568 Nome Street, two properties run by CBZ Management, a New York-based property-management company.
The City of Aurora believes that CBZ Management is owned by Zev Baumgarten, once referred to as an “out-of-state slumlord” by Mayor Mike Coffman. According to Baumgarten’s lawyer, Stan Garnett, CBZ is owned by a New York family, and Zev and his brother Shmaryahu were supposed to oversee the Colorado properties.
The city opened a civil case against Five Dallas Partners, the registered owners of the Edge of Lowry, in November 2024, and a jury trial was supposed to begin yesterday, November 4. But the case was delayed until February, according to Joe Rubino, an Aurora spokesperson.
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Aurora had sought to close the Edge of Lowry, but the apartment complex was sold in February after CBZ defaulted on loans to U.S. Bank and closed anyway. Now the city is seeking reimbursement for some of its costs.
Aurora prosecutors have also tried bringing Baumgarten to court to resolve outstanding code violations at the Edge, but they haven’t been able to find him. Aurora judges aren’t completely sold on the evidence that Baumgarten is the owner of CBZ, in any case: The dozens of properties that CBZ ran in Colorado were owned by LLCs with muddied ties to Baumgarten.
According to Garnett, the city delayed the jury trial because it “needs more time to get ready.”
The city says its criminal case against Baumgarten for code violations won’t move forward until he can be served his seven arrest warrants and appear in court.
Aurora judges have already made several rulings in the civil case, however. In January, the court accepted the city’s petition for injunctive relief and allowed it to close the Edge of Lowry. The city hired Property Solutions Colorado to shutter the property and help its tenants with relocation, an added cost that the city is demanding Five Dallas Partners reimburse.
In June, Baumgarten sought to squash the lawsuit with a countersuit claiming the city was targeting him because he’s Jewish. In July, an Aurora judge dismissed the discrimination claim.
Getting CBZ out of Aurora
Baumgarten and CBZ became a thorn in Aurora’s side shortly before the city planned to order the closure of the Aspen Grove apartment complex at 1568 Nome Street, also known as Fitzsimons Place, and evict nearly 200 residents. Before the city could take action, Baumgarten told the media that violent Venezuelan gang members with Tren de Aragua had taken over the place.
The City of Aurora shut down Aspen Grove in August 2024, offering CBZ Management a deal in which it could avoid code violation charges if it sold the property. Aspen Grove was owned by Nome Partners LLC, a company registered under CBZ’s Colorado business address.
Before the month ended, video surfaced showing six armed men walking through the halls of the Edge of Lowry, which fueled speculation that Baumgarten’s claims of a TdA takeover were true. Two months later, Trump was in Aurora talking about combating TdA and announcing his mass deportation plan.
The three properties that CBZ had in Aurora — the Edge, Aspen Grove and Whispering Pines at 1357 Helena Street — are now either closed or in new hands. Soon after the city and Property Solutions Colorado closed the Edge, Whispering Pines closed in February after a court-appointed third party hired a property management company, PMI Aspire, to take over operations. Aspire gave the tenants around $1,200 each to leave.
Aspire now runs both the Edge and Whispering Pines, and is trying to lease out the units. New tenants have been moving into Whispering Pines since July; it’s now listed as Santa Fe Trails, and two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments are listed for $1,400 a month.
The Edge reopened less than a month ago, and Aspire is listing one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments there for $995 a month. Arapahoe County property records still have Five Dallas Partners listed as the owners, however.
Likewise, Nome Partners still owns Aspen Grove, according to Adams County records, but the property remains shuttered and fenced.
The owner of Whispering Pines is 1357 Helena Street Holdings LLC and the apartment complex has a new address, 15683 East 13th Avenue, Arapahoe County documents show. 1357 Helena Street Holdings formed in July and isn’t listed with any CBZ-linked addresses, according to Colorado Secretary of State records.
