Bennito L. Kelty
Audio By Carbonatix
The City of Aurora has agreed to a $300,000 deal with Five Dallas Partners, an affiliate of the infamous CBZ Management, settling a November 2024 lawsuit filed by the city for the landlord’s neglect at the Edge of Lowry.
The Edge of Lowry, a now-closed apartment complex at 1218 Dallas Street, was among the three properties that CBZ managed in Aurora. In 2024, CBZ officials claimed that Venezuelan gangs had taken over the complexes, causing a national controversy that played into the presidential election. CBZ ultimately lost all three properties.
The $300,000 settlement pays for “costs in maintaining and closure of the Dallas Street Properties” incurred by the city, but it “does not constitute an admission of liability” by Five Dallas Partners, the settlement reads.
The Edge of Lowry was officially owned by Five Dallas Partners, a business that was registered at the same New York address as CBZ. When the Venezuelan gang saga started in August 2024, Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman called CBZ Management a bunch of “out-of-state slumlords.” In January 2025, he spread the blame, calling Denver’s poor tracking of migrants a “national embarrassment.”
The City of Aurora sued Five Dallas Partners after U.S. Bank filed a lawsuit against the company when unpaid loans forced the property into court-appointed receivership.
In April 2025, attorneys for Five Dallas Partners asked a judge to dismiss the Aurora lawsuit, alleging that the city was targeting the orthodox Jewish owners of CBZ and the Edge. A judge dismissed that motion in July, but court filings revealed that CBZ Management is owned by the Baumgarten family of New York.
As the city’s lawsuit played out, Aurora prosecutors tried to press charges against Zev Baumgarten, whom they allege owns CBZ and its affiliates, but were unable to find him. Shmaryahu Baumgarten, Zev’s brother, also works for CBZ; over the past year, he co-developed a $200 million luxury resort in the Caribbean Turks & Caicos Islands whose villas are now selling for $11 million each.
Shmaryahu signed the February 8 settlement agreement with Aurora on behalf of Five Dallas Partners. His full name is scrawled at the bottom, acknowledging that he read it.
Zev is still on the hook for ourstanding arrest warrants and faces up to six months in jail if he’s ever found, according to his former attorney, Stan Garnett.
Meanwhile, as the City of Aurora settled with its at-large “slumlords,” a federal sting operation executed last summer and designed to take down Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang at the heart of the Aurora rumors, has resulted in recent plea deals for reduced sentences in thirteen cases.
So much for the “complete gang takeover” of Aurora cited by Danielle Jurinsky, the former Aurora City Councilmember who shared the stage with Trump in October 2024 and lost her election in November 2025.
