DENVER (KDVR) — Aurora has threatened to shut down two troubled apartment complexes unless their owners take responsibility for deteriorating conditions and install an in-person presence on the properties.
The complexes at issue are The Edge at Lowry, located at East 12th Avenue and Dallas Street, and Whispering Pines, at East 13th Avenue and Helena Street. CBZ Management operates both complexes, which have suffered a severe lack of maintenance along with concerns about the presence of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
On Thursday, Aurora City Manager Jason Batchelor offered two police officers at each property for two weeks and possibly longer, but only if the owner installs an on-site property manager at each location. That’s according to Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman, who said he toured the properties on Sunday.
“If the owner does not assume responsibility for these properties and start providing routine services, like trash removal, the city will be forced to close both apartment complexes as a last resort,” Coffman posted on social media.
Deteriorating conditions at Aurora apartments
When NewsNation affiliate KDVR visited Whispering Pines in August, windows were boarded up and trash bins were full.
That’s similar to conditions at The Edge at Lowry. Along with issues with trash and maintenance, Arenas obtained videos that show a group entering a building at The Edge with several weapons and then entering a unit. It happened just before a shootout that neighbors said was like “warfare.”
Department of Homeland Security sources later confirmed to NewsNation that people seen in the video were members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. Still, some residents told KDVR’s Gabby Easterwood that gangs were not the problem — absentee property management was.
After meeting with tenants from both complexes last week, Coffman said he agreed with interim Police Chief Heather Morris “that a Venezuelan gang is not in control of either of these two apartment complexes,” although he said he believes there were “gang-related problems … that caused the property managers to flee.”
Coffman said went to the complexes unaccompanied on Sunday “without incident” and visited every floor throughout all nine buildings.
CBZ Management also operated the Fitzsimons Apartments on Nome Street, which the city recently shut down citing code violations and forcing hundreds to find new homes in about a week.
