An Aurora landlord is blaming the city’s decision to shut down an apartment complex on a Venezuelan gang — a claim that city officials dismissed, calling it an "alternative narrative" to numerous code violations and the poor condition of the building.
The landlord said it could not resume normal operations at the site because of an immediate threat of danger from the gang that staffers and residents face.
City officials insisted that Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang known as TDA, was not responsible for issues that for months have plagued Aspen Grove Apartments at 1568 Nome St. and compelled Aurora to evict dozens of families.
On Wednesday, the city posted eviction notices on every unit and in living areas where homeless people have been camped out for months.
Next week, the city will shut off the water, officials said, because the property owners have not paid the water bill for months. The city will also board up the building and fence off the entire property.
That is Aurora's final legal step, according to a news release from the city.
The city moved to shut down the building, even as a spokesperson for CBZ Management — which operates the 98-unit complex near the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus — blamed gang activity as having inhibited its ability to care for the complex.
“Because we care for the safety of our tenants, and other members of the community, what we will say is that the issue of Tren de Aragua taking over properties and communities in Aurora means that we are not able to be present on this property, or any of our other properties in similar situations, also being impacted by gang presence,” a CBZ Management spokesperson said in an email to The Denver Gazette.
CBZ Management operates rental apartments in Colorado and New York.
As of Wednesday, apartments were available, with a 700-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bath unit renting for $1,200 a month, according to its website.
“We would like to be able to resume normal operations at our buildings, but we cannot do so under the threat of present and immediate danger against residents, staff, and management,” the CBZ Management spokesperson said. “This is an issue our city needs to face head-on with law enforcement and the further support of our state and country’s leaders to protect affected tenants, the surrounding communities, and Americans across the nation.”
Aurora officials accused the operators of manufacturing stories.
“Instead of expending the resources to address the documented issues, CBZ and its stakeholders have hired a team of attorneys and, as we learned today, a Florida-based public relations firm to engage in diversionary tactics, fight the city in its city charter-mandated duties to enforce city code, and alternative narratives with many of you,” Ryan Luby, a spokesperson for the Aurora Police Department, said in an email to The Denver Gazette.
“The city has documented substantial, longstanding, unresolved code violations and other poor conditions at the property for the last few years.”
In a statement, an entity identified only as "an investor for multiple affected properties in Aurora" countered that it has "invested hundreds of thousands of dollars" in repairs and improvements to the building in the past several years.
The entity also said that the city fully signed off on the improvements after its most recent inspections.
Violations include bed bug, mice and roach infestations, hundreds of instances of damaged doors, windows, sinks and cabinets, and mold, which was never resolved, the city said.
‘Rapidly deteriorated’
The Aspen Grove's owners have been accused of a laundry list of issues that include rodent infestations, sewage backups and trash pileups, water leaks, shattered or missing windows and lack of heat and electricity, Aurora officials said.
Luby said management has refused to address “the many significant code issues” and has stopped paying its water bill, making the building uninhabitable for tenants.
“Despite the city’s exhaustive efforts to work with the property owners and their property management group, CBZ Management, they have failed to address the violations and have been uncooperative,” Luby said. “Conditions at the property have rapidly deteriorated further in recent weeks.”
Luby said Tuesday that the city would send eviction notices Wednesday to tenants, who must vacate by Aug. 13. He declined further comment.
Last month, the Biden administration sanctioned TDA, which is believed to be behind a spree of kidnappings, extortion and other crimes tied to immigrants from South and Central America.
The U.S. government has also offered a $12 million reward for the gang’s leaders, joining other transnational criminal organizations such as MS-13 from El Salvador.
Alethea Smock, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations in the Northwest Region, confirmed that TDA is operating in Colorado.
Federal officials said TDA, which was once a prison gang in Aragua, Venezuela, has in recent years quickly expanded in the western hemisphere.
The gang has a diverse portfolio of criminal activities that includes human trafficking — particularly of immigrant women and girls — and drug trafficking, kidnapping, extortion and money laundering.
Vee Reeves, who provides advocacy for Housekeys Action Network, said Venezuelan gang activity in the apartment complex is just a rumor but TDA had likely been on the premises.
“I don’t know what kind of activity is or isn’t happening," Reeves said. "You could have all kinds of people living in all kinds of buildings.”
‘It's like a bad movie’
In front of the dilapidated building, a man strolled along the sidewalk in broad daylight pulling on the handles of parked cars to see if any were unlocked.
Another walked by carrying a shiny hubcap.
Twenty yards away, a woman — propped on a chain-link fence — threw up in the shade.
On the first floor, inside the complex in what used to be the lobby, four squatters shielded their faces from the camera. Baseboard molding was pulled up from along the edge of the floor.
Several residents said they would often hear gunshots, some of which originated from inside the units, ring out on the property.
All without the watchful eye of ownership or management, they said.
Daniela Valera said she hasn’t seen the landlord, whom she knows as "Renaldo," since he fled the property in the wake of a shooting that injured three people.
Four people, including a 19-year-old, were arrested in connection to the early-morning shooting on Sunday.
Residents have reported people carrying guns, knives and machetes in the area.
Most of the residents are immigrants from various countries, including Colombia, Puerto Rico, Guatemala and Venezuela.
Eight-year-old Yonkei Keiber’s smile — the only one to be found in the complex Tuesday — lit up the dark corners in the building.
Marisela Keiber, the boy’s mother, said that is because he has severe cerebral palsy and “doesn't really know what's going on,” she said through a translator.
She worries that the two of them and her 17-year-old daughter will be out on the street once they're evicted next week.
Residents have until 8 a.m. Aug. 13 to vacate the premise.
Inside, the air was cool. While the landlords always paid her utility bills, Keiber said, they were also nowhere to be seen.
Outside in the parking lot, two men, in masks donned to dilute the stench, shoveled a mountain of garbage that spilled from dumpsters. Next door to the apartment complex Diego Quintero, who moved to the U.S. from Colombia with his family a year ago, raked cups, plastic bottles, clothing and condoms someone threw into his driveway.
“I go to work every day and come home to clean every single day," Quintero said. "It's like a bad movie."
