DENVER — Legal troubles continue piling up for the company behind several problematic apartment complexes throughout the Denver metro area.
At one point, CBZ Management owned nine properties in the Denver metro — four in Aurora, three in Denver and two in Edgewater:
- The Jewell in Denver
- William Penn in Denver
- Courtyard on Vine in Denver
- Edge of Lowry in Aurora
- Aspen Grove in Aurora
- 200 Columbia in Aurora
- Whispering Pines Apartments in Aurora
- Squire Apartment in Edgewater
- Duchess Apartments in Edgewater
In January, a judge ordered the closure of the William Penn apartments due to "quickly deteriorating conditions." Court filings showed the management company owed nearly $280,000 in fines and liens on the property, which the City of Denver had deemed a public nuisance.
Last month, the Edge of Lowry, which gained widespread national media attention after a viral video of armed men in its hallways fueled claims of a Venezuelan gang takeover at that complex and several others in Aurora, was closed.
The owner of a subsidiary of CBZ Management and their attorney failed to appear at a disposition hearing in Denver District Court Monday morning. As a result, the judge issued a warrant.
Meanwhile, former CBZ Management tenants, including Peter Svaldi, have filed lawsuits against the company.
"I lived at the Courtyard on Vine Street from August of 2021 until July of 2023," Svaldi told Denver7. "Hard to phrase in just a single word, but frustrating to start."
In his lawsuit against CBZ Management, Svaldi claims he went without hot water access for 41 days.
"By the end of my experience, it was very dehumanizing in terms of how long they allowed the hot water issue to persist without proper action," he said. "I would just ask anyone to imagine what it's like coming home from your daily routine and not being able to take a hot shower or to start your day that way. It was very overall traumatizing, and something that I still struggle with to this day."
Danica Lee, the director of the Public Health Investigations Division for Denver's Department of Public Health and Environment (DDPHE), told Denver7 that while the William Penn Apartment complex was shut down due to violations and fees owed, the same doesn't apply to the two remaining Denver properties owned by the company — The Jewell and the Courtyard on Vine.
"For the Vine Street property, 11 complaints over the last couple years, and then the Jewell Street properties, 12 complaints," Lee said. "When we go out to check and investigate those complaints, if we find violations, those violations are documented, and a corresponding order is issued to correct the violations."
The mounting legal problems also come as some Denver City Council members push forward a proposal that would give DDPHE more power to hold landlords accountable.
"What our ordinance will do, it will provide more protections for tenants and greater teeth to the steps that Department of Public Health and Environment can take to make sure that if tenants are in uninhabitable spaces, that we can get them out of those spaces and we can hold those landlords accountable," said Denver City Councilman Darrell Watson (District 9).
Watson said the ordinance would also force the landlords of these uninhabitable complexes to pay for alternative housing for tenants, should there be issues forcing tenants to live elsewhere.
"One of the things that they did not have the power to do is proactively enforce that landlords had to provide a habitable alternative housing for those tenants," Watson said. "Right now, if the Department of Public Health placed a placard saying, 'Hey, this residence is not habitable,' most likely, all of those residents will be displaced."
"What this bill will do will make sure that those landlords are not only told that this is not habitable, but they are forced to provide equal rooms for folks who are going to be displaced. And if they don't, the City and County of Denver will pay for those rooms, and then we'll charge the landlord to cover that cost," Watson continued.
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