DENVER — DENVER — A judge in Denver has ordered the closure of a neglected apartment building in the city’s North Capitol Hill neighborhood near downtown.
"Over the last several weeks, we've seen these conditions at this apartment complex rapidly deteriorate," said Jon Ewing, a spokesperson with the City of Denver. "At this point there's no heat in the building. There's no heat in the building because there's no gas in the building. There's no gas in the building because the property owners failed to keep people from trespassing on site, opening gas mines, and endangering the people who are paying rent and living here."
The William Penn apartments on Pennsylvania Street are owned by CBZ Management, the company that operates multiple similarly neglected complexes in Aurora that it claims have been overrun with gang activity.
Court filings show CBZ owes nearly $280,000 in fines and liens on the William Penn property, which the city deemed a public nuisance.
Denver's Department of Public Health and Environment says 29 citations have been filed against the William Penn apartments. Three liens have also been placed on the property.
An inspection of the 35-unit building this week uncovered a lack of proper heating and had a dozen broken or missing windows. Investigators found drug paraphernalia throughout the building and said it was dirtied by mold, rodent droppings and human feces and vomit, among other issues.
The City of Denver requested a special receivership over the property, according to court filings. A receiver is a court-appointed third party tasked with maintaining a nuisance property.
"We've done everything imaginable to get to do to avoid this situation for the folks who are staying there," city spokesperson Jon Ewing told Denver7.
An order to evacuate was posted on the doors of the complex when Denver7 visited Friday. Ewing said the tenants still living in roughly 13 units of the complex were moved into hotels Thursday for free and the city was helping them find new housing.
Among those now needing to move, is Jose Flores.
"When I first moved in here, everything seemed to me going well, and then everything really started to show as the time went on," Flores said. "Really bad maintenance. Pest problem, a lot of like, little critters and stuff like that. It was cold when I first, yeah, it was very cold," he said.
"The heaters really didn't work. That was a very big complaint with a lot of tenants that live here," Flores added.
CBZ Management has claimed a takeover by members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is to blame for its rundown complexes in Aurora, two of which were also put under receivership last year.
Denver7 did some digging and found code enforcement and inspection records dating back to 2020 that show numerous violations at other CBZ properties – including the William Penn building – prior to an influx of Venezuelan immigrants in the Denver metro.
Denver’s health department issued at least 12 citations at the William Penn property last year, totaling more than $44,000 in fines. The city had issued three liens on the property, Ewing said, a measure to which the city resorts when a property that is racking up fines to motivate the owner to bring the property up to code.
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