Owner of troubled Aurora apartments says gangs assaulted its representative

DENVER ( KDVR ) — CBZ Management is speaking out and releasing more details regarding what it said happened in the months before one of its properties made national headlines .

The company said it’s making the new statement hoping to stop the spread of false information. CBZ Management said it had been trying to fix problems at its apartment complexes in Aurora for a couple of years.

The statement showed photos of some units that had been remodeled. CBZ Management said gangs then began causing problems at the end of 2023.

The company released surveillance video which it says shows one of its representatives being assaulted after he refused to accept a bribe at the Whispering Pines complex at the end of 2023.

“I think they were trying to kill me. I don’t know how I got out, but I got out,” that representative told FOX31 in a telephone interview.

The city of Aurora has already shut down one of CBZ’s complexes and is threatening to take over others like the one at Dallas Street and East 12th Avenue where a group of men was seen carrying guns on security cameras .

The company said migrants were not the problem. Instead, the company said it was gangs that had taken over the complex and management could not get help stopping them.

The city of Aurora told FOX31 on Monday that some of CBZ’s properties have gone into receivership.

“We are not going to give credence to these continued exaggerations,” Communications and Marketing Deputy Director Ryan S. Luby said.

MSU Assistant Real Estate Professor Jeff Peshut explained what a “receiver” does.

“Well, they really step into the shoes of the owner. They make ownership decisions subject to the order of the court. But they make ownership decisions in what they view is the best interest of the property and therefore the best interest of the lender,” Peshut said.

Peshut said receiverships almost always precede foreclosures.

The Housekeys Action Network Denver, an organization that fights for housing, said tenants want to meet with the group now handling CBZ’s complexes.

“They demand a meeting with new ownership to clarify differences in what individuals have been told, to discuss terms of the new lease in a way that acknowledges their needs as well as tenants, and to allow sufficient time for repairs to take place and rent payments to be earned before threatening eviction,” HAND said in the release.

The organization said residents, as of Oct. 11, still lacked water and electricity, and had entire floors with no lights, no heating or air conditioning along with an infestation problem.

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