The Colorado Attorney General’s Office has launched an investigation into the property management company responsible for running a number of Aurora apartment buildings in the national spotlight for poor conditions and a Venezuelan gang problem.
State lawyers have sent civil investigative orders to CBZ Management and a number of the subsidiary companies running apartment buildings in Denver and Aurora, demanding the companies send them paperwork on how they inspected the buildings, how they maintained the buildings and how they compensated tenants for security deposits when they left.
Lawyers are asking the management companies to turn over potentially hundreds of leases and documents pertaining to the conditions of the apartment buildings throughout the years. They’re also probing how responsive the management companies have been to tenant concerns about safety and upkeep as part of a consumer protection investigation.
The properties have become infamous thanks to former President Donald Trump, who mentioned Aurora’s “supposed war zone” and its “takeover” by Venezuelan gangs. Ten alleged members of the gang Tren de Aragua have been identified, and nine have been arrested for various crimes.
Republican local officials and Aurora law enforcement have pushed back on the narrative, saying it’s vastly exaggerated and that Denver’s eastern suburb of 400,000 is largely a safe place to live, work and recreate.
Since the fanfare, Aurora threatened to close some of the CBZ-owned apartment buildings, which had a number of complaints and reported code violations. They delayed that decision after the property owners allegedly defaulted on millions of dollars in loans and the apartment buildings were transferred to a caretaker in a receivership.
CPR reviewed 178 pages of civil investigative demands after receiving documents from the Colorado Department of Law from a state open records request.
The company had until Oct. 25, 2024, to fulfill the civil demands from the office of the state attorney general but asked for an extension. That extension was granted, but it was unclear by how much.
A lawyer for CBZ, Bud Slatkin, did not return a call and email request for comment on the state investigation.
