Owners of blighted Edge of Lowry apartments settle Aurora lawsuit, agree to sell
The owners of Aurora’s blighted Edge of Lowry apartment complex, where multiple violent criminal incidents connected to Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua catapulted the city into the national spotlight, will sell the properties and pay the city $300,000.
In a Feb. 10 settlement agreement, Five Dallas Partners — an affiliate of CBZ Management — and Aurora city officials agreed to settle the civil lawsuit brought by the city to avoid “the uncertainty and expense of the lawsuit.”
In exchange for paying the city $300,000 and selling the property, Aurora officials will cancel all liens or summons against Five Dallas Partners, according to the filing.
The company will also hire private security to monitor the properties at 1218, 1238, 1248, 1258 and 1268 North Dallas St. until they are sold or “returned to a commercially viable habitable use” to limit police response to the buildings.
The $300,000 payment is “a partial reimbursement for costs the city suffered in responding to, closing, maintaining and securing the buildings in the company’s absence over the last two years,” Aurora city officials said in a statement.
“The agreement the city reached with Five Dallas Partners is a resolution that is amenable for both parties to avoid the risk and costs associated with a jury trial and to position the company’s property to be sold to new independent ownership,” Aurora officials said.
An attorney for Five Dallas Partners did not respond to an email seeking comment about the settlement.
A sixth building at Edge of Lowry — which is owned by a different CBZ-connected company — is still in a receivership, city officials said.
The settlement is separate from other ongoing cases against CBZ Management, which owned and operated apartment complexes in metro Denver through several affiliated companies, including Five Dallas Partners.
CBZ owner Zev Baumgarten has multiple open arrest warrants after he failed to appear in Aurora Municipal Court for a code violations hearing in June.
The Colorado Attorney General’s Office is also investigating the company over reports of unsafe living conditions and allegations of fraud and deceptive practices.
While tenants say squalid living conditions and poor management at CBZ-connected apartments date back to 2020, problems at the Edge of Lowry first gained national attention in August 2024, when residents recorded a group of armed men forcing their way into an apartment.
That video went viral and became a major talking point about immigration in President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.
Eleven suspected Tren de Aragua members were arrested in December 2024 after police say they kidnapped and tortured a couple living at the complex. The suspects had previously extorted and forced the couple to pay them an additional rent, investigators said.
The kidnapping was enough for an Aurora judge to grant city officials an emergency closure order for Edge of Lowry. The buildings were officially shuttered in February.
Another CBZ-owned complex in Aurora, Aspen Grove at 1568 Nome St., remains closed after it was ruled uninhabitable under city code, while the Whispering Pines complex at 1357 Helena St., is being managed by a court-appointed receiver.
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