Similar story, different address.

A near-fatal drive-by shooting at an Aurora apartment complex Sunday night brought renewed attention to a management company accused of a pattern of neglect.

The Edge at Lowry, located at East 12th Avenue and Dallas Street, is less than two miles away from a 99-unit complex that City of Aurora shut down last week. The latter is owned by the same company.

The Edge at Lowry has been the subject of more than 19 code enforcement complaints since 2019, according to Aurora officials.

The Denver Gazette has learned that a third complex under the same management company, Whispering Pines at 1357 Helena in Aurora, has also been “noticed for for several code enforcement violations,” said Aurora public safety spokesperson Matt Brown. 

CBZ Management — which owns 11 properties in Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and Pueblo — has claimed that growing violence and a “gang presence” at its Aspen Grove Apartments on on Nome Street and Colfax Avenue has precluded the company from caring for it.  

“We would like to be able to resume normal operations at our buildings, but we cannot do so under the threat of present and immediate danger against residents, staff, and management,” CBZ Management said last week through a spokesperson. 

Requests for comment on the second property went unanswered this week. 

CBZ Management claimed that it left Aspen Grove, a 99-unit property at Colfax Avenue and Nome Street because of the dangerous presence of a Venezuelan gang.

City officials have dismissed the owner’s claim that it could not take care of the property because of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua or TDA, calling it an “alternative narrative” to numerous code violations and the poor condition of the building.

Aspen Grove  was deemed uninhabitable by the city, and, within days, about 300 renters were removed and transitioned to other housing options. 

CBZ Management had abandoned that property leaving it with no security, mountains of garbage, rodents and bedbugs. Residents of Aspen Grove apartments, who are mostly immigrants, claimed that the company took their money.

Residents of both The Edge at Lowry and Aspen Grove Apartments spoke of gunfire, poor conditions and growing trash. 

And now the city said the cleanup at the second and third apartment complexes are causing a new headache.

The Edge at Lowry consists of four rundown buildings on the block of 12th and Dallas. Most of the units are rented by immigrants, though some American citizens also live there. 

Neighbors were terrified when gunshots erupted near the property just before midnight on Sunday. A man was nearly killed, Aurora police said. It is not known whether the man was a resident of The Edge at Lowry.

“It was like two or three cars that passed by throwing lead,” resident Natacha Acosta told a reporter through a translation device on her phone. “We all went into the bathroom. Each one locked in his apartment without knowing what was happening.”

On Monday, there were spots of blood on the sidewalk adjacent to the buildings at 12th and Dallas. Old recliners and exercise equipment dotted the walkways and broken windows were stuffed with cardboard.

Dumpsters in the alleyway left unattended were overflowing with rotting trash, which residents claimed started piling up when a manager left with their money.

Acosta and her partner, Pedro Beltran, said they tried to contact CBZ Management to find out about the $1,400 they paid “month-after-month for three months” and got no response.

CBZ Management did not returns requests for a comment about problems at The Edge as of publication.

‘Mountain views and urban wildlife’ 

An ad for The Edge on CBZ’s website seeks to entice renters with the promise of “urban neighborhoods, mountain views and roaming wildlife.”

On Monday, only the residents roamed as they collected plastic bottles in trash bags and threw them on a growing pile.

Denver Gazette partner 9News reported that since 2019, besides Sunday night’s drive-by shooting, there have been 132 police calls within a 600 foot radius of 12th and Dallas.

Those calls were for assault, burglary, arson and theft.

On Thursday, Aurora is scheduled collect the trash at 8:30 a.m. but there is no talk of evictions. The city expects to recover the costs of the trash collections.

Javier Hidalgo, who rented an apartment at The Aspen Grove Apartments before he was evicted, filed a lawsuit last week.

The document alleged residents filed a “litany of complaints” with Aurora’s code enforcement division, pointing to a lack of heat, lack of hot water, black mold, vermin, bed bugs, cockroaches, unsanitary conditions and leaks and flooding inside apartment units.

Attorney Benjamin Degolia said he hopes to gather enough clients for a class action lawsuit against the company and has asked for relief on two claims: unlawful action and warrant of habitability.

He said that it is too early to consider such legal action for the residents of The Edge, but that he spoke with Pedro Beltran about his rights.

Natacha Acosta removed her glasses as slow tears rolled down her cheeks.

“We are good people,” she said. “I am ashamed. Please help us.”

She supports her family selling homemade South American flatbread called Arepas but she said that she would clean houses if she knew where to find that kind of work.

“We are worried,” she said. “We have nowhere to go.”