According to records from the Aurora Police Department, Baumgarten is the owner of an apartment complex at 1568 Nome Street, Fitzsimons Place, that was shut down by the city on August 13 for outstanding code violations dating back to 2020, including rat infestations, backed-up sewage and pile-ups of trash. Hundreds of residents were evicted in the process.
Baumgarten was scheduled for a jury trial in Aurora Municipal Court on August 27 to resolve 81 charges, and then had a second date on September 5 to deal with two dozen charges he faced related to unlawful vehicles.
According to an August 5 statement from Red Banyan, a Florida-based PR firm hired by CBZ Management, which ran Fitzsimons Place, the complex had fallen into severe disrepair because the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua had scared away its property managers. (Fitzsimons Place is also listed online as Aspen Groves, but according to Red Banyan, CBZ Management prefers to identify the property as Fitzsimons Place.)
Mayor Mike Coffman referred to the owners of Fitzsimons Place as “out-of-state slumlords” in an August 8 interview with Kyle Clark on 9News. Before their eviction, residents told Westword that the location had mostly been home to Venezuelan migrants for the past year; the migrants had moved there after learning about open units from other migrants. According to Red Banyan, upwards of 200 people lived at the property when it was shut down on August 13.
The claims that Tren de Aragua had taken over the apartment complex have put Aurora in the national spotlight, with online videos supposedly proving the charge. However, both Denver and Aurora officials — including the mayors of both cities — and Governor Jared Polis flatly dispute the claims.
The claims that Tren de Aragua had taken over the apartment complex have put Aurora in the national spotlight, with online videos supposedly proving the charge. However, both Denver and Aurora officials — including the mayors of both cities — and Governor Jared Polis flatly dispute the claims.
CBZ Management, a company registered to Baumgarten, is the property manager for Fitzsimons Place along with ten other properties across New York and Colorado, according to its website. Four CBZ Management properties in Aurora have outstanding code violations, Aurora says, and residents from its properties in other parts of the metro area have complained about neglect as well.
On August 13, the same day as the mass eviction from the Nome Street complex, an Aurora Municipal Court judge granted an unopposed motion to vacate Baumgarten's jury trial, which pushed both court dates to a pre-trial conference on February 14, according to court documents. That pre-trial conference will give Baumgarten and his lawyers a chance to resolve the charges with Aurora's prosecutors instead of in front of a jury; however, the case could still go to trial if neither party can agree on a resolution.
Baumgarten also waived his right to a speedy trial, according to court documents.
The eleven Colorado properties that CBZ Management has listed online are in Aurora, Denver, Edgewater, Colorado Springs and Pueblo. According to records from Denver, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties, these CBZ properties are registered to various companies with names ranging from Five Dallas Partners to Edgewater Realty Partners and Nome Partners.
All of those companies are registered at 1644 Pennsylvania Street, Suite 100, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. This is also the address of the William Penn apartments, a property that CBZ Management lists as one of its own. According to residents of that complex, there are no offices in the building.
CBZ Management is also registered at 1644 Pennsylvania Street, Suite 100, according to the Better Business Bureau. Baumgarten is registered with the BBB as the business manager of CBZ.
According to Denver property records, the William Penn apartments are owned by a company based in upstate New York, at 44 South Ridge Road in Pomona. A Google search of the property shows that it's a 4,000-square-foot, five-bedroom mansion, and the residential address of Shmaryahu Baumgarten.
Shmaryahu was identified in a class-action lawsuit by the evicted tenants of Fitzsimons Place as the business partner of Zev Baumgarten. On August 4, an Adams County judge ruled that the Baumgartens have to provide housing to the hundreds of evicted residents of Fitzsimons Place.
Neither Zev nor Shmaryahu Baumgarten could be reached for comment. Residents of both Aurora and Edgewater properties managed by CBZ say they have never seen Zev on the property and have been told he's out of the country when trying to reach him.
