Now, following Westword's coverage of the problematic Central Park complex, the place is described merely as "apartments" — with building management choosing to put a white plaque over the word "luxury" instead of actually fixing anything, according to residents.
“Maintenance has gotten worse,” says longtime tenant Lindsay Wadman.
In April, Westword reported on the two buildings at the 7575 East 29th Place address, where residents experienced flooding, routine delays in maintenance and a brief shutdown of their pool by the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment for unsafe pH levels. Wadman referred to the two-building property as being “fake luxury apartments.”
She and other tenants hoped that Highmark Residental — which has managed the buildings since 2021 — would actually listen and make changes after Westword's coverage. But when the company removed the luxury label, the company didn’t give residents a discount.
Wadman says she still pays over $2,000 per month for her one-bedroom, non-luxury unit.
Security is currently the biggest concern at 7575; a tenant-conducted survey of 57 residents found that 81 percent of those who participated considered security one of the biggest factors in their negative opinion of the property.
Leon Cox, a former housing-quality inspector who moved into the Town Center apartments nine months ago, describes security as “nonexistent." Wadman says that security hasn’t been improved since April — and notes that the garage door at the complex is still broken, allowing trespassers to keep entering the building through it and other unsecured entrances.
Her own front door was broken and couldn't be locked for days while she waited for a response from management, Wadman says.
One change has come, though: According to Wadman and Cox, landscaping improved after the Master Community Association — a nonprofit organization for Central Park that manages its parks and public facilities — required Highmark to make changes to the outdoor areas around the building.
The MCA did not reply to a request for comment. Neither did Highmark.
After he moved in, Cox says it didn’t take long to realize that complex had issues. In his former job, he inspected multi-family residential buildings, so he knew what to look for at his new place — including combustible materials in the boiler room left behind by people experiencing homelessness who had snuck in.
Maintenance, he adds, is extremely delayed; he believes that Highmark is probably understaffed.
“I've had to call maintenance several times for simple things that they can fix in five minutes,” he says. “They'll eventually show up; they just take their time about getting here.”
Residents have begun meeting monthly to discuss issues and to try to use their collective voice to push for fixes by property management. Cox doesn’t attend those meetings, but he has answered questions for his neighbors who don’t have his career experience.
“Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance,” he says he tells them to focus on.
Many tenants have reported going without hot water for days at a time — without notice — and there are constant complaints about infestations of cockroaches and other pests that go unchecked. Those issues are covered by Denver laws that govern rentals.
Cox even suspects that the square footage of units isn't accurate, so people are paying a price for units of a certain square footage but getting shorted on space. His unit was advertised as being eighty square feet larger than it actually is, and he’s moving to another one that he estimates is short by 150 square feet.
“They claimed they didn't know," Cox says. Still, it's misleading to say a unit is one size when it’s actually another, he contends.
“Hopefully, one day they'll get tired of having a bad reputation," he concludes, "and try to change or sell the place to somebody else."
