DENVER (KDVR) — Hundreds of people in a pair of “luxury” Denver apartment buildings are being asked to leave the property with a 30-day notice.
Tenants at The Grand apartments say they’re paying for luxury apartments but are now forced out because of what the building is calling “circumstances out of their control.” Tenants told the Problem Solvers about frequent flooding issues and broken glass, among other issues.
Residents say The Grand apartments in Denver are anything but.
“I travel for work and middle of last year it flooded twice while I wasn’t home,” Hailey Guyette said. “Then it flooded again while I was home like early this year, and it was just a pain to deal with.”
Guyette insists this is a bigger issue than just frequent flooding.
“There’s some stuff. They’ve been doing glass repairs for a while and I know some neighbors, like they’re not allowed to be on their balcony anymore … in case glass falls and shatters,” Guyette said.
This week, tenants who live there were given the notice to vacate the property in 30 days meaning, they have to be out by Aug. 6.
“I just would have wished they would have handled this a whole lot better, even if it was just letting us know what’s going on at least,” Guyette said.
She and others are fighting to stay or at least for more time.
“I was freaking out, like I’m gone all this month. I don’t have time to find a place to live,” Guyette said. “I’m fighting to stay longer at least so that I can move on my own terms.”
Others like Rudy Anguiano are happy to be out of there.
“Honestly, I think because of the neighborhood, I think I just needed a push to get out,” Anguiano said.
FOX31 checked in with the City of Denver about the issues.
The Community Planning & Development Division said, “The property owners have been working with Community Planning and Development’s (CPD) building inspectors to resolve the issues that were reported in December 2021. While the immediate life safety issues identified in the order to comply earlier this year were resolved, the building still needs to make a number of repairs.”
The building has requested multiple permits, which are listed below:
Finalized permits/completed work:
- Partial replacement of insulation and drywall in select areas that were damaged by water
- Water mitigation/drying work in select areas that were damaged by water
Issued permits/work in progress:
- Plumbing permit to replace pipes, fittings, and valves
- Permits to replace drywall after plumbing repairs have been made
- Partial replacement of insulation and drywall in areas that were damaged by water
- Permits to install new spandrel wall backpan and replace glass
- Replacements of all walls after sprinkler repair
- Mechanical permit to remove existing ductwork so fire lines can be replaced
- Non-structural demo work in select units
Building integrity expert weighs in
FOX31 showed a building integrity expert the lengthy list of permit requests for these buildings, which the Problem Solvers obtained from the City of Denver.
“If there is a fire, if there’s anything that happens to where the sprinkler system is needed, it’s not going to work properly. So with that being said, you kind of have to get everyone out of the building to repair it properly, and then conduct testing on it. And it’s hard to conduct testing on sprinkler systems with an entire property that’s not vacant,” said KJ Banach, with the MH Companies.
“And then from there, if there’s even more damage because of the water, then you have integrity, damage in walls, you have damage and insulation. … It can get a lot worse and you can get black mold. You can get things that will cause cancer, basically, in the future. So that is a big reason why. So then they have to go through and … make sure that all water damage is out of it.”
Banach said he wouldn’t live there himself and believes the buildings are unsafe.
The Problem Solvers reached out to the property management company Grey Star but has not heard back. However, they are hosting an information session on July 12 with tenants and are offering mover discounts and moving resources.