Neighbors of a derelict million-dollar home along Denver’s East Seventh Avenue are asking a judge to appoint a caretaker for the house or let it be demolished.
“The nuisance property is so repugnant to the neighbors and passersby that they throw bags of dog poop into the property’s yard in protest of the property’s conditions,” their Oct. 2 lawsuit explains. “The owner of the nuisance property rarely removes those bags of poop.”
On Tuesday, dozens of the colorful bags sprinkled the steps of 2725 E. Seventh Ave. behind a chain-link fence and a sign warning, “No Dumping. Violators Will Be Prosecuted.”
City records show that neighbors have filed 28 complaints about the property since 2019, when its owner obtained a permit to renovate the house. Those plans were later abandoned during the pandemic and the house joined Denver’s neglected and derelict building list in 2024.
“The caller is reporting an abandoned house in her neighborhood,” states the latest complaint, which the city received Aug. 28. “The yard is full of dog feces and is neglected.”
“Creating stench in the neighborhood,” a resident complained on a hot day in late July.
The house is owned by Flavia Montecinos, the CEO of Altiplano Ventures, a small investment management firm involved in Peruvian infrastructure projects, according to LinkedIn. She was previously a geoscientist and a natural resources attorney, records show.
Montecinos, who lives elsewhere in Congress Park, owns several houses in the city. A year before buying the Seventh Avenue house, she paid $410,000 for 250 S. Ogden St. in 2014. It sold it for $800,000 this year. She bought three other houses in 2016 and 2017, two of which she still owns, and one, 2837 S. Adams St., which she bought for $386,000 and sold for $525,000.
Only the house at 2725 E. Seventh Ave., which she paid $1.1 million for, is listed as derelict.
Montecinos did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment on the lawsuit. In August, she complained to CBS Colorado that “third parties have engaged in illegal dumping of dog feces, food waste and other garbage on the property.” She said she “continues to address this issue by regularly disposing of this waste” and plans to renovate the home soon.
Her neglected house stands out in the otherwise stately East 7th Avenue Historic District. Former Gov. Roy Romer lived two houses down until 2016 and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, who may be the next governor, lives just across the street. The district includes several large estates, including Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Summer White House and the Governor’s Mansion.
Last week’s lawsuit was filed by John Crays of Crays Real Estate Investments, a firm that works with historic properties. He acquired the right to sue Montecinos on behalf of neighbors at 2735 and 2750 E. Seventh in what is known as an assignment of claims in legal parlance.
“Squatters and homeless individuals have on various occasions taken up residence in the property and its yard,” his lawsuit claims. “They have made semi-permanent encampments, started fires, leaving large volumes of garbage; they defecate and urinate in the yard; they use the property as a drug den and engage in such activities at all times of day and night.”
Attached to the lawsuit is a slideshow, created by a neighbor to the east, showing the property’s decline over the past decade from “a well-manicured example of a home in the East 7th Avenue Historic District” in 2015 to “an eyesore and a disgrace to this historic district” today.
“Perhaps the City of Denver would be interested in using this property for a haunted house at Halloween this year?” the slideshow jokes at one point. “It certainly looks like one!”
Crays is asking Denver District Judge Bruce Jones to appoint a receiver for the property or require Montecinos to demolish it. Built in 1920 for a dairy executive, the 2,300-square-foot house is in the historic district but is not a historic landmark, according to city records.
Crays’ lawyer is Chris Conant of Hatch Ray Olsen Conant, who declined to discuss the case.
Through Conant, Crays is suing the owners of at least eight nuisance properties in Denver. Those include a derelict and abandoned 5,700-square-foot house at 2001 E. 18th Ave. in City Park West that is being listed as a knockdown opportunity for $2.2 million.
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