Oasis NightClub and Apartment Building Owner Fighting Over Late-Night Parking Lot Action

“One adult male victim has been transported to the hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. One person is in custody,” the DPD tweeted at 11:32 p.m.

And then, just a few hours later, at 2:49 a.m. on October 30, the police department tweeted about another serious crime: a shooting in the 9800 block of East Girard Avenue, close by the site of the stabbing. The shooting left two people dead.

Rita Tsalyuk, who built and recently began leasing an eighteen-unit apartment building at 10020 East Girard Avenue, believes those violent incidents over Halloween weekend were linked to people loitering outside of Oasis NightClub, a venue located at 10005 East Hampden Avenue, on the same block as Tsalyuk’s project.

“On Saturdays, they have about 1,000 people in the parking lot. Four hundred cars, I counted them,” says Tsalyuk, who adds that she’s observed people hanging out in the lot, consuming alcohol and marijuana. “They’re fighting in the parking lots, screaming, making noise with their cars, shooting. And the last weekend, two people got shot and killed.”

Tsalyuk says she’s also observed significant amounts of trash piling up in the parking lot near her apartment complex.

But Jay Powell, the general manager for Oasis, suggests that Tsalyuk is simply upset about the fact that her development is next to Oasis. “Long story short, she’s unhappy that she [built] an apartment that was that close to a club,” Powell says. “The city has told her we’re not violating noise complaints.”

Powell calls the recent shooting “incredibly unfortunate,” saying that he knew one of the victims but that neither had patronized Oasis that night.

The club has been working on the problems in the parking lot, Powell says. The staff has started roping off its section to “keep people further from her parking lot, so the people who are in the parking lot hanging out are less close to her residents.”

The owner of the building that houses the club and the parking lot, John Propp Commercial Group, did not return a request for comment.

According to Powell, the cops have told him they need probable cause to make contact with individuals in the parking lot, which is also located near a liquor store. “In a perfect world, I think every venue would not want people loitering in their parking lots in the area, because it just invites trouble,” he says. “Unfortunately, they kind of found a gray area just being able to hang out in there in a day and age where it’s a little bit more difficult to get things handled.”

Tsalyuk has been documenting what she’s seen in the parking lots on recent weekends, taking videos and snapping photos. Some of the videos capture cars driving haphazardly in the parking lots near the clubs, while others show Tsalyuk outside Oasis, pleading with Denver police officers to shut it down.

“They either need to behave or close that establishment. One or the other has to happen,” Tsalyuk says, noting that the apartment building she opened in June is still only 60 percent occupied.

Tsalyuk “was actually annoying” the cops who were visiting the club on weekend nights, Powell says, adding that Oasis patrons and staffers have started referring to her as the “Oasis Karen” on social media posts.

“And in all honesty, the reason she caught so much flak on social media is she kept using phrases like ‘you people’ and things that are normally construed as racist statements,” Powell notes.

Oasis has had a liquor license and dance cabaret license since November 2019. The club opened right before the pandemic began, and has never been cited for any violations of city rules and regulations, according to the City of Denver. The licenses for the club expire on February 10, 2023; that could be when Tsalyuk gets a chance to make her case in a more formal setting.

“Liquor licensees are required to have a hearing when they apply for a new liquor license,” says Eric Escudero, a spokesperson for the Department of Excise and Licenses. “If there are community requests for a public hearing for their renewal, we would require a hearing for their renewal. But that has not been determined yet.”