There is a new development on a story we have been following about the Leaning Tower of San Francisco, the Millennium Tower. According to a November 3 ABC News report showing a homeowner in one of the luxury condominiums rolling a marble across the floor of their luxury condo unit to show the amount that the tower is leaning, the homeowner says that they were unaware that the tower was leaning when they moved in. Now they are afraid to stay in their condo, one of 366 condominium units that cost an average of $1.3 million each.
According to the SF Chronicle, who broke the story in August:
Several Millennium condo owners have sued the developer, fearing that the bad publicity and safety questions are tanking the value of their units.
Millennium Partners brought in a structural engineer who said the building’s problems had not compromised its ability to survive a major earthquake. And several experts told The Chronicle last month that high-rises constructed on bay fill don’t have to go to bedrock — and that, in fact, several others around the Millennium also have piles that don’t reach bedrock.
Based on those reports, the City Attorney of San Francisco has filed a lawsuit that claims that the developers and their sales affiliates did not fully disclose the structural flaw in their sales documents even though attorneys for the developer, Millennium Partners of New York City, assert that they met every rule for disclosure in their sales presentations.
At issue is the fact that the building is built on bay fill from SF bay and that the pilings that support the building did not extend down to bedrock. The defense attorneys claim that the excavation and dewatering by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority for a new Transbay Transit Center caused the building to sink and to lean. This is an issue that will play out over the next year and we will keep you up updated, as we know the details.
