“More than a place to live, this is a way to live” coins Millennium Towers’ website. Assuming a new way of life would be completely submerging oneself underwater.
The Millennium Tower debacle keeps on rolling as more scandals surface about the structural integrity of one of San Francisco’s most promised, luxury buildings.
The 58-story high rise luxury building housing over 400 multi-million dollar condos has now sunk 16 inches underground while tilting a full 2 inches and that’s only since the building was “completed” in 2009.
Current sources are estimating the building to continue to sink an additional 14 inches bringing the high rise building down 30 inches within the next few years.
It’s no surprise why a small group of building residents have filed a class-action lawsuit against building developers, Millennium Partners and Transbay Terminal developers, citing grave losses in property value. Notable NFL player resident, Joe Montana, is among the residents filing the class-action suit.
Let’s take a step back to when the Millennium Towers were full of promise.
Construction on the Millennium Tower began in 2005 with plans to build a sprawling, luxurious high rise building along San Francisco’s Eastern shoreline.
Standing 645 feet, the Millennium Tower boasts amenities such as breath-taking Bay Area views, a movie screening room, an owner’s lounge, wine cellars, tasting rooms and concierge services.
When word hit of the new building, over $100 million dollars of condos were sold after only five weeks of construction.
With all of this promise, no one would have foreseen the issues that would soon begin to unravel.
Who’s to blame here?
It seems to be a true “whodunit” between Millennium Tower developers, Transbay Terminal developers and the city of San Francisco.
Shortly after the construction of the Millennium Tower had been completed, a new development for the Transbay Terminal began construction nearby.
As part of the construction of the Transbay Terminal, a new development plan to replace the old downtown San Francisco transportation hub began where a 60-foot hole was dug up for the train tunnels and underground buttress.
Transbay Terminal developers needed to “dewater” the area to remove excess groundwater and surface water from the area.
Millennium Partners founding partner, Chris Jeffries, explained that once water levels below the Millennium Tower began to drop, a compression of sand caused the building to settle.
Now, here’s where things get a little sticky.
This all took place in 2010, five years before the building began sinking. Leading the public to believe that issues were already starting to take shape long before residents were sold homes and most certainly before moving in.
Could this all have been avoided?
If you’re asking San Francisco Supervisor, Aaron Peskins, he would say yes, this could have been avoided.
According to reports, Aaron Peskins uncovered documents seven years ago that showed the city’s building inspection department had concerns about the sinking foundation prior to allowing residents to move in.
What’s Next?
The city of San Francisco is currently in the process of investigating the situation more closely, unearthing the possibility of officials getting pressured into pushing the project to the finish line regardless of the structural integrity of the building.
Time will tell what the investigation will show.
The class-action suit launched by some of the building residents is still under investigation.
Rachelle Brempong is the Digital Content Coordinator at RESAAS. She likes things. Most things. But not everything, that's just greedy. Check out her RESAAS profile ›
