In San Francisco, Alarm Over a Leaning Luxury Condo Tower

SAN FRANCISCO—The luxury condo tower rises above one of the city’s trendiest downtown neighborhoods in 58 gleaming stories, minus about 16 inches of its original height and tilting slightly northwest. The Millennium Tower, opened in 2009 as the city’s tallest residential structure, has a new nickname: “the leaning tower of San Francisco.”

The Millennium is sinking into the ground, and has fallen at least 16 inches since completion, according to a lawsuit filed by homeowners in August, in state superior court in San Francisco, that is seeking class-action status. It is slumping unevenly, tilting as much as 6 inches due in part to a “defective foundation,” the suit says. Residents can still inhabit the building but the value of units is sinking with the building, it alleges.

Developers say the building is safe and its descent is caused by a construction and excavation project nearby. The shimmering high rise—in the city’s South of Market, or SoMa, neighborhood—is built on landfill, and has become an emblem of overheated development in a housing-starved city prone to earthquakes.

On Thursday, current and former city officials with the Department of Building Inspection submitted to more than two hours of questioning about the matter at a city audit and oversight committee headed by San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin. The developer of the building, Millennium Partners, didn’t testify Thursday. The SoMa neighborhood has seen rapid growth over the past decade, raising concern among some city officials about whether proper building standards are in place to prevent other structures from facing the sinking tower’s fate.

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The building will sink another 8 to 15 inches, descending a possible total of 31 inches, according to the suit. What’s more, the “tilt at the base of the building translated into an alarming 15-inch tilt at the top of the building,” the suit says. Earthquakes could make it worse, the homeowners say.

Mr. Peskin is focused on the city’s role, and has pointed to a February 2009 letter written by a building-department official as evidence the city knew about the sinking before it issued a certificate of occupancy in August that year. In the letter, the official raised concern about “larger than expected settlements” of the building.

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http://www.wsj.com/articles/san-francisco-panel-to-grill-inspectors-over-sinking-condo-building-1474553887

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