$200 million suit filed over sinking tower
In the largest legal action yet over San Francisco’s sinking Millennium Tower, the building’s homeowners association on Wednesday sued the developer, the public agency building the Transbay Transit Center next door and others for more than $200 million in damages.
The suit — which names Millennium Partners, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, Mission Street Development and a number of other firms that worked on the tower — seeks a “permanent” fix for the luxury condominium skyscraper, which has sunk 16 inches and tilted 2 inches to the northwest since it was completed in 2009.
Attorney Dan Petrocelli filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court on behalf of the Millennium Tower Association, the homeowners association for residents of the 58-story high-rise at Mission and Fremont streets.
Petrocelli contends in the suit that “those who knew of the high rise’s troubles kept it secret for years,” referring specifically to Millennium Partners and the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which have publicly squabbled over who is responsible for the problems.
The tower could eventually sink as much as 31 inches, according to a report prepared for a smaller group of homeowners who had previously sued. Engineers had expected it to settle 4 to 6 inches over the life of the building.
“To be sure, it will take a great deal of money to fix and retrofit the building,” said Petrocelli, who recently represented President Trump in litigation filed by former students of Trump University, which he settled for $25 million just before the president took office.
P.J. Johnston, a spokesman for Millennium Partners, said, “We are disappointed and puzzled that the (homeowners association) board now is shifting gears to a disruptive strategy that leaves us no choice but to defend ourselves against false claims.”
For its part, the developer blames the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which is building the $4.5 billion Transbay Transit Center next to the tower, for the sinking, because it has removed groundwater from beneath its construction site.
A spokesman for the authority declined to comment on Wednesday’s lawsuit and referred to previous statements denying that its underground construction work contributed to the tower’s tilt.
Petrocelli’s suit is the latest entry in a parade of litigation, including complaints filed by individual homeowners in the building, alleging that the developer should have used 225-foot piles that would have reached bedrock to support the building instead of the 80-foot piles that were used.
Those suits have demanded damages, but the Millennium Tower Association has the sole legal authority to sue for fixes to the building. The homeowners group is separately pursuing mediation with Millennium Partners, Petrocelli said.
He declined to comment on specific fixes to the building that the association would accept, saying that his office was “still in the process of trying to determine the root cause” of the sinking.
The complaint does not name the city of San Francisco as a defendant.
A group of 20 homeowners filed suit against the developer and the city Jan. 6, alleging that the builder and public officials had evidence that the structure was sinking at an unexpected rate — evidence that was not disclosed to buyers.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera in November 2016 sued Millennium Partners, saying the developer knew about the settlement issues a year before the units came to market.