Finger-pointing in the Millennium Tower debacle continues.
Today, City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced that Millennium Partners, the developer of the 58-story tower—which is sinking into the ground and tilting further than originally projected—has been issued a subpoena.
The subpoena requests information to assist with an investigation into whether Millennium Partners complied with state law by disclosing the "structural sinking issues" to buyers of the building's 419 condos, Herrera's office stated in a press release.
According to Herrera's office, the tower at 301 Mission St. has sunk 16 inches since it opened to residents in 2009, and is leaning by two inches. It's expected to sink one inch per year into the landfill and continue sinking up to 15 inches.
"I have serious concerns that the disclosures required by state law, pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1102 et seq., did not contain information about the settling of the property, and as such, did not accurately inform the purchasers of more than 400 units of the conditions at the property," Herrera said in a letter to Millennium Partners that accompanied the subpoena.
This legal action comes as sales of units in the building have frozen, according to Curbed SF. While experts have said the sinking and tilting does not present a danger to residents, not a single condo in the building has sold since August 1st, when the latest sinking and tilting numbers were made public. One unit in the tower, which was the city's most expensive one-bedroom unit on the market, wiped $200,000 off its asking price.
Herrera's subpoena of Millennium Partners also comes a week after District 3 Supervisor Aaron Peskin and District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim demanded a separate investigation into allegations that political interference by city officials may have played a role in the tower's construction—which has the building anchored 80 feet down into landfill, instead of 200 feet down into bedrock.
Millennium Partners continues to assert that "all buildings settle," reports Curbed SF, and that the accelerated sinking and tilting was caused by construction on the Transbay Terminal, which the Transbay Joint Powers Association denies.
For those who'd like to follow the Millennium Tower saga in person, the Board of Supervisors' Government Audit & Oversight committee is holding a hearing on the matter at 10am this Thursday, Sept. 22nd, in the BoS Chamber (room 250 in City Hall).
