The Millennium Tower (dubbed as Leaning Tower), a 58-story building in San Francisco inaugurated in 2007, is reported to have sunk nearly 17 inches at its lowest point. According to the new monitoring data, the building has further tilted two-and-a-half inches since November 2016, causing the building to bend 14-inches northwest towards Salesforce building on the mission street. Shockingly, ARUP engineering firm has found that this building is tilting twice as fast, as it was predicted.
According to HOA (Attorneys for the Millennium HomeOwners Association), this matter should be taken into consideration as soon as possible by the responsible parties, and they should be held accountable for the causes that lead the building to sink and lean.
Daniel Petrocelli said that,
“This accelerated movement highlights the need to retrofit the foundation as soon as possible. The Millennium Tower Association will request an early trial in its ongoing lawsuit to hold the responsible parties accountable”
For this reason, the city, owners, and developers have filed several lawsuits in the past seven years.
The leaning tower has also led to a drop in the worth of apartments in the vicinity of this building. 50 owners of the apartment have already demanded tax relief in the board meeting on Tuesday. According to NBC area, 99 residents would receive a tax relief of $3000 on property taxes in 2017, since their properties have dropped $300,000 per unit. But, about three-quarter of the residents are still not offered the tax relief.
The Millennium Tower has an indoor cinema, health club, spa, indoor lap-pool, restaurant, and a wine bar. This tower was so well organized that just after it was inaugurated, 419 condos were immediately sold. Its tenants included former San Francisco 49er Joe Montana, Tom Perkins – the late venture capitalist, and Giants outfielder Hunter Pence. It was reported that Penthouses had been sold for nearly $13 million.
The spokesperson for tower developer Millennium Partners, PJ Johnston accused other buildings, since they are responsible for removing the ground water that is weakening the Millennium Foundation.
In the same statement, he said
“The recent data disclosed confirms that these impacts are continuing”
Who should be held accountable for this? Share your views in the comments section below.