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SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU/BCN) - A San Francisco supervisor is demanding answers from the developers of the sinking and tilting Millennium luxury high rise downtown.
“There are huge gaps in the record,” says Supervisor Aaron Peskin. He says the Department of Building Inspectors (DBI) is missing documents from Millennium Tower Developers over city concerns that it was sinking years ago.
“I believe and I know this is a very serious allegation that there was some level of political interference with the day-to-day duties of individuals who are charged with making sure that in this seismically-prone area that we live in, were not allowed to do their job,” said Peskin on Tuesday.
Peskin and Jane Kim say Amy Lee, the then head of DBI, and the project’s permit expediter, Patrick Otellini, will be required to testify before the government audits and oversight committee September 22. DBI’s principal engineer, Hanson Tom, will also be called.
“We're going to find out who knew what and when they knew it,” exclaimed Peskin.
Engineers for the luxury tower on the corner of Mission and Fremont streets anticipated that the tower would sink 4 to 6 inches. So far, it has sunk 16 inches and is projected to sink up to more than 30 inches.
"My heart goes out to the over 400 individuals and families of who have purchased units in that building,” Peskin added.
KTVU learned about the sinkage problem in 2011 from crews working on the Transbay Terminal Project next door to the tower.
They claimed the tower was sinking, but there was no record of it. Now it has come to light that the Transbay Terminal and Millennium developers reached a confidentiality agreement.
In July of 2012, soils engineer Frank Rollo, hired by Millennium, told KTVU that he received a daily report on any movement of buildings near the Transbay Project.
“If there is a slight movement occurring we know why it's happening, but is that movement going to be detrimental to the performance of the building? It is not as we sit here today,” said Rollo, a geo-technical engineer for Millennium.
“Before the first shovel of dirt was turned on the Transbay Terminal, they already knew that that building was sinking,” he added.
When engineers designed the Millennium Tower, they only drilled pilings 80 feet down into dense sand. Most buildings in the area drill 200 feet down into bedrock, but Millennium says the city never required them to do that.
Millennium Partners released the following statement on Tuesday:
"To suggest that Millennium Partners or the developer for 301 Mission Street asked for or received any inappropriate treatment by city agencies, at any time in this process, is simply outrageous."
The Millennium Tower Association, representing homeowners in the luxury building, issued a statement today saying it was troubled by reports that Millennium Partners and the Transbay Joint Powers Authority were meeting as much as six years ago to discuss the settling of the building.
"The Association also finds troubling -- as should the public -- the allegations that a public agency sought to keep secret the building's condition," association spokesman Charlie Goodyear said. "The Association continues its investigation to get to the facts of these matters."
While Mayor Ed Lee did not offer a comment today, he did write a letter to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein earlier this month responding to her query about the project.
In the letter, Lee said that the tower's design, which was approved before he was elected to office, went through a peer review process by a panel of experts and the project was designed and constructed according to standards and codes in place at that time.
"That said, the Department of Building Inspection has suggested the Homeowners Association make corrective actions to improve the joints, plumbing and other operational parts of the building," the letter said.
Lee said that the Department of Building Inspection has "enhanced and clarified" its peer review process for skyscrapers since the tower was approved. He is now also asking city staff to examine other safety measures for buildings considered to be at high seismic risk.
The Board of Supervisor's Government Audit and Oversight Committee will hold a hearing on the Millennium Tower project Sept. 22 at 10 a.m.