Taxpayers are on the hook for $15.7 million in legal fees for the dispute over fixing San Francisco’s tilting Millennium Tower building. The money will be used to defend against claims that the neighboring Transbay Transit Center contributed to the sinking and tilting of the 58-story luxury residential high-rise. Nine lawsuits involving 146 lawyers and over 30 law firms have already been filed in the case of the off kilter building. The tower has sunk 18 inches and tilted 14 inches since it opened in April 2009. The buildings owners are blaming the shifts on the construction of the massive Transbay Transit Center, which opened last month.
Millennium spokesman P.J. Johnston said the transbay authority “has recklessly ignored (its) obligations, and it has tried to shift blame to the developer of the Millennium Tower. TJPA’s strategy will not succeed, and the (Superior Court’s) recent ruling shows that TJPA will be held accountable for its actions.”
Informed of the agency’s legal spending, San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who has been bird-dogging the Millennium’s troubles, said, “My hope is all the parties to the litigation — the builders, the homeowners association, the TJPA — will stop wasting money on lawyers and get into a room with their insurance companies and cough up the money to repair the Millennium Tower.”
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