In this video, lawyer‑turned‑real‑estate agent Austin Klar chronicles the rise, fall, and partial redemption of San Francisco’s Millennium Tower. He begins by describing the tower’s 2009 debut as a luxury residential landmark, highlighting its award‑winning architecture, high‑end amenities, and premium finishes. By 2015‑2016 the building began to settle and tilt dramatically—16 inches by 2016 and 28 inches by 2022—causing safety incidents and a media frenzy. Klar outlines competing theories for the cause, including nearby Transbay Center construction and inadequate foundation on fill and sand. The ensuing legal battles involved developers, contractors, engineers, the city, and homeowners, leading to costly settlements and special assessments. An engineering remediation plan was executed from late 2020 to mid‑2023, involving the installation of 52 (later revised) deep piles extending 275 ft to bedrock, overseen by the Department of Building Inspection and an independent expert panel. The fix halted further sinking and reduced tilt, though some lean remains. Klar then presents market data: resale values plummeted 25‑50% from pre‑crisis levels, with notable sales in 2022‑2025, while sales volume rebounded after the fix (8 sales in 2022, 17 in 2023, a dozen in 2024). He argues that the building’s amenities, location, and completed remediation make it attractive again, especially as broader San Francisco trends—declining crime and homelessness, rising tourism, population growth, and falling office vacancies—are reversing the downtown condo market downturn. The video concludes with a call to action for viewers interested in the SF market.
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This is the story of one of San Francisco's most infamous buildings. When this high-rise opened in 2009, it was hailed as one of the best residential buildings, not just in San Francisco, but in the entire world. Hotel-like amenities, award-winning architecture, and grand residences with views spanning across the entire city. But a horrific discovery cost the residents, the developer, and contractors hundreds of millions of dollars and completely tanked property values in the building. This is Austin Klar, your lawyer turned real estate agent in San Francisco and Marin County, and I'm talking about San Francisco's San Francisco's Millennium Tower. In this video, I'm going to break down the entire history of one of the most storied buildings in San Francisco, including how the developer and the city, the contractors, worked tirelessly for years after discovering the horrific truth about the building's structural integrity. And I'm going to tell you about property values and sales volumes in the building, both after the issue was discovered and after the fix was in. And I bet you these stats will surprise you. Before we dive in, if you like videos about current events, new developments, and all the exciting things going on in San Francisco and Marin County, subscribe to my channel because I make videos about that stuff every single week. And if you're thinking about relocating to the city and have questions about the market, definitely reach out to me. I used to be a lawyer at one of the biggest law firms in the world before getting into real estate, and I've helped numerous people relocate from all over the country. I'll put my contact info in the description below. Reach out anytime. Now let's dive into one of the most fascinating stories in San Francisco's real estate history, the Millennium Tower. So the Millennium is comprised of 419 units spread across two residential buildings that are connected by a glass atrium at 301 Mission Street in San Francisco's SoMa neighborhood. The taller tower at the corner of Mission and Fremont, which is really what this video is all about, is a 58-foot floor tower, and there's a separate 12-floor residence tower as well. The 646-foot tall residential tower is the tallest concrete structure in San Francisco and the tallest residential structure in San Francisco. And construction on this was a beast. It started in 2005 and it wasn't complete until 2009. Mission Street developer LLC was the developer for the project, and they started construction in 2005 with Webcor as the main contractor, Handel Architects as the principal architect, and Desimone Consulting Engineering as the structural engineer. And let me tell you, when this building was completed, it was amazing. It was the crown jewel of San Francisco luxury amenity buildings, and it is stacked with anything you could ever want in a luxury building. Wine tasting and storage room, yoga room, Pilates studio, a 2,500-square-foot gym, a 75-foot indoor lap pool, steam rooms in the locker rooms, a massage room, a private dining room, club lounge with a full bar, 2-level outdoor terrace space with outdoor fireplaces, a movie theater, a separate children's play area, and around-the-clock concierge service. It was basically like living in a full-service hotel. The units were also outfitted with super high-end luxury finishes like Studio Becker cabinetry, marble and quartzite stone, high-end appliances like Sub-Zero, Wolf, Miele, GE, and Bosch. And the views in these units to this day, still incredible, spanning across the entire city depending on which side of the building you're on. And its design finishes and A-plus amenities won the building numerous awards when it first opened. It won awards for its structural integrity, including the American Concrete Institution Award for Construction, Structural Engineering Project of the Year by the American Society of Engineers. It won awards for environmental sustainability. It received industry acclaim for its luxury residences being named the best market rate residential project by the SF Business Journal in 2010 and a top 10 skyscraper by Emporis in 2009. But unfortunately, all that fanfare changed in 2015 and 2016. Now, all buildings, after they're built, settle into the ground a little bit. It is completely normal for building foundations to settle, but unfortunately, the Millennium Tower was settling at a much faster rate than would be expected. By 2016, the building had sunk 16 inches, and by 2022 that had grown to 28 inches. And it was only sinking on one side, so the building was leaning as well. And if that weren't enough, at one point glass window panes fell from one of the residences onto the street nearby pedestrians. When information about the building's structural issues was made public, a media blitz completely took over the building. The developer, the contractors, the city, the engineers, the residents— all of them were embroiled in massive legal battles. It was a total nightmare, especially for the residents who had spent billions of dollars to buy what they thought were top-of-the-line residences in the city. So how exactly did this happen? So the area that the tower is built on is a mixture of several different substances, including fill, mud, and sand, all sitting on top of bedrock. The foundation of the building was originally a massive concrete slab sitting on top of that sandy layer, not on bedrock. Now, what specifically caused the issue is, you know, a subject of debate. The developer claimed that sinking started when nearby construction began at the neighboring site of the Transbay Transit Center and a large amount of water was pumped out of the ground, which apparently caused the soil to compact at a faster rate than predicted and caused the foundation to be compromised. To fix the issue, engineers devised a plan to underpin the building's foundation by drilling 52 massive piles down to bedrock. So basically connecting the building to the bedrock itself. And then those new piles would tie back to the original foundation. It was estimated that this fix would cause the tilt of the building to correct back by about 50% of the existing tilt, but it was always known and assumed that the building would never 100% be corrected. There's always going to be at least some leaning and tilting. The goal was to make sure the building was safe for residents and passersby and to make sure that it wasn't sinking or leaning any further. The work was estimated to cost about $100 million. And as that plan was being devised, all the various lawsuits that were going on against all the various parties involved were being settled. So the hope was that this fix and these settlements could put the ugly history of this building in history. Work started on this in late 2020, and by around the middle of 2021, after 39 of the 52 piles were installed, it was discovered that the building actually was sinking further. So they had to devise a brand new plan that involved a different number of piles going 275 feet below ground, each of them supporting about 1 million pounds of weight. The goal was to shift weight from the original foundation to the new foundation so that pressure could be relieved on the soil. And all of this work being done was being done with extreme oversight by the Department of Building Inspection. All eyes were on them about this issue. There was also an independent panel of experts that were overseeing all of this fix. Now, unfortunately for the homeowners and the HOA, the fix that was put in place ended up costing a lot more money than was initially anticipated. And because everyone had entered into settlements of their various lawsuits at the time the original fix was contemplated and the original estimates were contemplated, the settlement amounts actually weren't enough to cover the total cost of the fix. So in order to get that work done, special assessments had to be levied against the residents. The HOA had to levy special assessments against the residents to plug that gap. So they're spending thousands and thousands of dollars of their own money after having their property values completely tank because of the issues with the structural integrity of the building. And on top of all that, you had all the changing dynamics going on in San Francisco at the time, especially in the downtown area, especially with remote work taking over with the pandemic. So there was a confluence of factors that really had a negative impact on property values and in particular for residents at Millennium Tower. And I'm going to show you some examples of that in just a minute. The numbers are pretty wild, so definitely stick around for it. By June 2023, all the work was completed and continued monitoring at the building seems to indicate that the fix actually does work. The issues with the building's structural integrity have been resolved. The building is unfortunately still leaning and it's probably always going to lean, at least to some extent. But but it's not sinking any further. It's not leaning any further, and the problem is getting better. So hopefully all of these issues are history and not things that the residents actively have to address any further. Now, what's most interesting to me about all of this is that since the announcement, even before a fix was in, sales have been going on in the building and there have actually been a lot of sales in the building, of course, at lower price points. One of the grand residences on the 54th floor that was purchased in 2012 for $4.3 million, last sold in 2022 for a little over $2.7 million. Another one on the 37th floor that was purchased in 2012 for $2.725 million, sold for $2 million in 2023. So basically after 10 years and all that headache and money spent on the fix, you know, their property value went down by 25%. And when you factor in, you know, their closing costs on the sale and all the HOAs they've paid and the interest rates they've paid, it's a lot of money that they lost. The largest resale of the building just closed in 2025. One of the grand penthouses sold for $9 million. That's about 50% of what it was purchased for nearly 10 years ago. Absolutely devastating losses for these residents. But sales are actually happening. I think people are recognizing that the fix is in and that there's extreme value to be had in light of the fact that the fix is in and property values hopefully should start trending back in the right direction. As of the time I'm filming this video in early 2025, there are 10 units for sale in the building, ranging from $775 per square foot to, you know, over $2,000 a foot. There have been a dozen sales since the beginning of 2024, and there were 17 sales in 2023, and that activity has actually picked up quite a bit following completion of all the work to fix the issues. You know, before the fix was done, there were only 8 sales in 2022. So volumes are picking up. People still want to live there, take advantage of the gorgeous finishes, the views, the amenities, the service. There's a lot of value to be had at these price points, and hopefully prices correct in the right direction. There's no debating it is, you know, one of the most beautiful buildings. People still want to live there, as evidenced by the number of people actually transacting in the building. It's because the building, especially as fixed, is one of the most beautiful buildings in the city, one of the most robust amenity packages available at any residential building in the city, and it's a super convenient location near a ton of big businesses, near the water, near transit, near the highway, near a ton of great food and open spaces. This building has so many things going for it. And now that the work to fix these issues has been completed, hopefully the trajectory is all positive from here. You know, outside of these building issues, a lot of the factors that were causing downturns in San Francisco real estate are correcting. You have falling crime rates, falling homelessness rates, rising tourism, rising population, falling office vacancies.. So all those factors that were causing property values, especially near downtown, to fall are starting to correct in the other direction. And that's had a positive impact on the condo market in particular in San Francisco over the past year. If you wanna learn more about those citywide trends, I've got another video where I walk through all the numbers and show you a bunch of data about that stuff. I'll link it up top in the description below. And if you like videos just like this or about living in San Francisco, current events, new developments, definitely subscribe to my channel because I make videos about that stuff every single week. And if you're thinking about buying a home and have questions about the changing San Francisco real estate market, definitely reach out to me. I've helped numerous people relocate from all over the country, and I'd be happy to be a resource for you. I'll put my contact information in the description below. Reach out anytime. I hope you enjoyed the video, and I'll see you in the next one.
