Transbay Authority says: Don't blame us for sinking Millennium Tower

This whole brouhaha is going to get uglier before it gets any better.

Yesterday, city lawmakers alleged that there may have been fishy dealings around the approval and construction of the troubled Millennium Tower, with Supervisor Aaron Peskin speculating about "some level of political interference" that allegedly squelched safety and seismic concerns in favor of wrapping up the towering project in 2009.

Late Tuesday, on a separate front, the Transbay Joint Powers Association released a statement battening down the hatches against allegations that the tower’s tilt is their fault, and that they withheld any information from the condo-buying public.

"Reports that the TJPA agreed to withhold data showing the tilt and excessive settlement of the Millennium Tower are incorrect," writes spokesperson Scott Boule.

In 2008, Millennium Partners granted permission for Transbay’s underground construction to encroach a bit under Tower property if in exchange they agreed to "monitor the movement of Millennium Tower."

And that’s just what they did, TJPA now insists. In fact, the Transbay folks claim they went so far as to warn Millennium about the building’s shifting positions months before the transit center project even broke ground.

In other words, "It was broken when we got here."

The statement further contends that warning buyers about the settling was building management’s job (which may be true, but probably isn't going to go over well with homeowners) and, amusingly, that Transbay "anticipated MP would blame TJPA for the tower’s movement."

A Millennium Partners spokesperson has not yet returned our request for comment. In the past, Millennium Partners has contended that their building was doing just fine until 2010, when all the digging started next door.

Both groups are named in a lawsuit by Millennium Tower homeowners eager to send heads rolling over their devaluing condos.

• Tower Investigation Begins [Curbed SF]
• Tower Is Sinking, Who’s To Blame? [KRON]