Moving

Penthouse Atop San Francisco’s Millennium Tower Asks $14 Million

In the Millennium Tower, the San Francisco condominium building that’s reportedly falling, a $14 million penthouse is coming on the market.

The seller is Craig Ramsey, a technology industry veteran, co-founder of publicly traded cloud computing company Veeva Systems and software company Vlocity, which was sold to Salesforce in 2020 for about $1.3 billion, he said. He also worked at Oracle for years.

The 5,000 square foot, two bedroom apartment is on the top floor of the approximately 60 story luxury condominium building that opened in 2009. Mr. Ramsey paid $13 million in 2016 to buy the furnished apartment from the estate of late venture capitalist Tom Perkins.

In 2016, reports circulated that the South of Market building was leaning and had lost more than a foot in height since its completion and was expected to continue to fall. Project developer Mission Street Development has been sued by the city and residents of the building.

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Mission Street Development could not be immediately reached for comment.

More recently, engineers have worked to stabilize the building and correct the tilt. According to Ronald O. Hamburger of Simpson Gumpertz & Heger, the company working on behalf of Mission Street Development to fix the problem, engineers have installed 18 piles to supplement the building’s existing foundation and are now working to reduce the weight shifting structural problems of the building from the building to the new piles. In late January, the project team shifted some of the load to six of the 18 piles, which immediately restored a small portion of the settlement that had occurred and some of the tilting, he said. Another transfer is expected in June, he said.

Mr Ramsey said he was aware of the structural issues when he bought the penthouse but was confident they could be resolved and saw it as an opportunity to take advantage of the low prices. Since Mr. Perkins paid $9.4 million for the unit as raw space in 2009 and spent an additional $9 million on the build-out, Mr. Ramsey felt he got a great deal.

“I knew the building was tipping over,” he said. “As a result, I got a very good discount.”

At the time of purchase, Mr. Ramsey already owned a smaller unit downstairs and said he wanted to use this as a family while he moved upstairs.

Mr Ramsey has not lived in the Millennium Tower for several years, he said. He has relocated to Santa Rosa, California and also has homes in Montecito, on Lake Tahoe and in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. He said that now that he has grandchildren, he spends more time in his more bedroom homes.

The penthouse offers stunning views of the Golden Gate Bridge, Bay Bridge, Transamerica Pyramid and other landmarks. There is a 3,500-square-foot great room and a 500-square-foot terrace overlooking the San Francisco Bay. Mr Perkins, a music lover, upgraded the living room with an “orchestral ceiling” to distribute the music evenly throughout the home, Mr Ramsey said.

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The sale of the flat will include several pieces of art dating from Mr Perkins’ time there which would be difficult to transport, Mr Ramsey said. This includes a tall sculpture made from hundreds of layers of thinly ground glass. Mr. Ramsey estimated it weighed more than 6,000 pounds. He will not ask for any additional money for this, he said.

“I want to negotiate a price [for the art]but it’s not easy to negotiate when you don’t have a choice,” he said.

With the building now stabilising, Mr Ramsey believes the problems are largely over and the building will attract new buyers. He said reports of rising crime and quality of life problems in San Francisco played little role in his decision to sell.

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“San Francisco is one of the most beautiful cities in the world,” he said. “And sadly, the reputation has gotten a bad rap, but like most cities, the problems and the crime lie in very specific places.”

He said he was surprised the unit’s value hadn’t risen as much as he’d hoped, but he wasn’t overly concerned. “It’s not like the difference is a big change in my life,” he said. “At this point, market value is market value.”

He noted that its price is “aggressive” and designed to move the device around quickly.

Mr. Ramsey sold his smaller Millennium Tower unit last year for $2.725 million, far less than the $4.3 million he paid for it in 2012, records show. According to Gregg Lynn of Sotheby’s International Realty, Mr. Ramsey’s real estate agent, such losses were typical of homeowners who bought before construction problems were discovered and sold before repairs made any progress. Mr Lynn said few units on Millennium Tower’s upper floors have been resold as some owners may have waited for structural issues to be resolved before listing them.

The San Francisco real estate market is in the midst of a slowdown. According to a report by Sotheby’s, there were 38% fewer completed sales in the first quarter than in the same period last year. Median retail price was $1.3 million, down 12% from the same period in 2022.

Mr Lynn said he now sees signs of a recovery in the market as some buyers are willing to look past “San Francisco’s poor PR” and are looking to “buy the market down”.

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