Hines Apartment Building Uninhabitable Until at Least Early Next Year

Houston-based Hines submitted an action plan to fix its four-year-old building after two floods caused by a faulty sprinkler system deemed it uninhabitable, according to the San Francisco Business Times.

The firm received a plumbing permit to repair a section of 33 Tehama in San Francisco’s fire sprinkler system that caused the “reoccurring leaks,” public records show. A Hines spokesperson told the Business Times that the company now has 30 days to make repairs to the standpipe, but added that it will “amend the permits” if more time is needed.

Magnusson Klemencic Associates, the structural engineer of record, inspected the property after the incidents and came to the conclusion that “there has been no structural impact to the building,” according to the plan, which was filed with the Department of Building Inspection.

The initial incident in June that caused this call to action was a failure of a coupling on the 35th (top) floor standpipe, which resulted in 20,000 gallons of water flooding the building.

The most recent incident was another water leak that caused the evacuation of 10 residents and 15 construction workers last month. That leak was caused by a pipe being disconnected at the same standpipe that caused the first flood.

DBI issued the action plan after visiting the building in August and delivered Hines a Notice of Violation on Aug. 16. The notice’s aim was to pressure the firm to begin working on the required repairs.

Hines hired Turner Construction to complete the repairs of the 403-unit SoMa building. They did not disclose any estimated costs for the repairs.

The most recent flood happened weeks after Hines changed reoccupation timelines presented in June for the building, where it told residents that the building would remain uninhabitable until late this year or early next year. Residents were initially told they would be able to return in phases between August and October. The new goal is a return during the first half of 2023.

Hines told the business times that it “will not have a more accurate target timeline until our assessments of the fire suppression system and electrical system are complete.”

The firm stopped providing financial assistance to displaced residents and said residents may terminate their lease or come back to the building when it is safe. Residents have not been obligated to pay rent since Aug. 18.

Hines and Invesco delivered the building in 2018. Lendlease Group was the general contractor; Arquitectonica was the architect.

— Pawan Naidu