Cliffside apartment building demolished in California

An apartment building in danger of falling off its cliffside site in Pacifica, California, was demolished, a report by the L.A. Times says. The building was named uninhabitable by city building officials and a geotechnical consultant in January 2016 after El-Nino storms and rains cause portions of the eroding cliff to fall into the ocean.

The 20-unit building was constructed in the 1960s, according to the report. A neighboring 20-unit apartment building was demolished in March 2016. Both units are owned by Millard Tong, who filed for bankruptcy in 2015.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, SV Demolition, San Jose, California, demolished the site for $218,650. 

A third building in the area was also demolished by a private owner winter 2016, the report says. The city spent $3.65 million repairing a dozen locations damaged by winter storms, including the cliffs. Two million dollars of the cost will be covered by the city’s insurance and $1 million will come from a state disaster fund, the report says.

The city has also applied for assistance from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to update the site’s wastershed pipelines, repair and replace a seawall and promenade and reinforce the cliffs below the demolished site, according to the report. All three requests have gone through the first phase of approval.

The city plans to sue Tong for the demolition costs of both structures, the San Francisco Chronicle says.