Luxury apartments in Mission Bay become crime magnet despite steep rents

From the outside, the two blocky, earth-toned buildings of MB360 Apartments resemble their neighbors in the up-and-coming Mission Bay neighborhood, filled with multistory luxury buildings, biotech campuses, tech offices, and gleaming hospitals run by UCSF and Kaiser.

But looks can be deceiving. Though MB360’s management company, Essex Property Trust, markets the complex as “Luxury living in San Francisco,” residents describe life there as anything but.

Tenants at the two buildings, located at 1200 4th St. and 701 China Basin St., pay between $3,000 and $5,000 a month. The average one-bedroom rents for about $4,117, roughly 3% lower than the Mission Bay average of $4,249, according to Zumper. But despite the high prices, there have been multiple car break-ins inside secured garages, a stolen catalytic converter, at least four apartment break-ins, and rampant package theft — allegedly by other residents — since 2020. The MB360 residents’ Facebook group, with 501 members, is brimming with complaints of crime and vandalism.

Supervisor Matt Dorsey, who represents Mission Bay, has called on law enforcement to investigate Essex Property Trust for failing to secure the building and allowing alleged drug dealing and human trafficking by residents. “There’s clearly a management issue,” he said. “This is unusual to hear in Mission Bay.”

Brad Nelson moved into MB360 in December 2023 and pays $3,100 a month for a one-bedroom apartment, plus $300 for parking. Within weeks, he began encountering disturbing scenes. 

One night in late January 2024, Nelson came home to find a homeless man slumped over in the hallway, he said. Such encounters happen every few months, because it’s easy to access his floor from the street without a key, particularly when the garage door is broken, which happens roughly once a month, residents estimate. 

The Standard was able to access the building twice without a key: on July 31 from the garage through unlocked doors leading to the second-floor hallway, and again on Monday, by tailgating residents who entered the building around 6 p.m., walking right past a front desk with no security guard. Once inside, anyone can freely access any floor via the elevator, which doesn’t require a keyfob.

Nelson said his calls to Essex about building problems often go unanswered.

“They say call the guard, but no one picks up,” he said.

Other tenants who asked not to be named for safety reasons, said they believe people living in a unit on their floor are serial package thieves. Footage from residents’ security cameras, taken between July 27 and July 31, shows individuals walking around on the sixth floor between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. carrying boxes or engaging in unusual behavior. 

In one clip taken around 7:15 a.m. on July 27, a man in torn jeans and a Cincinnati Reds hat can be seen pushing a cart with a large box on it down the sixth-floor hallway. Later that night, around 11 p.m., two men in all-black clothing are seen separately carrying a car wheel and tire as a woman in shorts and flip-flops walks between them. Several people can be seen riding through the hall on ebikes and scooters late at night.

“They’re walking around between 12 and 6 a.m. It’s high traffic,” said tenant Rich Lee.

Some issues have acute financial consequences for residents.

Jennifer Hwang moved into her two-bedroom apartment at MB360's Fourth Street building five months ago. On Aug. 10, she found her 2006 Honda Accord, which was parked in the building’s garage, jacked up with wires hanging out of the bottom. Hwang pays $300 a month for a secured parking spot, but that didn’t stop a thief from nabbing her catalytic converter. The replacement part and an anti-theft shield cost $2,300.

“I was annoyed. It’s so expensive compared to the rest of the car,” she said. 

Andrew Morandi, who lived at MB360’s China Basin Street building until 2022, remembers a 2020 break-in as “one of the worst days of my life.”

He had come back from work and saw that his door had been forced open. He lost four watches, bags, an iPad, a laptop, and a race bicycle — items worth $25,000.

Morandi said Essex was unhelpful, offering a wedge so his door would stay shut. While the management company fixed the door “within a few days,” it didn’t offer to reinforce it to prevent future break-ins. 

“They really didn’t want anything to do with the whole incident, which was really frustrating,” he said.

The next month, the company tried to raise his rent by $200, emails show. Morandi moved out shortly after.

Complaints about Essex — one of the nation’s largest apartment owners, with nearly 62,000 units across 252 complexes — are hardly restricted to MB360.

The company has been named in 23 lawsuits filed in San Francisco. It is also the defendant in a class action suit filed in 2023 in San Diego on behalf of all former residents of Essex-managed properties in the state from 2018 onward. That suit alleges the company illegally tacked on junk fees to increase rent amounts and billed tenants for normal wear-and-tear and services the company didn’t perform.

In 2019, Essex settled a federal housing complaint after a domestic violence survivor alleged that the company refused to remove her abusive husband from their lease despite a restraining order. As part of the agreement, Essex paid the woman $20,000 and agreed to adopt a domestic violence housing policy across its properties and train staff on fair housing rules.

Residents say Essex often fails to respond to complaints, and when it does, its responses are “generic, dismissive and factually incorrect, including false claims about security patrols,” as resident Liza Otanes alleges in a small-claims lawsuit filed Aug.11.

Lee said he has complained several times about alleged criminal activity, including drug dealing and prostitution, on his floor, but Essex has done little more than tell him to contact law enforcement.

In late July, he reported to Essex suspected organized theft and other criminal activity allegedly tied to a sixth-floor unit in his building, but the company offered no direct response beyond an email requesting more documentation and denying a rent credit. The company also instructed Lee to contact building security as soon as he witnesses suspicious activity, although residents claim that security guards don’t patrol the building.

“Regarding your request for compensation, I want to respectfully clarify that we are unable to offer a rent credit under these circumstances,” an Essex community relations representative wrote. “While we understand the severity of your concerns, issuing concessions does not resolve the underlying issues, which is why our focus remains on documentation, escalation, and enforcement.”

A trove of emails between Lee and Essex sheds light on the company’s often evasive and vague responses to complaints, which typically lack timelines or concrete steps for addressing security concerns.

In November 2023, Lee emailed Essex to report that a car in the building’s public parking area had been broken into and that the door leading from the garage to the lobby didn’t lock. An Essex representative wrote back that month that the company was “sending a janitor to clean up the glass” but didn’t share details about increasing security or surveillance. 

Two days later, Lee reported by email that the glass was still on the ground, all garage doors were stuck open, and the door leading to the lobby still did not lock.

“It’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve had this issue. Is there any eta to getting this fixed?” Lee wrote. “As mentioned last week, I found unhoused residents taking the elevators and staircases up into the building.”

Essex never responded to that email, according to Lee.

In several emails about package theft, an Essex representative instructed Lee to contact the courier and law enforcement but didn’t commit to securing the package room or increasing security patrols. 

Members of the Facebook group have chimed in on Essex’s lack of follow-through in posts dating back to 2020.

“I’m at my wits end!! Apt 219 blasts party music every week and it’s making my apt feel like a club. I’ve been calling [the security company] Bastion and emailing Essex and nothing happens,” says an anonymous post from July 25.

Supervisor Dorsey said he has heard from at least one tenant, Lee, about the issues at MB360 and has spoken to Southern Station police Captain Amy Hurwitz, the city attorney’s office, and the district attorney’s office about the building's safety record.

The supervisor said that while package thefts or break-ins can occur in any building — sometimes due to a single problematic tenant — repeated incidents point to a serious security risk and reflect mismanagement by the property.

“Ninety-nine percent of the time, it’s supportive housing. This is not,” he said.

Dorsey said he has asked the San Francisco Police Department — headquartered just one block from MB360 — and the DA to investigate allegations of drug dealing and human trafficking at the building.

He said he hopes the package theft and nuisance issues can be dealt with by the city attorney on the grounds that people are entitled to “quiet enjoyment” of their homes.

Representatives of Essex Property Trust did not respond to requests for comment.

Despite their frustrations with MB360, many residents acknowledge that they have no plans to leave, saying the complex remains the most affordable option in Mission Bay.

“It pisses me off, but you get used to the issue,” Nelson said. “If you want to be in Mission Bay and not spend a ton, you’re stuck here.” 

Other residents seem numb to the issues at the building.

A married couple living in a two-bedroom apartment on the fifth floor of one of the buildings, who spoke anonymously due to privacy concerns, said they’ve had a ski helmet, bike, and phone stolen in the five years they’ve lived there. They’ve seen four homeless people inside the building and say the garage gate breaks a few times a year, and at least one of the two elevators breaks once a month. Despite these issues, they are resigned to staying.

“That’s San Francisco,” the wife said.