Seven insurers have agreed to pay an additional $2-billion to developers of the World Trade Centre, resolving all outstanding claims from the September 11 2001 attacks and speeding redevelopment of the site, New York State officials announced on Wednesday.
The settlement, which will be split between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the Ground Zero site and developer Larry Silverstein, who held the lease on the buildings when they were destroyed, ends more than five years of litigation between Silverstein and the insurers.
”I don’t think anyone thought it would ever end,” said Eric Dinallo, New York State insurance superintendent, who helped broker the settlement.
The insurance companies include Allianz, Employers Insurance of Wausau, Royal Indemnity, Swiss Re and its Industrial Risk Insurers affiliate, The Travelers Companies and Zurich Financial Services AG, according to a statement from Dinallo and New York governor Eliot Spitzer.
Officials consider the settlement the last major obstacle to redeveloping Ground Zero. Wrangling over the size of the payouts, together with questions about design and security, have slowed the rebuilding of the site, which many see as crucial to restoring lower Manhattan’s role as one of the city’s key business districts.
Silverstein’s firm, Silverstein Properties, had won a maximum $4,68-billion from insurers in lawsuits, only about two-thirds of what the developer had sought.
Silverstein had collected nearly $2,5-billion of that amount. The amount of the remaining payment depended in part on the amount of damages Silverstein could prove.
Silverstein Properties and the Port Authority had agreed in 2006 to split remaining insurance proceeds, with about 56% going to Silverstein and about 44% to the Port Authority, and the additional $2-billion secured by the settlement will be divided along those lines.
The Port Authority and Silverstein are both redeveloping the World Trade Centre site.
The settlement will allow the rebuilding project to tap tax-free bonds and other credit markets.
Construction of the World Trade Centre’s Freedom Tower, considered the project’s centerpiece, restarted in April 2006 after delays.
The Ground Zero site redevelopment could not have been completed without resolving the question of how much money insurance companies would pay out.
”It was a lot like starting a long car journey with your gas tank half full, and hoping you would find a gas station along the way,” said Anthony Coscia of the Port Authority.
In a statement, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg called the pact a ”major step” toward redevelopment.
One or two?
In lawsuits, Silverstein had claimed that the two planes that struck the Twin Towers constituted two separate insurance events, entitling him to twice the payout.
A federal appeals court last October upheld jury findings that some insurers could treat the attack as a single event, while others would have to treat it as two events, depending on the wording of their policies.
Details of Wednesday’s settlements were not disclosed, but Allianz said it had already set aside funds for its payouts, and so the settlement would not impact earnings.
Zurich, which also said it had already reserved funds for the payouts, said its additional settlement payment is $19,34-million, beyond the $76-million it had previously paid. – Reuters