WTC INSURE WAR IS OVER
By TOM TOPOUSIS
May 24, 2007 -- Ending more than five years of bitter legal battles, the World Trade Center's insurance carriers agreed to fork over the remaining $2 billion in payments - a move that clears the way to rebuild the massive complex, Gov. Spitzer announced yesterday.
The deal with seven insurers brings the total payout for the World Trade Center to $4.55 billion, about $130 million less than what Ground Zero developer Larry Silverstein and the Port Authority had been seeking.
But the settlement avoids continued legal wrangling that could have lasted up to two years, removing what Spitzer called "the last major barrier to rebuilding."
"It permits us to move forward with certainty, it permits access to the capital markets, it resolves and eliminates one of the outstanding hurdles that had remained and it brings to closure years of litigation," Spitzer said.
Silverstein had been battling the insurance carriers in court since October 2001, when he first filed claims on the policies held by 24 different insurers. Two separate court decisions put the total owed in insurance at about $4.6 billion.
Until yesterday, all but seven of the carriers had paid on their policies.
State Insurance Superintendent Eric Dinallo, who was assigned by Spitzer eight weeks ago to negotiate a settlement, said that when he started "the estimates were there would be two more years of litigation."
The battle over the payments also drew the ire of federal, state and city lawmakers, including U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
"For too long some insurers were running away from their responsibility to pay what they owed - they resorted to business-as-usual tactics like talking tough and throwing up needless roadblocks," Schumer said yesterday.
Spitzer said he held no harsh feelings for the firms that held out, noting they had a duty to their shareholders in negotiating what is the largest insurance settlement ever.
No one seemed more relieved over the settlement than Silverstein.
"I say from the bottom of my heart, a very, very deep thank you," he said.
Silverstein will share the remaining insurance money with the PA as part of the deal giving the bistate agency control over the Freedom Tower and Tower 5. Silverstein will build three towers on Church Street.
So far, Silverstein has tapped the $2.55 billion received from insurance money to pay about $700 million in rent due under his lease to the PA.
