Silverstein Can’t Recover WTC Redesign Costs

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that World Trade Center lessee Larry Silverstein isn’t entitled to nearly $700 million in additional recovery from his insurers to make structural changes for “safety, security and public policy imperatives.”In an order Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. ruled that the maximum recovery for Mr. Silverstein on a replacement cost basis should be measured by the cost to replace the World Trade Center on an “as was” basis under provisions in “binder policies” issued prior to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.The ruling applies to six insurers who had not issued final insurance policies prior to the attacks, but had issued binders that gave Mr. Silverstein interim insurance coverage while terms were being negotiated. The insurers include units of St. Paul Travelers Co., Zurich Financial Services and Allianz AG Holding.“Separately and together, the provisions unambiguously establish that the most the insureds can recover on a replacement cost basis is the amount it would cost to reproduce the WTC beam-for-beam, pane-for-pane, as it stood early on the morning of September 11, 2001,” the judge said.The insurers and Mr. Silverstein are in the midst of an appraisal process to determine certain measures of the World Trade Center’s value, including replacement cost, the complex’s actual cash value and the rental value lost as a result of the destruction of the World Trade Center. An appraisal panel, as provided for in the underlying policies, will resolve disputes as to the valuation of the insured’s loss.“Today’s ruling will not affect the total amount of insurance available to rebuild the World Trade Center or negatively impact the timetable for construction,” a spokesman for Silverstein Properties, Bud Perrone, said in a statement.Earlier this year, Mr. Silverstein provided the insurers with new estimates for a hypothetical redesign that he claims would be necessary in order to comply with changes in building codes and safety and security regulations if he were to rebuild the original Twin Towers that stood on the World Trade Center site. The charges are required in his lease with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site.The changes include increasing the height of each floor by 18 inches, which would make the new tower 258-feet taller than the old Twin Towers; adding a 200-foot “blast wall” to the base of each tower; replacing the windows with stronger glass; and eliminating their steel truss floor design.Instead of rebuilding the Twin Towers, a single 1,776-foot tall Freedom Tower surrounded by several smaller office towers is expected to be built on the World Trade Center site, along with a memorial to those who lost their lives in the attacks.Mr. Silverstein had argued that the term “replacement cost” in the binders required the insurers to reimburse expenses associated not just with reconstructing WTC as it was, but with building it the way a developer would do so in 2006.“The insureds no doubt wish they had purchased such a policy, but they didn’t,” the judge said.

Silverstein Can’t Recover WTC Redesign Costs

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