BREAKING
GROUND
An intro to
Starr Companies’
construction
practice
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SUPERTALL, SUPERTHIN, SUPERRICH
New York’s supertall boom sets the stage for construction
“432ParkAvenueJuly2015” by Citizen59—Own work. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Commons—
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
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New York is a city under constant construction, but for the last three years, a special project has been
ascending to extraordinary heights two blocks off the southeastern corner of Central Park, between
56th and 57th Streets. On October 10, 2014, the luxury residential tower at 432 Park Avenue finally
poured its last concrete, officially setting its rooftop at 1,396 feet. This will make 432 Park the tallest
residential building in the Western Hemisphere and one of the tallest buildings in the world.
Depending on who is doing the measuring, 432 Park is also the tallest building in New York City. It certainly
has the highest rooftop, exceeding that of One World Trade Center (1,368 feet), the Empire State Building
(1,250 feet) and the Chrysler Building (1,046 feet). 432 Park has no spire, however, allowing both the World
Trade Center and the Empire State Building—which do have spires—to claim greater absolute height.
However it is measured, 432 Park remains a remarkable achievement that has already altered the New York
skyline. The building cost some $1.3 billion to construct and employed some 1,500 workers. It is also very
skinny, only 96 by 96 feet, making it what architects call a “needle tower” that requires special engineering
methods to ensure it stays upright, even during high wind and possible earthquakes.
432 Park is New York
City’s newest
supertall building.
432 Park was officially completed in spring 2015, when its first occupants move into one of the building’s
104 luxury condominiums. Units start at $7 million and go up to $95 million for penthouses. The units
range in size from 3,575 square feet to 8,255 square feet, including half-floor residences and select fullfloor penthouses. Units boast 10 ×10-foot windows, private elevator landings, heated bathroom floors
and an option to buy a climate-controlled wine cellar for $320,000. Private amenities for the building
include a restaurant, outdoor terrace, gymnasium, golf training facilities, 75-foot pool and massage
therapy room. Views from the penthouses will sweep over the whole of Manhattan and as far as the
Atlantic Ocean and Connecticut, looking down on the city’s helicopter traffic and the Empire State Building’s
observation deck. The only better view one can get of the city is from an airplane.
432 Park is just one of a number of luxury skyscrapers making up Billionaires’ Row—a group of residential
towers with units ranging from $5 million to $100 million near Central Park. Many of these buildings are
considered “supertall,” a designation by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitats as being between
984 and 1,968 feet in height. Anything taller than that (e.g., the Burj Khalifa in Dubai) is considered
“megatall.” Because their height can interfere with flight patterns, megatall structures are not permitted
in the U.S. by the Federal Aviation Administration.
At present, there are seven towers more than 1,000 feet tall in New York. However, there are enough
construction projects underway or scheduled to break ground in 2015 to eventually more than double
that figure. At least two of them are planned to be taller than 432 Park. This comes as unwelcome news
to skyline-watchers who have already decried 432 Park’s unusually tall, slender, geometric and strangely
imposing appearance, calling upon the city to police the future construction of other supertall towers
more closely. But it all comes too little, too late. It is also relatively moot.
Many of the “needle” skyscrapers being planned and built in New York are pushing the limits of what
can be built. One issue is airspace: 432 Park leased the airspace of its neighbors so it could tower over
them. There just is not a lot of open airspace left to accommodate a huge number of supertall needle
towers. There is not a lot of ground space, either. Even skinny towers require large footprints, which
can quickly render the most ambitious construction projects economically unfeasible. (This is certainly
the case in cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas and Chicago, whose real estate markets
are not nearly as supercharged as New York’s.)
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Supertall buildings are also limited as to how skinny they can become. Ultimately, they can’t violate
a 1:1.23 aspect ratio of their longest dimension to their shortest without falling over. And, as buildings
get taller, elevators don’t get any skinnier, making the highest floors unfeasibly small at some point.
Are “pencil
skyscrapers” the
wave of the future?
But for now, these are not the concerns of those who are buying units in 432 Park and buildings like it.
Despite the high price tags 432 Park demands, there are already more than $1 billion in tenants on the
books, and total occupancy is expected to bring it up to $1.7 billion. Those who can afford to live here
might be tempted by the amenities, the location and the view, but life at 432 Park also offers a chance
to occupy a building that can be seen from almost anywhere in and around Manhattan—no mean feat
in a town as thick with skyscrapers as New York and where architecture makes a unique kind of public
statement. For a piece of real estate, 432 Park is the ultimate ego trip for the superrich.
It is also the kind of construction project that would have been unthinkable just a few short years ago.
And yet buildings like 432 Park—with its ambition and opulence—seem like a mere warm-up exercise
compared to what is going on in the rest of the commercial and industrial construction markets.
For insurers, this means the kind of challenge and opportunity not seen in recent years.
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CONSTRUCTION FEELS SOME GROWING PAINS
An overview of the 2015 construction market
According to Dodge Data and Analytics, which compiles statistics, the construction industry is performing
quite strongly. The 2015 Dodge Construction Outlook, a widely respected source of construction industry
forecasting and business planning, 2015 will be a very good year for the U.S. construction industry.
Total U.S. construction starts for 2015 will rise 9% to $612 billion. In 2014, construction starts rose
5% to $564 billion.
The construction
market is heating
up...but that brings
challenges, too.
There are several factors driving this. First, commercial and residential construction are starting to catch
up to energy construction, which has been very strong in recent years. Commercial lending is becoming
more available as interest rates remain low, making more projects easier to finance. Millennials are moving
to cities more, heating up demand for apartments and condominiums. And large-scale commercial office
development is increasing noticeably. And all of this is happening in an environment where there are
trillions of dollars of as-yet unfunded state and federal infrastructure projects to commence. It all adds up
to a very positive outlook for construction in general, which is welcome news, given how badly this sector
performed in the years immediately following the financial crisis of 2008–2009.
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Developments to expect include:
oC
ommercial construction will increase 15%, driven by office building, hotel and warehouse construction.
o Institutional building will increase 9%, driven by an uptick in K–12 school building, empowered by the
passage of various construction bond measures. Also, increased healthcare facilities building will help
drive this area.
o S ingle-family housing will increase 15% in dollars, though the overall demand will be dampened
somewhat by millennials who have proven less than eager to embrace home ownership.
oM
ultifamily housing will increase 9% in dollars, and 7% in units to around 405,000, though the rate
of increase is expected to level off as this market matures.
o P ublic works construction saw a 9% drop in 2014, thanks to constrained federal spending. But in 2015,
there will be a 5% increase as states raise money for infrastructure projects themselves by imposing
higher user fees and with increased private-public partnerships.
o E lectrical utilities will decrease 9%, after huge increases in 2011 and 2012. As new projects come online,
the robust electricity capacity will cut the need for building even more generation plants.
oM
anufacturing plant construction will decrease some 16%, which is quite a reversal from the huge
increases of 42% in 2013 and 57% in 2014 as the energy and chemical industries invested in massive
new projects. An enormous glut in petroenergy capacity means this retraction in building might even
extend into 2016.
In construction,
within every challenge
is an opportunity.
Overall, construction is going up across the board, and even though activity is poised to pull back even
more in the energy sector, increases elsewhere still make the foreseeable future a relatively rosy one.
Concurrent with all of this are a number of additional trends worth watching—from JLL Research,
a leading firm that monitors the construction industry:
Construction is outpacing the economy. Since 2001, construction GDP tended to lag behind overall
GDP by several points every year, with particularly grim results in 2007–2009. However, since 2012,
that trend has reversed, and even as the overall economy is coming back to life, growth in construction
is even livelier, an encouraging sign for the industry.
Construction is hiring. Construction added 233,000 jobs to the economy in 2014, and the overall
increase in construction jobs finally reached prerecession levels. There is, however, a growing concern
that there may not be enough skilled workers and engineers for the work to be done.
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et ready to wait. The Construction Backlog Index—an average wait time for construction projects
G
to begin and a general indicator of the health of the construction markets—is now 8.88 months.
The backlog rate increased in 2014 in the West (9.42 months), Midwest (6.93 months) and Northeast
(10.2 months), while it went down in the South (8.98 months), the one region where overall construction
is still lagging but is positioned to expand.
osts are going up. Driven by so much demand, construction in general is getting more expensive.
C
This is principally because of increasing labor costs, especially in heavily unionized markets such
as New York, San Francisco and Boston. Those cities, along with Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles,
Philadelphia and Seattle, are currently the most expensive construction markets in the country.
(The lowest-cost environments are Denver, Atlanta and Pittsburgh.)
nd costs are going down. Steel and rebar prices are expected to drop in 2015, thanks to import
A
pressure and a decline in housing starts. Gypsum, plywood and softwood lumber prices are all expected
to level off in 2015 and may possibly drop slightly in the following year.
The construction
backlog is now
8.88 months.
ffice construction heats up. Office construction is poised to lead the way in growth in millions of
O
square feet (MSF) under construction for 2015. Retail construction saw little improvement from 2013
(48.2 MSF) to 2014 (49.4 MSF). Industrial construction jumped from 111.5 to 142.2 MSF in 2014, but it’s
poised to pull back as energy costs tumble. Office construction saw a jump from 47.3 MSF in 2013 to
778 MSF in 2014, and industry reports show that the numbers are expected to continue to rise, especially
as demand for building new “trophy offices” increases. The price per square foot for office construction
has risen to nearly $250 across the country, with higher ranges in Chicago, New York and San Francisco.
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CONSTRUCTION INSURANCE TRENDS
Wrap-ups, additional insureds & dwindling indemnity
While the construction industry is undergoing a period of intense activity, the construction insurance
market has been less affected by the recent surge in building activity. There is, at present, ample capacity
for both commercial and residential construction projects, and pricing is stable. New York remains
a special case, since there are a variety of factors that make writing construction insurance there fairly
difficult, chief among them labor laws that open up insurers to a much larger workers’ compensation
and general liability exposure than would be found in any other state in the country. As a result,
pricing in New York tends to be more dynamic and individually tailored to specific risks.
There are several noteworthy trends to watch for in the construction insurance sector.
Wrap-ups are
a key construction
product.
Controlled insurance programs. Also known as “wrap-ups,” these are comprehensive insurance
packages that bundle multiple insurance coverages (typically workers’ compensation and general liability,
as well as others) into a single program. They have become especially popular in recent years as a way
to provide coverage for especially ambitious construction projects with residential elements. They also
provide cost savings over buying multiple policies on a standalone basis, and they offer a single point
of contact for all insurance needs. This becomes especially important should any claims arise, since the
client won’t have to negotiate with multiple insurers.
There are two variants of these: owner-controlled insurance programs (OCIPs) and contractor-controlled
insurance programs (CCIPs).
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Traditionally, general contractors and subcontractors procured their own insurance (CCIPs), from insurers
of their choosing and then folded the cost of that insurance into what they charged the owner of
the construction project. With the advent of OCIPs, the owner provides all of the project’s insurance,
potentially enjoying substantial cost savings and retaining more control over the specifics of the coverage
itself. This brings with it additional administrative burdens, however, and it is not something to be taken
lightly. An OCIP with inadequate limits could find itself exhausted after a serious loss, leaving other
aspects of the project essentially without coverage. OCIPs could also face potential non-project claims
submitted by contractors.
Some projects have hybrid OCIP and CCIP programs where the owner and the contractors agree to share
the cost of risk, as well as split claims liabilities. These agreements need to be very carefully vetted to
ensure no difficulties during the claims process.
Standard language
for additional
insureds has
changed, raising
uncertainty.
Additional insureds. Owners, general contractors and subcontractors were all required to name
one another as additional insureds on their insurance coverage, to make sure there were no gaps in
liability protection. However, the standard policy language for defining additional insureds has changed,
introducing a level of uncertainty into construction risk management.
Most insurance policies employ template language written by Insurance Services Office, or ISO.
ISO introduced three major revisions to its language regarding additional insureds in 2013:
o AI coverage only applies to the extent permitted by law. What is uncertain here is if this provision voids
AI coverage if the policy is also covered by certain state anti-indemnity laws. This creates a problem,
especially for insureds operating in multiple jurisdictions.
o Coverage will not be broader than that required of the named insured by the contract or agreement
to provide for such additional insured. This restricts the scope of AI coverage to whatever the underlying
insurance agreement offers and nothing more. AI endorsements that offer additional amounts of
coverage are void.
o Limits of coverage for the AI are the lesser of: a) the amount of insurance required by the contract or
agreement, or b) limits shown in the declarations page for the named insured’s policy. What this means
is that AI coverage will be limited to the contract terms or the policy terms, whichever is less. Previously,
if the insured had $2 million in coverage and suffered a $2 million loss involving an additional insured,
but the contract with the additional insured only offered to pay $1 million in coverage, the insured
would still have to pay the full $2 million. That is no longer the case. Insureds only have to pay the
lesser amount, according to the new AI form. This is good for providers of AI coverage, but not so
much for the AIs themselves.
Dwindling indemnity from negligence. For years, California law provided construction contracts with
three types of valid indemnity agreements, by which contractors could require indemnity (exemption from
liability) for claims arising out of design defects or one’s own “sole” negligence.
o Type 1 agreements afforded protection for everything but sole negligence.
o Type 2 agreements afforded protection for “passive” but not “active” negligence. (Active negligence
stems from direct action that fails to use ordinary care and results in some kind of harm. Passive
negligence stems from the failure to perform an action or live up to an obligation and also results
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in some kind of harm. A forklift driver who drives the forklift at excessive speed and crashes into
something as a result is an act of active negligence. A forklift driver who failed to engage the forklift’s
parking brake, allowing it to roll and crash into something, is an act of passive negligence.)
o Type 3 agreements for protection are only in the event of the indemnitor’s negligence.
Integrated services,
drones and 3-D
printing all bear
watching.
These agreements have all been considerably narrowed in scope by subsequent legislation in recent years.
Today, it is virtually impossible to get Type 1 indemnity agreements. Type 2 indemnity agreements can
still be procured for public and commercial projects, but not for residential ones. Not surprisingly, this is
changing the liability landscape for construction risk in general in California and bears close monitoring.
It also increases the possibility of similar legislative changes in other states, as well.
Other emerging risks. In addition to these larger trends, other issues worth considering include:
Integrated services. There has been a trend of mergers, acquisitions and integration among architectural,
engineering and construction firms in recent years, as these businesses seek to provide a wider array
of services and maintain their own growth. However, this is also blurring the line between design and
construction, which is likewise blurring the lines of where one kind of liability starts and another ends.
For underwriters, this will require a close examination of insureds’ operations to prevent coverage gaps,
but also to define coverage limitations.
Drones. Contractors are beginning to use aerial drones extensively to monitor construction sites.
There are no clear-cut rules on this, nor is it clear that the use of aircraft is excluded from liability.
3-D printing. Contractors are increasingly using this new technology to manufacture components right
on the worksite. While this provides them with greater operational flexibility and efficiency, it also creates
a products liability issue underwriters should be aware of.
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BLUEPRINT FOR SUCCESS
An overview of Starr’s construction solutions
Starr Companies’ Construction products provide clients of all sizes and needs with a broad range of
standard and specialty insurance products to address their simplest to their most difficult exposures.
Starr can customize innovative and comprehensive coverages, provide consistent service and reduce
the kind of coverage gaps that can arise when using multiple carriers.
Starr Companies specializes in wrap-ups, as well as offering both primary and excess liability coverage
to clients from within the same company, providing an unparalleled ease of interaction between insurer
and insured.
Starr specializes
in providing
wrap-up coverage.
Starr’s target classes are commercial general contractors and commercial trade contractors (e.g., street and
road excavators, HVAC, plumbing, electrical, carpentry, interior fit out, masonry, landscaping), infrastructure.
Starr also targets a wide range of construction projects themselves, such as commercial building
construction, infrastructure construction (roads, bridges, tunnels, sewers, electrical grids, etc.), institutional
construction (schools, hospitals), municipal and DOT projects and street and road improvements.
Starr provides a number of coverage options pertaining to construction operations, including:
o Wrap-ups
o Primary construction coverages (including workers’ compensation, general liability and commercial auto)
o Property (including builder’s risk, boiler & machinery and equipment)
o Architects and engineers liability
o Supporting lines (including environmental impairment liability and business interruption)
o Excess liability (including follow form and ventilated coverage)
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Wrap-ups. This is not a form of insurance unto itself, but rather, comprehensive coverage packages
that provide multiple lines of coverage to the insured. Starr specializes in providing wrap-up coverage to
its construction clients and can cover virtually any kind of property or liability exposure the construction
operation faces. Construction wrap-ups are a preferred method of buying (and selling) insurance because the
buyer gets advantageous pricing, perhaps more insurance capacity than they might get with a collection of
standalone policies and a single point of contact with the insurer. They are preferred by the insurer because
they represent a larger sales opportunity and a greater ability to control more of the risk.
Starr provids a wide
range of coverages
to suit different
construction needs.
Primary construction. Standard commercial insurance operations coverage, including general liability
(accidental harm to a third party by the insured), workers’ compensation (harm to an employee in the
scope of their professional duties) and commercial auto (property damage and/or liability caused or
sustained by vehicles used by the insured for professional purposes). The minimum account premium for
any primary constructions, either monoline (purchased standalone) or multiline (purchased as part of a
wrap-up) is $250,000.
Workers’ compensation is underwritten and serviced directly by Starr Indemnity and is available in all 50
states. It is written as a supported line and can be done monoline (standalone) on a case-by-case basis.
Minimum premium for multiline workers’ comp is $100,000; monoline is $250,000.
General liability is underwritten and serviced directly by Starr Indemnity and is available in all states.
Commercial auto provides auto liability and physical damage, underwritten and serviced directly by Starr
Indemnity, in all states.
Property. Starr Companies covers various kinds of property damage or breakage that can happen
at a construction site.
Builder’s risk. This is property coverage to the build itself, to protect against any kind of harm done
to it during construction (e.g., fire).
Boiler and machinery. A specialized property coverage for hot water boilers and heavy machinery that
entail especially high values and/or special risks (e.g., explosion).
Equipment. Another specialized property coverage for the specific tools used by the insured, including
construction vehicles such as earthmovers.
Architects and engineers liability. Through this line, Starr provides what is essentially products liability
for the construction world. It covers any liability damages that may arise out of defective or flawed
design or deficient work. Examples of such liability might include damages caused by a building collapse
because the design of the building was not correct, or a collapse because on-site engineers failed to
correctly interpret the blueprints they were given. Starr does not handle this coverage through its primary
construction team; rather, it is handled by a separate team that specializes in liability coverages.
Supporting lines. These are lines of insurance that are not specific to construction, but are often
included in construction wrap-ups, as they address common business insurance needs. They include:
Environmental impairment liability. Covers pollution damages caused by the insured.
Business interruption. Covers any revenue lost due to an unforeseen cessation of operations. Often
concurrent with other losses. A large fire at a worksite is a builder’s risk loss, but if work cannot
immediately resume, it also becomes a business interruption loss.
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Excess liability. Additional liability coverage to be placed on top of whatever primary coverage the
insured has bought. Starr offers both follow form excess liability and ventilated excess liability. In many
construction operations, no one insurance policy will offer limits high enough to cover the insured’s entire
liability exposure, so layers of additional, or “excess,” liability coverage are purchased. Starr offers both
follow form excess liability and ventilated excess liability. The stacking of layers of primary and excess
liability coverage is referred to as the “tower.”
Follow form excess liability picks up exactly where the primary layer of coverage hits its limit,
ensuring seamless coverage. For smaller risks that need only a single layer of liability, follow form
coverage is desirable because all liability is ultimately handled by the same insurer.
“Ventilating the
tower” doesn’t refer
to air conditioning.
Ventilated excess liability assumes a range of liability that does not coincide with any other layers of
protection. Ventilating excess coverage imposes coverage gaps between the primary and excess layers,
so the insured must find another insurer to fill that gap. This is to ensure that the primary/lead excess insurer
is not exposed to any large losses that might easily affect more than one layer at once. Ventilating the tower
is common when covering large risks with substantial liability limits (e.g., $500 million).
Example: An insured might have a wrap-up policy with Starr that includes $5 million in general liability
coverage. The insured wants $100 million in general liability coverage. In a ventilated tower, Starr may offer
to cover losses between $25 million and $50 million and losses between $75 million and $100 million.
This means the insured would have to get separate coverage from a different insurer to cover losses
between $5 million and $25 million and losses between $50 million and $75 million.
T he first layer of excess liability Starr provides is its Lead Excess. Additional layers of excess liability
coverage are considered High Excess. Starr has $50 million in total excess capacity for any given risk
and can offer it in any combination of layers. Preferred classes for excess liability include infrastructure,
institutional, heavy trade, street and road, HVAC and MEP (mechanical, electrical, plumbing) contractors.
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THE STARR DIFFERENCE
Robust loss control, strong client relationships, swift service
Starr is a strong, stable insurer that is committed to forging long-term relationships with its construction
clients. It is capable of crafting individualized solutions driven by a deep level of industry experience
and familiarity with specific construction markets and brokers. It has exceptional teams handling claims,
actuarial, loss control and credit analysis.
And yet these are not some of Starr’s strongest differentiators in this market. These are the kinds of things
other insurers also claim. But what they cannot claim is what truly sets Starr apart.
Starr offers speed,
efficiency and
program integration.
Breadth and depth. Starr can offer virtually any kind of construction-related coverage, except for surety.
Moreover, it can cover all forms of contractor and construction operation. It has almost no geographic or
coverage restrictions of any kind, which is a huge advantage in this market, since it means that Starr will
be there for multiyear deals with key accounts. Put another way: insuring a construction risk with Starr
means getting support that will last the lifetime of the project.
Because construction risk can be such a difficult class to write well, many insurers pick and choose which
aspects of it they wish to insure. Starr’s approach? Understand the entirety of it and build the ability to cover
anything. This has given Starr the means to compete successfully with much larger insurers in this field.
Speed, efficiency and integration. Starr offers both primary and excess coverage from teams that
work in close concert. This means Starr can offer a ventilated program that saves its insureds time and
effort. This is important because for many construction projects, the deals often come together at the
last minute, leaving owners and contractors in a sudden scramble for coverage. Starr can provide that
coverage with a speed and efficiency that its clients have come to love and to depend upon. Not every
insurer can do it. Starr can.
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Likewise, since Starr is heavily involved in related lines such as marine, environmental and property,
an insured can expect the same level of account integration when crafting a wrap-up for their project.
As a company, Starr has a very flat structure, and this enables underwriters and loss control and claims
specialists from across the company to interact easily with each other. This means that Starr’s construction
clients can enjoy an efficiency of scale few other insurers can match.
Starr’s Account
Service Managers
are major
differentiators.
Account Service Manager. Starr assigns an Account Service Manager to all of its construction clients.
This professional has a claims background and serves as the client’s single point of reference for any and
all program needs, which means that no matter what the problem or challenge, the customer need only
contact their Starr ASM and everything else will be coordinated within Starr. This is very uncommon in the
construction market, where clients often must coordinate among the various departments of the insurers
they have placed coverage with. During a construction emergency, clients do not want to spend precious
time navigating their insurers’ internal organization. With Starr, they never have to.
The Starr construction ASM has a kickoff meeting with all new clients that includes the contractor, the
broker, claims adjustor and credit manager. They all meet in person so they can begin to build a working
relationship before it is ever tested by challenges out in the field. This approach has been hailed by many
of Starr’s clients as a special advantage Starr has over other carriers, who simply do not offer such a deep
level of service and as a commitment to ensure that their clients have a truly integrated team watching
over them.
New York ready. New York is an especially difficult construction insurance market, in large part because
of long-standing scaffold and construction labor laws enacted after projects like the Brooklyn Bridge build,
which claimed numerous workers’ lives. These laws mandate that any third-party liability loss immediately
passes through to the insurer and becomes a first-party liability. For insurers, this makes even basic
construction insurance de facto general liability and workers’ compensation coverage as well. Put another
way: the laws in New York make writing insurance in this market several times more difficult—and
potentially more costly—than anywhere else in the country.
Small wonder, then, why so few insurers do business in New York. Starr is one of them.
How it succeeds in the Empire State is by having built—and stood by—long-term relationships with
the brokers, developers and contractors who serve this market. Starr’s clients actively work with Starr,
because they know that there are few insurers willing to stay in New York construction long-term and
fewer still who are willing to do so while standing by their clients as well.
Starr can also underwrite this business skillfully—which is easier said than done, given the potentially
enormous liabilities attached—and can afford to do this because it profiles its new business very, very
closely. Who is the contractor? What is their tenure within the industry? What is their reputation?
What projects have they worked on? What is their loss experience? Do they work well with their
subcontractors? By vetting its clients so closely, Starr ensures that the business it writes is the right
kind of business—for itself and for the client
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CONCLUSION
Turning construction challenges into opportunities for success
After years of languishing in recessionary doldrums, the construction industry has returned to significant
growth in the manufacturing, energy, commercial, institutional and even residential sectors. It all adds up
to a construction demand growing so fast that some industry watchers are worried there might not be
enough skilled labor to meet the demand.
A better kind of
construction needs
a better kind of
insurance—Starr.
For now, that is a good problem to have, and it has created huge new opportunities for the construction
insurers who are needed to help tomorrow’s building projects manage their risk. But new trends are
challenging old ways of thinking. The growing popularity of controlled insurance programs, changes in
additional insureds’ parameters, dwindling indemnity from negligence and novel new technologies such
as drones and 3-D printing, all require construction insurers to think outside of the box.
Starr does this through offering a wide, deep array of insurance solutions for virtually any kind
of construction project or operation. It can provide primary and excess layers within an integrated
framework that makes the insurance transaction a seamless one for the client. This is furthered by
the use of an Account Service Manager approach uncommon to construction, as well as a speed
and efficiency that enables even the most last-minute project to get the risk financing it needs.
Starr stands apart from its competitors by understanding its insureds better than anyone else ever can.
By showing how it can succeed even in challenging markets such as New York, Starr Construction
insurance programs are the solution of choice for the builders of today and the architects of tomorrow.
The coverages described in this document are only a brief description of available insurance coverage. It is intended for general information purposes
and does not provide any guidance regarding coverage that may or may not be available under this policy in respect to any claim. Any policy issued by
Starr Indemnity & Liability Company will contain limitations, exclusions and termination provisions. Not all coverages available in all jurisdictions.
Starr Companies (or Starr) is the worldwide marketing name for the operating insurance and travel assistance companies and subsidiaries of Starr
International Company, Inc. and for the investment business of C.V. Starr & Co., Inc. and its subsidiaries. Starr is a leading insurance and investment
organization with a presence on five continents; through its operating insurance companies, Starr provides property, casualty and accident & health
insurance products as well as a range of specialty coverages including aviation, marine, energy and excess casualty insurance. Starr’s insurance company
subsidiaries domiciled in the U.S., Bermuda, Hong Kong and Singapore each have an A.M. Best rating of “A” (Excellent). Starr’s Lloyd’s syndicate has a
Standard & Poor’s rating of “A+” (Strong). Starr’s insurance company subsidiary domiciled in China has an A.M. Best rating of “A-” (Excellent).
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