Pooling the experience and expertise of its professionals enabled Adjusters International to develop a solution that again exceeded the client’s expectations and created the best possible outcome. In late summer 2002, a massive fire broke out at Santana Row in San Jose, California. Owned by Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRIT), Santana Row is a mix of residential and commercial properties occupying more than 30 acres.The property was in the final phase of construction at the time of the fire and was designed to include 125 retail/ commercial spaces, 501 residential units (townhouses and flats) and a 213-room, awardwinning boutique hotel.The fire left a total of 276 luxury apartments and villas, and 60 street-level retail stores reduced to ashes. With the Federal Realty home office located on the East Coast, and Santana Row situated thousands of miles away, Federal’s executives knew a coordinated response was vital to recovery. Immediately after the fire, Adjusters International was retained and responded promptly by sending a team of professionals from its northern California and Maryland offices to the loss site.This approach, involving team representatives from both coasts, ensured continuity as well as an effective flow of information — while providing the specific expertise that was necessary for the successful settlement of this complex claim. This was a clear instance in which calling in the experts brought the right strategies to the table, helping the client achieve their objectives amidst special circumstances. Eureka College, a small private institution in Eureka, Illinois, counts America’s 40th President, Ronald Reagan, as one of its distinguished alumni.The college was the benefactor of a significant collection of Reagan memorabilia and established the Ronald Reagan Museum in his honor. Sadly, fire destroyed a number of the artifacts in the museum, also causing damage to the building itself. More than 3,000 items were in the collection, including Reagan’s 1932 Eureka diploma, an essay he wrote as a student, photographs and an Academy Award.The fire destroyed dozens of these artifacts and caused smoke damage to the rest. The insurance company initially attempted to have the items cleaned by an outside contractor. Unfortunately, their poor restoration efforts caused even more damage to the collectibles. At that point, the college recognized the need to employ an expert to represent its interests and at the recommendation of their insurance broker, Adjusters International was hired. Adjusters International immediately retained an expert on presidential memorabilia to assist in the valuation of the collection’s one-of-a-kind pieces. Overwhelmed by the complexity of the loss, the insurance carrier filed a demand for appraisal. Typically when an item is damaged, the insured is entitled to the full replacement cost and the insurance company retains the salvage. In this case, the college wanted to retain the salvage because they were not legally authorized to turn the memorabilia over to any party other than the Reagan family.Therefore, Adjusters International had to determine the replacement cost value, as well as the salvage value, so that the insurer could deduct that amount from the final payment and the college could retain the property. Ultimately, Adjusters International obtained an appraisal award that exceeded the client’s expectations, while allowing the college to keep all of the damaged memorabilia. In addition, Adjusters International secured payment to the college for its professional fees under the inventory and appraisal clause of the insurance policy. Preserving History at the Ronald Reagan Museum Santana Row Fire Levels Complex One Month Before Grand Opening Santana Row Thank you and your team for all of your help in resolving our builder’s risk fire claim at Santana Row in San Jose, California. The end result of the claim, both in terms of the amount recovered and the short time period inwhich it was resolved, far exceeded our expectations and therewas nowaywe could have achieved that result without the expertise, guidance, dedication and hardwork of…your team… None of us at theTrust had ever been through anything remotely similar to the fire andwe had virtually no idea of where to start or how to go about tackling the problems wewould face…Your teamquickly assessed the situation, learned about the project and provided us with valuable support and advice to help us understand, quantify and process all of the losses from the fire. The full-time person you dedicated on site at Santana Rowproved to be critical not only to the resolution of the claimbut to our ability to keep our construction team focused on completing and opening the rest of the project. Likewise, your professional judgment and advice in creating the strategy towork throughwith the insurance company some difficult adjustment and policy issues was instrumental in allowing us to resolve the claim in what we have to believewas record time for a claimof thismagnitude. There is no doubt inmymind that the next timewe have a casualty related property loss of any kind, youwill be the first personwe call. Dawn M. Becker Senior Vice President – General Counsel and Secretary Federal Realty Investment Trust www.AdjustersInternational.com | 5 The Disaster The Recovery
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NjIxNjMz