Public Radio International's Marketplace Morning Edition

As politicians focus on terrorism, New Yorkers and commercial real estate developers are focused on how to rebuild Manhattan’s financial district. John Levy runs a real estate investment bank. He says all eyes will be on insurance companies and the influence they will have on the kinds of properties that will be built.

[John Levy] “Insurance in real estate has always been a very “so what” issue. Nobody ever thought about it. It was always, always more than adequate. So one of the repercussions will be that we will have a lot more extensive property coverage, especially on buildings that are trophy-like, for example, like the World Trade One and Two, like the Empire State Building. Buildings that everybody knows.”

Word is this morning that major insurance companies are moving to exclude terrorist action from future policies. They are also looking for the government to become something of an insurer of last resort.

This is Marketplace.