Land, ho! The Navigators Group Inc., a global insurance company, has officially docked at its new corporate headquarters in Stamford.
“We couldn”™t be more delighted,” said Stanley A. Galanski, Navigators president and CEO. “Our preference was always to be in Connecticut, but the costs just didn”™t work for us before.”
But with an $11.5 million state incentive package, Galanski said he”™s happy to now call Connecticut home, spending an additional $13.5 million beyond the package to set up shop. Earlier this month employees left their previous offices in Rye Brook, N.Y., to settle into their new corporate headquarters at 400 Atlantic St.
The group has also has moved its global data processing center to Summer Street and added employees to an existing Danbury underwriting office. Among other services, the company specializes in marine insurance products.
“We”™re really excited to be a part of the Stamford business community,” Galanski said, mentioning the city”™s intellectual capital and public transportation. “So far it”™s been everything we expected.”
The company is the 10th selected under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy”™s First Five and Next Five initiatives, designed to attract and retain large employers. In March, Malloy announced the company would be the latest to receive a $3.5 million grant and loan of up to $8 million, interest-free and forgivable after 10 years. In exchange, the company must maintain a Connecticut headquarters and create 200 jobs within five years. The package is aimed to assist in relocation costs, facility upgrades and employee training.
Jim Watson, a spokesman for the Department of Economic and Community Development, said so far the company is on schedule in terms of moving and meeting its job targets. The roughly 100 employees it”™s moved into the state so far count toward the 200 jobs goals. Though not all employees may live in or plan to move to, Connecticut, they”™ll still pay state income taxes.
“We”™ve been pleased with their progress on all fronts,” Watson said. The company”™s presence will help replenish some of the jobs lost in the insurance and financial services sector during the recession.
“It”™s another indication of the strength in this sector,” he said. “To have another headquarters in the state is a positive element.”
A commercial property and casualty insurance company, Navigators first began in 1974 as a family business in Manhattan, spun from Lloyd”™s of London.
For nearly 30 years the company maintained its headquarters in the city, but after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Galanski said he felt it would be safer to move farther north into Rye Brook as the company embarked on a new period of growth.
From 2001 to 2013 the company workforce nearly tripled to roughly 580 global employees. When the company originally moved out of the city however, Galanski said he had considered moving to Connecticut. He also lives in Ridgefield. But in the end, he said it seemed too expensive.
As the company”™s lease came to a close at the Reckson Executive Park in Rye Brook however, Galanski said the group had entered into negotiations with the Connecticut DECD.
“The insurance commissioner, governor and head of the DECD all made it evident they cared about us and valued us as a growing company,” Galanski said. “That went a long way. It feels good to be wanted.”
