Aon Officially Opens Lower NYC Offices

New York City

The Aon Corporation, which saw 176 of its employees killed inthe Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center attack that destroyed itsfacility there, reopened offices in Lower Manhattan on WaterStreet.

The names of the slain Aon employees, engraved on a black marblewall panel placed at the 12th floor offices, served as a backdropfor Aon and city officials as they celebrated the event with theunveiling of a commemorative Waterford crystal replica of the WorldTrade Center towers.

Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani commended Aon for having the“strength of character” to return to lower Manhattan. The newlocation is near the East River about a dozen blocks away from theTrade Center site that overlooked the Hudson River.

“It's an emotional experience to see Aon back in lowerManhattan,” Mr. Giuliani said. “It's hard to believe people can gothrough an experience like this and then want to come back.”

He continued: “That gives you a sense of the character of Aonand the kind of people who work here. And it gives you a sense ofthe strength we have in our private sector.”

Last year, Mr. Giulianis consulting firm, Giuliani Group LLC,formed a strategic alliance with Aon to provide crisis managementservices to worldwide corporations.

Mr. Giuliani recalled that after the attacks he had commentedthat he wanted the city to come back “even better than it was,”noting that he can now say that the city has done that. He alsocommented on the compassion that Aon has shown to the families ofemployees who were lost.

Patrick G. Ryan, Aon chairman and chief executive officer of thebrokerage firm, told National Underwriter that “New Yorkis our single biggest office in the United States” and the flagshipoffice for its global business.

“It's a huge statement of commitment that Aon has made to NewYork,” he said. “Obviously we could have moved out. People did. Butwe felt that this being our flagship office, it ought to be in NewYork.”

He said Aon has split locations between its office at 55 E. 52ndand Water Street.

He noted that the company has grown since Sept. 11. The lowerManhattan location is the brokering office that handles theNortheast, while the Midtown office is both brokering andconsulting.

“We've attracted very high quality people,” he said. “We had toreplace, obviously, the people we lost, and additionally we havegrown so we've added people.”

He said Aon worked closely with the city in its recommitment toNew York. “We never considered leaving New York,” he remarked.

Previously, about half of Aon's New York employees displacedfrom the World Trade Center had been temporarily working at 685Third Ave. in Midtown and the Regus Business Center at 245 ParkAve., according to the company. Others were located throughout thetri-state area.

Aon reached an agreement, in August 2002, with Resnick Seaport,LLC to lease 165,000 square feet of space at 199 Water St. Aonoccupies floors 8-12 in the 35-story building, which looks out atNew York Harbor and the South St. Seaport Museum.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, July 7, 2003.Copyright 2003 by The National Underwriter Company in the serialpublication. All rights reserved. Copyright in this article as anindependent work may be held by the author.