Jan. 6, 2024
City officials are seeking a $3 million insurance payback for the H.R. Wait Building that arsonists torched on Oct. 28.
But the local agent who wrote the policy said there’s no way he’ll willingly fork over that much.
The city’s chances of collecting the disputed replacement value of the downtown historic landmark are further fogged because it isn’t the legal owner.
The century-old building was purchased in August 1992 for $85,000 by the Auburn Local Development Corporation, a nonprofit agency that claims independence from the city while maintaining its headquarters in City Hall.
Though the ALDC asked city officials to include the H.R. Wait Building on Auburn’s $33 million blanket insurance policy, the city never charged the nonprofit agency for the $145 premium. City taxpayers paid the bill.
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Charles Adams, owner of Adams and Son, said officials never told him the city didn’t own the building when he extended $100,000 coverage for it under the city’s blanket policy. Nowhere in the policy is the ALDC mentioned, he said.
And, Adams said, “When you pay $145, you can’t expect $33 million dollars in coverage.”
Both City Manager James Malone and City Attorney Andrew LaLonde confirmed yesterday that they have no documents proving they told Adams of the building’s true owners.
But, LaLonde said, “It was common knowledge, and if they didn’t know from us, they should have known from the newspaper articles written at the time of the building’s purchase.”
Malone suggested that Adams is now merely doing what he can to save himself the cost of making good on the policy.