Attacks Cost NYC Up to $95 Billion
City will need $21.8B just to replace buildings, comptroller reports

September 04, 2002

NEW YORK  - The economic cost New York City suffers as the result of the Sept. 11 attacks will range from $83 billion to $95 billion, partly depending upon how many jobs are permanently shifted out of the city, a new report said Wednesday.


City Comptroller William Thompson, in his report, said that the city now has 83,000 fewer jobs than it did a year ago. Further, 63,000 new jobs -- that would have been created as the city recovered from a downturn -- have been lost.

The World Trade Center's twin towers collapsed last year after two planes slammed into them; the smaller 7 World Trade Center was also destroyed. The air attacks killed nearly 3,000 people, shut the New York Stock Exchange for six days and forced many financial firms to scramble for temporary offices.

The cost of the damage to New York City dwarfs the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history, which was when Hurricane Andrew slammed across the Florida Peninsula south of Miami in 1992. That hurricane killed 28 people and caused more than $25 billion in damage.

Thompson estimated that it will cost $21.8 billion to replace the buildings, infrastructure and what he called "tenant assets" that were destroyed in the attacks.

Some 13 million square feet of prime office space were wiped out -- an amount equal to all the office space in Atlanta's or Miami's business districts.

When it comes to lost taxes, New York City lost nearly $3 billion and also will have to pay for almost $500 million in unreimbursed expenses, Thompson said.

The Sept. 11 attacks aggravated the mild downturn the city had been experiencing. Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently hinted that either taxes or fees will have to go up -- or the city will need more federal or state aid -- because it cannot cut spending enough to close next year's $5 billion budget gap.

New York City's jobless rate in July stood at 7.7 percent, higher than the national rate of 5.9 percent.

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