New York Insurance Firm to Move Headquarters to Connecticut

The Navigators Group, a specialty insurance holding company, confirmed Friday it plans to move its corporate headquarters from New York to Stamford, promising to add 200 jobs in Connecticut within the next five years.

The publicly traded firm is the latest recipient of state aid under the so-called First Five program. Under the agreement announced by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Navigators will receive a 10-year, forgivable, no-interest loan of up to $8 million and a grant of up to $3.5 million. The funds, contingent on the company reaching certain job milestones, will be used to purchase equipment, making facility upgrades, train employees and offset relocation costs.

The company’s entire project is expected to cost $25 million.

The 200 promised jobs include 100 employees the Rye Brook firm expects to bring from New York to Stamford.

Asked if those 100 jobs can be considered “new jobs,” Malloy said, “They’re new jobs to us. I can’t tax them right now in New York.”

Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Ron Angelo said the 100 jobs count toward the job requirements under the First Five program. He said other recipients have also counted employees they’ve brought from other states.

“Those jobs count,” he said. “They’re new to the state. They’re new taxpayers. They will add to the job total in the state of Connecticut.”

Stanley Galanski, The Navigators Group president and CEO, said the firm expects to finish the move from Stamford around Labor Day. The company began in 1974 as a family-owned underwriter specializing in ocean marine insurance.