Insurance for Commercial Property Investors & Developers

An owner's interest policy is a general liability policy written specifically for the entity that owns a construction project — typically the single-purpose LLC or LP a developer or investor forms to hold the deal. It protects the ownership entity against third-party bodily injury and property damage claims arising out of the construction project. Any commercial property investor or developer who has ground-up construction or major renovation underway on a property they own should carry one, because the general contractor's insurance does not reliably protect the owner.

Usually not. Additional insured status puts you on someone else's policy — a policy you don't control, with limits that erode as the GC's own claims (including claims from other projects) are paid, exclusions you've never seen, and no guarantee it stays in force or gets renewed with the same terms. If the GC's carrier denies the claim, becomes insolvent, or the endorsement is narrower than your contract required, you have no fallback. An owner's interest policy is first-party protection for your entity: your policy, your limits, responding for you regardless of what happens with the contractor's coverage.

An Owners and Contractors Protective (OCP) policy is a narrower product: it is purchased for a single designated project and covers the owner's vicarious liability arising out of one named contractor's operations. It generally ends when the project ends and does not cover the owner's own independent negligence or completed operations. An owner's interest GL policy is broader — it covers the ownership entity's liability arising out of the project generally, can include premises exposure, and can be extended with completed operations coverage after the project delivers. Lenders sometimes require an OCP specifically; we place both and will tell you which structure your deal actually needs.

Builders risk — also called course of construction (COC) insurance — covers the physical project itself while it's being built: the structure in progress, materials on site, in transit, and in temporary storage, against fire, wind, hail, theft, vandalism, and most other perils on an all-risk basis. On commercial projects it can and usually should be extended to cover soft costs (re-drawn plans, permit fees, additional interest and loan fees after a loss) and delay in completion — the lost rental income or lost business income you suffer when a covered loss pushes back your certificate of occupancy.

The construction contract decides, but on commercial projects it is most often the owner or developer who purchases the builders risk policy and adds the general contractor and subcontractors as insureds. That is usually the better structure for the owner: you control the policy, the limit is set to the full completed value of your project, soft costs and delay-in-completion coverage protect your pro forma (not the GC's), and the deductible strategy is yours. Lenders financing the deal will require evidence of builders risk before disbursing construction funds either way.

Only if you buy the extension. Standard builders risk covers the physical damage — rebuilding what burned. Delay in completion coverage (sometimes called delay in opening, or loss of rents / business income on builders risk) is what pays the rental income you lose during the extra months before tenants can occupy, plus continuing soft costs like loan interest, taxes, insurance, and re-leasing expenses. For an income-producing development, this is frequently the largest uninsured exposure on the project — and it's one of the most commonly skipped coverages.

Builders risk ends at completion or occupancy, so the transition needs to be planned before you get your certificate of occupancy. At delivery, the project moves to a permanent commercial property policy (with loss of rents / business income), your liability program transitions to a lessor's risk or standard premises GL structure, and — importantly — you should consider extended completed operations coverage on the liability side, since construction defect claims commonly surface years after delivery. We coordinate the handoff so there's no gap between the course-of-construction program and the permanent placement.

Yes. For investors and developers running multiple deals, we structure master or blanket builders risk programs that cover projects as they start under pre-agreed terms and rates, rather than shopping each project one-off. On the liability side, we can structure owner's interest coverage per project entity or build a program across the portfolio. We also handle the permanent property schedule — office, retail, industrial, multifamily, and mixed-use — as the portfolio stabilizes.

Builders risk on commercial projects is typically quoted as a rate against the completed project value, driven by construction type (frame vs. non-combustible), protection class, project duration, location, and whether soft costs and delay coverage are included. Owner's interest liability pricing is driven by project size, construction type, duration, and limits required (lenders and equity partners commonly require $5M–$10M via umbrella). Because we broker across direct carriers and wholesale markets (Amwins, CRC Group, XS Brokers), we market each project rather than forcing it into one carrier's appetite.