PhillyDeals: Sandy incites twice as many insurance claims as Irene

Hurricane Sandy provoked "twice as many claims" from business and local-government clients as last year's Hurricane Irene, in the first couple of days after it stopped raining, says Michael Tiagwad, chief executive at insurance broker Conner Strong & Buckelew, of Philadelphia and Marlton.

Tiagwad expects that claims will keep rising "dramatically" - reaching up to four times last year's levels, or more - as Shore property owners return to flooded and wrecked properties. Sandy was a bigger storm that hit harder, on higher tides, in a more populous area.

Tiagwad said he expects the biggest dollar exposure for insurers will be for "business interruption" claims, once companies figure out how much they've lost due to facility wreckage, transportation and utility failures, and staff, supplier and customer disruptions.

Most of the claims have been for flood damage, plus some for wind and fire. Conner Strong's chairman, George E. Norcross III, is an owner of The Inquirer.

Separately, Omnimetrix, an online gasoline- and diesel-powered electric generator monitoring service owned by Wilmington-based Acorn Energy Inc., is "getting more calls" post-Sandy, says Deena Redding, chief executive of the Georgia-based firm.

Redding says Omnimetrix helped keep generators running to power emergency, corrections, 911 and other public service facilities in Ocean County, N.J., where Sandy made landfall, when some other Shore power sources failed.

Backup generator failure got national exposure when news reports showed staff at New York University Hospital evacuating two intensive-care units down nine flights of steps, after power in lower Manhattan was cut off during Sandy's unprecedented flooding, and the hospital's reserve power conked out.

Storm or no, commercial properties in South Jersey are finding buyers, though below the peak prices of the mid-2000s.

Hampshire Real Estate Cos. has agreed to pay $13.55 million - $148 a square foot - to developer J.S. Hovnanian and Sons, for its 11-year-old Town Crossing Shopping Center, a 91,500-square-foot "power center" at 2703 N.J. 541, in Burlington. Brad Nathanson, senior director for broker Marcus & Millichap's National Retail Group, Philadelphia office, represented buyer and seller.

"The new ownership acquired this asset because of its dominant strategic location, coupled with the fact that it was delivered free and clear of debt," Nathanson said in a statement. Current tenants include Dick's Sporting Goods, Office Max, TGI Friday's, IHOP, Burger King, Sleepy's and AT&T Wireless. Nearby stores that draw shoppers to the neighborhood include Home Depot, Kohl's and Target.

Some tenants at the complex are paying "below-market rents," according to Nathanson. The buyer was attracted, in part, by the belief that business will improve as development resumes in Burlington County and the nearby I-295 and New Jersey Turnpike corridors.

Separately, Jason Wolf Commercial Real Estate says G&M Investments L.L.C. has bought the two vacant former Computer Sciences Corp. buildings, at 301 Harper Drive and 304 West Route 38, totaling 99,000 square feet, for an undisclosed sum. Freedom Mortgage Corp. and other tenants are expected to occupy the space.

Like its California-based archrival Oracle Inc., SAP AG, the German business software giant whose American headquarters is in Newtown Square, isn't quite a consumer household name. But with so many people worldwide moving from workplace-desktop personal computers to smartphones, SAP's new ambition is to become "the Apple of enterprise mobility," SAP mobile boss Sanjay Poonen tells Julie Bort of BI Intelligence.

SAP engineers are starting to write consumer apps for iPhones, iPads, and Google Android phones, including fantasy fan apps for NFL and NBA teams. A $150 million-plus SAP venture fund is looking for mobile start-ups to access SAP Hana databases. Plus, BI adds, "SAP is on the prowl for mobile companies to buy or partner with."